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Author Topic: Newly acquired i1Pro  (Read 2538 times)

TonyW

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Newly acquired i1Pro
« on: January 27, 2023, 02:23:09 pm »

Wanting to improve my knowledge and experience of colour management and colour science I seem to have a growing number of X -rite calibration tools.  However, I really do not intend to become a collector, so would appreciate the comments of others here.

For monitor profiling I have the X -Rite i1Display Pro which I intend to keep as I understand being a Colorimeter it is better able to measure dark colours than a Spectrophotometer.

For printer profiling I have been using the i1Studio (ColorMunki) and have been so far satisfied with the results using both the bundled software and more recently the excellent ArgyllCMS, which really does extend the capabilities of the device, well beyond my current understanding and paygrade :-)
I had hoped that I may have been able to pick up a Spectrolino but the owner did not want to part with it even though it was of little use to his printing requirements; still he may change his mind

On a whim I recently purchased an EFI ES1000 (i1Pro rev D UV cut) at a very good price.  I know that it is quite old and somewhat limited in features when compared to the newer i1Pro 2 and 3's, but thought that it may prove to be a useful addition until I decide to upgrade to something more up to date (and expensive!) and more accurate.  Worst case scenario is that I could probably sell the unit without any finacial loss looking at current asking prices. 

When the unit arrived I was pleasantly suprised to find that it looks close to as new condition so somebody has looked after it, at least as far as I can tell.

Before deciding to keep the unit I downloaded the X-Rite diagnostic tool to run tests.  Abbreviated results, comments appreciated:

Type i1Pro (M2 only), Revision D

Dark Measurement count:  3764

Lamp burning time: 6496.7 seconds (1.8 hours)

Factory calibration 15/06/2011

Instrument licences
Measurement Modes: (Reflectance Spot, Reflectance Scan, Emission)
Licenced functionality: (Has UV cut filter, Spectral Values, Tristimulus, Density)
Licensed Modules: iMatch, all not licensed.  iProfiler Module, all not licensed. 
No surprises here as it is an EFI product and has the Fiery disks that I have not even bothered to look at.

Emission test, Button test, Noise Tests, Reflectance test, Lamp test, Reflectance drift test, Reflectance Scan calibration.  All successful resulting in **Pass**

So on the face of it the unit checks out as OK with my only concern being the lamp burning time as I do not know how long they should last but am aware that replacement may be difficult to get hold of or more cost than the unit is worth.

Sorry about the long intro but I thought it appropriate to try and cover the background before posting and asking for advice/opinion.  These are my conclusion so far.  Your input, suggestions and advice sought:

1.  Keep the i1 Display Pro for its intended purpose over Spectrophotometers

2.  i1Studio to be used in conjunction with ArgyllPro Color Meter (to be purchased) for measurement of Ambient light, CRI and other measurements as a very portable unit.  Also for its intended purpose as appropriate for print profiling either via i1 software or more likely ArgyllCMS when necessary.

3.  i1Pro to be used mainly for print profiles and possibly spot readings (no ambient light facility).  Hoping that the fact of easy reading of many more patches than i1Studio and increased sampling rate will lead to more accurate profiles using ArgyllCMS than the i1Studio device even with more patches within ArgyllCMS and homemade ruler devices
« Last Edit: January 27, 2023, 02:27:36 pm by TonyW »
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digitaldog

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Re: Newly acquired i1Pro
« Reply #1 on: January 27, 2023, 02:26:27 pm »

Yes, use the i1Display Pro for displays.
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TonyW

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Re: Newly acquired i1Pro
« Reply #2 on: January 30, 2023, 06:23:10 am »

Thanks Andrew for the confirmation to use i1Display Pro for display.

Have not yet had time to 'play' with the i1Pro properly for profile building with ArgyllCMS but have tried the old and no longer supported (last version 10 years ago) X Rite Colorport software which at least recognises the device and is usable to create, measure and save targets.

For the ArgyllCMS I am exploring the use via a couple of GUI front ends; Little Argyll and [color]Profiler.  The latter offering quite a lot of the special features of ArgyllCMS within an easy to navigate GUI.  Both seem to be very capable and save my old brain from having to remember the correct format for CLI instructions, although in fairness to the author Graeme Gill you can easily access a reminder of the instructions within a CMD window. 

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neil snape

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Re: Newly acquired i1Pro
« Reply #3 on: August 03, 2023, 02:11:13 am »

The i1 pro had an app that measured light spectrum, but is obsolete many years ago.
I still use an old i1 Pro for hand profiling. I doubt if the software will work with future MacOS updates.
Funny that keeping a very old Mac with really old software, or Windows PC can be a saviour with these perfectly fine devices.
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digitaldog

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Re: Newly acquired i1Pro
« Reply #4 on: August 17, 2023, 03:05:36 pm »

This is a test, disregard it.
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avogra

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Re: Newly acquired i1Pro
« Reply #5 on: November 15, 2023, 01:47:27 pm »

The i1 pro had an app that measured light spectrum, but is obsolete many years ago.
I still use an old i1 Pro for hand profiling. I doubt if the software will work with future MacOS updates.
Funny that keeping a very old Mac with really old software, or Windows PC can be a saviour with these perfectly fine devices.
Actually ArgyllCMS brings its own driver for the i1pro which is still maintained as far as i understand. So it should work fine with latest Mac and Windows OS.
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Lessbones

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Re: Newly acquired i1Pro
« Reply #6 on: November 17, 2023, 01:20:35 pm »

Given those two devices, the best way to profile a monitor is using argyllcms (through DisplayCAL, although it's getting more annoying to get it to run on newer os revisions)

--do a colorimeter correction with the i1pro and the i1display pro
--profile using the i1display pro.

This accounts for the differences in spectral distribution in different display backlight technologies.  This works great with most LCD monitors, although the i1pro devices have started to become less useful for this purpose with newer OLED and PFS backlit LCDs because of their relatively large diffraction grating bandwidth (10nm).  Use the high-res mode in argyll/dispcal which gets closer to 3nm, but it's still not really enough for OLED, in which case you can search the internet for ccss files that people have created using very high resolution spectros which may better serve.

Also Eizo software has this colorimeter correlation as a built in function-- I'm not sure if they've dropped support for the first version of the i1pro... but it's still a perfectly valid device, and still on par with the newer i1 spectros with regard to emissive reading performance.  According to Graeme's explanation of the high-res mode (https://www.argyllcms.com/doc/i1proHiRes.html) it might actually have a smoother response than the later versions.
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TonyW

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Re: Newly acquired i1Pro
« Reply #7 on: December 22, 2023, 02:50:24 pm »

Sorry for the delay in replying and thank you gentlemen for your further input.  I have now sold the old system and replaced it with an i1Pro 2  :D
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Dinarius

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Re: Newly acquired i1Pro
« Reply #8 on: December 26, 2023, 08:07:20 am »

Just went to profile my display with my i1 Display and was prompted to upgrade the software. I was then told that the software no longer supports my device - only the (very expensive) i1pro 3 device.

I was prompted to go to Calibrite and use their software for a small fee.

I'm going to try and revert to my previous version of the software and not upgrade anymore.

Just letting you know.

D.
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TonyW

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Re: Newly acquired i1Pro
« Reply #9 on: December 26, 2023, 05:47:15 pm »

Thanks for the heads up. 

Same thing happened to me with Apple iPad, telling me that certain applications will no longer work on my unit with an older OS - bloody frustrating!
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