Digital BW, The Print

Hey!

This is a little off topic, since it is a more general enquiry and not
related specifically to B&W. I hope I can be forgiven though.

I need a new monitor calibration thingy. I'm thinking I might get the
ColorVision PrintFIX Suite. Does anyone have an opinion on this
combination package?

Thanks.

Sooner,
Dean

Hey!

Thanks for the reply Bill.

What I really am after as a necessity is a monitor calibrating tool. The
reason I considered the whole suite thingy is because I live in Japan,
and the cost of the Spyder alone here is the same as the suite from B&H,
so that started me thinking about getting the suite ordered from the states.

Since I only use a few papers, maybe paying someone else for good
profiles would be the best thing.

If just considering a monitor calibrator, and in the lower price range
similar to the Spyder products, what are people's recommendations?

Thanks.

Sooner,
Dean

See this review of monitor profiling systems by Ethan Hansen:
http://www.outbackphoto.com/color_management/cm_08/essay.html

On Apr 5, 2005, at 8:29 PM, Dean wrote:

>
> Hey!
>
> Thanks for the reply Bill.
>
> What I really am after as a necessity is a monitor calibrating tool. 
> The
> reason I considered the whole suite thingy is because I live in Japan,
> and the cost of the Spyder alone here is the same as the suite from 
> B&H,
> so that started me thinking about getting the suite ordered from the 
> states.
>
> Since I only use a few papers, maybe paying someone else for good
> profiles would be the best thing.
>
> If just considering a monitor calibrator, and in the lower price range
> similar to the Spyder products, what are people's recommendations?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Sooner,
> Dean

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Dean <dean@t...>
wrote:
> Hey!
> 
> Thanks for the reply Bill.
> 
> What I really am after as a necessity is a monitor calibrating tool. The
> reason I considered the whole suite thingy is because I live in Japan,
> and the cost of the Spyder alone here is the same as the suite from B&H,
> so that started me thinking about getting the suite ordered from the
states.
> 
> Since I only use a few papers, maybe paying someone else for good
> profiles would be the best thing.
> 
> If just considering a monitor calibrator, and in the lower price range
> similar to the Spyder products, what are people's recommendations?

 I'm using the new Gretag Macbeth eye one and like it very much.
Previously used the spyder and was not impressed.

Regards, Walt

Dean, 

            I have tried Printfix with the old Spyder 1 (Optical), neither
of them were any good. I would go for a Gretag i1 setup, try to afford the
i1 photo package (see ebay in the US), you can do your own proper
calibrations and RGB profiling.

 

Regards   

 

Jim



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

If you're looking for monitor calibration, I would recommend the Gretag
Macbeth Eye-One Display 2 (www.adventurecamphoto.com/gretagmacbeth.htm).  It
comes with a $200 voucher that you can use toward the purchase of one of the
other systems.

Just so you know, we don't ship outside the US, so I suggest you check with
Amazon or B&H.


Michael J. Pach
AdventureCam Photo
719-260-6637
www.adventurecamphoto.com

--
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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Jim Farrell" 
<jim@a...> wrote:
> Dean, 
> 
>             I have tried Printfix with the old Spyder 1 (Optical), 
neither
> of them were any good. I would go for a Gretag i1 setup, try to 
afford the
> i1 photo package (see ebay in the US), you can do your own proper
> calibrations and RGB profiling.
> 
>  
> 
> Regards   
> 
>  
> 
> Jim
> 


Best prices I saw were from www.ecolortools.com give them a look. 
They were about $100 cheaper for the product that I bought a few 
weeks ago.

Hey!

Thanks for all the advise. The Eye one is looking the best at the
moment, price to performance wise.

Again, thanks for the advise, links, etc.

Sooner,
Dean

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Dean <dean@t...> wrote:
> Hey!
> 
> This is a little off topic, since it is a more general enquiry and not
> related specifically to B&W. I hope I can be forgiven though.
> 
> I need a new monitor calibration thingy. I'm thinking I might get the
> ColorVision PrintFIX Suite. Does anyone have an opinion on this
> combination package?

In a different thread today, someone made the remark "there is never any concensus on this list". Apparently, they were wrong.

I'll join the others and say that I also have a Spyder and an Eye-One Photo, and there's simply no comparison. With the monitor calibrated by the Spyder, I can't get a good monitor-to-print match with either "stock" profiles or profiles made for me by Cathy or Tom Green. With the Eye-One profiling my monitor, I get a good match to a good profile. And I can make my own profiles and also have them come out "good".

Colorvision can (in the immortal words of Bart Simpson) eat my shorts.

Colorvision went through a period of bad spyders some time ago. Though
they replaced many, sometimes multiple times, this admittedly harmed
the reputation of the product.
As I mentioned before, between 4 different monitor profiling apps and
3 different measuring devices, the new SpyderPro2 is giving the best
results here. Of course, that's just here, and others results may
differ. Also, it is the more expensive of their monitor packages.
PrintFix is a somewhat low end economy RGB printer profiler, somewhere
between the low end scanner based profilers and the more expensive
spectro based approaches. I would expect results to fall in between
there accordingly.
On the other hand, ProfilerPro, with a good spectro, still makes RGB
printer profiles that are very hard to top. It also makes very good
CMYK profiles. Again, I've compared results to other apps.
In terms of investment, as a package for both monitor and RGB printer
profiles, the EyeOne Photo is all in one and good for the price. I
still like the SpyderPro2, and ProfilerPro results better. The higher
end Gretag stuff may even out the results, maybe not.
Monaco is defintely worth looking at as well, and basICColor.
With all this stuff, you get what you pay for, and still need to learn
all the tricks. You can do good or bad work with any of them.
Tyler

 --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "koloshor"
<wiz@n...> wrote:
> 
> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Dean
<dean@t...> wrote:
> > Hey!
> > 
> > This is a little off topic, since it is a more general enquiry and not
> > related specifically to B&W. I hope I can be forgiven though.
> > 
> > I need a new monitor calibration thingy. I'm thinking I might get the
> > ColorVision PrintFIX Suite. Does anyone have an opinion on this
> > combination package?
> 
> In a different thread today, someone made the remark "there is never
any concensus on this list". Apparently, they were wrong.
> 
> I'll join the others and say that I also have a Spyder and an
Eye-One Photo, and there's simply no comparison. With the monitor
calibrated by the Spyder, I can't get a good monitor-to-print match
with either "stock" profiles or profiles made for me by Cathy or Tom
Green. With the Eye-One profiling my monitor, I get a good match to a
good profile. And I can make my own profiles and also have them come
out "good".
> 
> Colorvision can (in the immortal words of Bart Simpson) eat my shorts.