Manual monitor adjustments prior to calibration?

[Hening Bettermann]

Hi

Short version:

Which settings if any should I adjust manually on my Eizo CG243W (and Macbook Retina) prior to calibration/profiling with a Spyder3 Elite and ColorEyes Pro (or Color Navigator, or dispcalGUI, for that sake)?

Background:

I have earlier calibrated/profiled my Eizo CG243W with very satisfying results. I believed the manual adjustment was just in the lack of a puck+software. On my Eizo, I have covered the physical controls with tape so as not to hit them inadvertently. The MacBook has no physical controls to adjust anything else than brightness, but the Mac OS has a software tool for what it calls 'calibration'. Is this the equivalent of physical controls on other monitors? BTW, my Samsung Sync Master193P has none.

Now, trying to read up on monitor calibration , I am confused by these passages in the documentation of dispcalGUI:

1-"To meet the user-defined target characteristics, it is generally advisable to get as far as possible by using the monitor controls, and only thereafter by manipulating the output of the video card via calibration curves, which are loaded into the video card gamma table, to get the best results."

2-"Colorimeters need a correction in hardware or software to obtain correct measurements from different types of displays [...]
You need a spectrometer in the first place to do the necessary measurements to create such a correction, or you may query dispcalGUI's Colorimeter Corrections Database, and there's also a list of contributed colorimeter correction files on the Argyll CMS website [...]
Starting with dispcalGUI 0.6.8, you can also import generic corrections from some profiling softwares by choosing the corresponding item in the “Tools” menu."

Well I don't have a spectrometer, and there is no such correction file on the CD that came with my Spyder3 Elite, nor can I find one on the Datacolor web site. Neither the ColorEyes nor the Eizo Color Navigator software have ever asked for such a correction file (as I recall it). And as said, I have made rather good profiles for that Eizo. - And there is no file for the Retina nor for the Eizo CG243W on the places given in the dispCalGUI text.

Ptarmigan,
http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/digital-post-processing-forum/116801-colour-calibrating-eizo-cg243w-coloreyes-display.html
who had the same considerations, thinks he has figured out that it is the Gain controls of R,G and B that should be adjusted. But as I understand it, that is the white balance. To what target should that be pre-adjusted? Setting all to 100% would be the native White Point of the screen (-?) which I will use for one or some profiles, but not for others.

What am I missing? Do I have to buy a spectrometer? Color trueness is important to me, but my need is for landscape photography, not art reproduction.

Thank you for your advice!

[D Fosse]

You'll want to calibrate the Eizo with ColorNavigator, not the Spyder or ColorEyes. But you can use the Spyder sensor.

ColorNavigator talks directly to the monitor and performs the adjustments internally in the monitor, in high bit depth and high precision. The others just tweak the video card in 8 bits. CN also has other functions that give you much more control, such as fine-tuning the white point, or loading different targets/profiles on the fly. You don't need to touch any of the monitor controls.

#1 applies to video card calibration, using ColorNavigator it's moot.

#2 I suppose is just a complicated way of saying a sensor is supported in that particular software. A spectrophotometer is not required. The Spyder sensor is fully supported in ColorNavigator and works without any further considerations.

[D Fosse]

Wow, there is a lot of misinformation out there. I took a look at the thread on the Leica forum you linked to, and saw this:

Yes it does but I have heard from several people and in a couple of reviews that the Eizo software isn't as good as ColorEyes Pro which I already own and like.

Pay no attention to this blatant ignorance. These "several people" simply have no idea what ColorNavigator is and what a sophisticated piece of software it is. The display and software work together, fully integrated. An Eizo ColorEdge should be driven by ColorNavigator, period. Anything else is a waste of a superb monitor.

[Hening Bettermann]

Thank you, D Fosse. I am happy to learn that I need no spectrometer, and that I don't need the manual controls of the monitor. I had overlooked the difference between monitor and graphics card in this context.

As for the difference between ColorEyes and ColorNavigator: I have earlier made profiles with both, and I recall that the deep shadows had lesser Delta E in ColorEyes. According to the evaluation of the software itself. I have not compared them in a systematic way.

Right now, I can't start ColorEyes, it crashes on  launch; so I will use ColorNavigator and be happy...

Thanks again!

[D Fosse]

People often attach too much importance to the validation. What it shows is "request/response", so it is a rough indication of the panel capabilities, but a good panel will normally be well below any significant threshold. It doesn't really tell you anything useful about general accuracy (after all it's measured with the same sensor). It's more useful to map trending.

Deep shadows is a special case, though, and high Delta Es here is normally nothing to be too concerned about. At default setting the calibrator will try to maximize display contrast, and if one component goes just a little deeper than the two others, Delta E rapidly goes up in the 10s or 20s.

If you're trying to match printed output you don't want max contrast anyway. The best papers rarely exceed 250:1, which in practice means a black point in the vicinity of 0,4 - 0-5 cd/m2.

In Colornavigator you can set the black point, and have several targets with different black points for different output. Not only that, you can set black priority. If set to "gray balance", the white point chromaticity is maintained all the way down to black - but the black point has to be lifted a bit from native for this option to become available.

The first screenshot shows different targets matched to different types of output. Note that both white and black points differ (and also a mix of LUT and matrix profiles because I noticed some applications have trouble with LUT display profiles). The second screenshot shows how you customize black point, and the third how to customize white point color.

[Hening Bettermann]

Thanks again for your input, D Fosse. I'll be the much happier with ColorNavigator...

[gioallie]

Hi,

about using ColorNavigator, read here http://www.displaycalibrationtools.com/display-calibration-guides-an

Citing from their page:

1) ColorNavigator does not allow spectro offsets (or reference meter offsets), ergo you are using your colorimeter without an offset
which is amateurish considering we are calibrating Pro grade screens intended for color critical application. If you are trying to just
use your spectro as the active meter for profiling, then your low light readings will be very inaccurate.
Even when using Pro colorimeters like the Klein K10-A that have internal offset slots (that you can pre-load with offsets using
Klein's Chromasurf software) cannot circumvent this missing feature, as ColorNavigator does not allow you to select a slot and only
uses slot 0 from the K10, which is the no-compensation slot.
This missing feature alone makes ColorNavigator not suitable for color critical calibration.

2) ColorNavigator uses the internal patches of the Eizo screen - those are patches that the monitor produces, NOT (!) the graphic
card. This is a great option to calibrate the screen as an all-around monitor (being used with multiple workstations, on-set etc), but it
does not accommodate for the (possible) graphic card distortion of any of the host PC's involved - so if u're using the Eizo stationary
on a single workstation, this is not a great calibration approach.

3) The profiling process in ColorNavigator only samples a few points - the entire profiling session takes 4.30 mins. So the 3D LUT
that ColorNavigator creates is calculated from these few points only. Considering that the Eizo internally stores a 64^3 LUT (with
274,625 points) that means A LOT of these points are interpolated from just a tiny bit of data. Not very accurate.


I'm particularly surprised by #2 which cuts the video card off of the equation of the calibration chain.

What do you think ? Any alternatives available for a calibration SW that can do HW calibration of Eizo monitors ?

Bye,
Giovanni

[Pictus]

ColorEyes Display Pro can calibrate the hardware of some Eizo models, but you have to check if your model is compatible.
The same goes for basICColor display 5.

BTW, ColorEyes also supports Eizo swing sensor.

[terrywyse]

What do you think ? Any alternatives available for a calibration SW that can do HW calibration of Eizo monitors ?

I wouldn't characterize Color Navigator as necessarily the best software for Eizo monitors....and it certainly isn't the only software that can do hardware calibration of an EIZO.

Both ColorEyes and basICColor Display Pro 5 can do hardware calibration of an EIZO, support multiple instruments and, in my view, provide some superior tools for monitor calibration and profiling. I'm mostly using basICColor Display these days (on my NEC PA271....I retired my EIZO CG211 to my scanner) and the features I like most are...1) iterative gray balance/white point adjustment, 2) use of custom profile and verification charts.

Terry

[GWGill]

Well I don't have a spectrometer, and there is no such correction file on the CD that came with my Spyder3 Elite, nor can I find one on the Datacolor web site. Neither the ColorEyes nor the Eizo Color Navigator software have ever asked for such a correction file (as I recall it). And as said, I have made rather good profiles for that Eizo. - And there is no file for the Retina nor for the Eizo CG243W on the places given in the dispCalGUI text.

All colorimeters need a calibration for a specific display or display type, whether it is visible to you as a user or not. Don't let the fact that ArgyllCMS/DispcalGUI offers you an ability to explicitly choose the calibration or make your own if you have access to a spectrometer, put you off. Yes, you are unlikely to find a calibration marked as being specifically for your display model. Pick something similar. At worst, pick what gives you the best looking result.

What do all those other packages do  ? - either just give you a generic default calibration (i.e. LCD), or they punt on what they can figure out from the DDC information the display returns. At least with ArgyllCMS/DispcalGUI you have some control.
 

[Hening Bettermann]

Thank you for clarification, Graeme.