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Last week I bought myself a new calibration kit, for the first time with a hardware colorimeter device, the X-rite i1 Display 2 which according to TFTCentral.co.uk is the best (affordable) colorimeter one can get. For only 159 Euro including shipping it was mine on EBay from a UK shop. I would have ordered it locally (Netherlands) if the shops around here didn't ask so much more for it.
So anyway, two days ago I finally got my package, tore it open and extracted the i1D2. The software on the provided CD was useless to me as I run Windows 7 and the CD had the previous version of the i1Mark calibration software (6.3.1) which doesn't support Vista/Win7. I also couldn't find the i1D2 USB drivers on the CD from the auto-play menu, so I got both the drivers and calibration software from the X-rite site ( www.xrite.com ).
My display setup could be considered archaic by some standards, as it consists out of two CRTs:
- 19" Iiyama Vision Master 1451 (left)
- 20" Iiyama Vision Master 505 (right)
The manual advises to clean the display prior to calibrating, and this definitely wasn't a bad idea. As it turned out the 19" display which had previously been used by someone who smoked next to it still had an almost imperceptible layer of tar and other gunk on it which threw off the colorimeter, yielding various error messages in the calibration software. After cleaning there was no issue.
I first did an 'Easy' mode calibration as the X-rite site advises. This went without a hitch and gave me very impressive results on the 19" already, which was pretty dim compared to the 20". Next I did an Advanced mode calibration, which among other things also adjusts the colour temperature (white point), luminance and gamma. During this stage I discovered that the 19" CRT had become too dim to fully make the contrast adjustment.
In the end I have the 19" at 7000K and 2.2 gamma. The 20" is 6500K, 2.2. The 19" seems to have aged prematurely due to the effects of cigarette smoke, but this could be further adjusted by opening it up and modifying the setting of a potentiometer regulating the contrast. It's still miles ahead of how the monitor used to be, though.
The only 'negative' about the i1Mark software is that it doesn't provide an overview of the exact result, as for example the LaCie software does. That software isn't free, however. For a free software package provided with an excellent colorimeter which I found to very easy to use, it definitely isn't a bad deal.
Definitely recommended
So anyway, two days ago I finally got my package, tore it open and extracted the i1D2. The software on the provided CD was useless to me as I run Windows 7 and the CD had the previous version of the i1Mark calibration software (6.3.1) which doesn't support Vista/Win7. I also couldn't find the i1D2 USB drivers on the CD from the auto-play menu, so I got both the drivers and calibration software from the X-rite site ( www.xrite.com ).
My display setup could be considered archaic by some standards, as it consists out of two CRTs:
- 19" Iiyama Vision Master 1451 (left)
- 20" Iiyama Vision Master 505 (right)
The manual advises to clean the display prior to calibrating, and this definitely wasn't a bad idea. As it turned out the 19" display which had previously been used by someone who smoked next to it still had an almost imperceptible layer of tar and other gunk on it which threw off the colorimeter, yielding various error messages in the calibration software. After cleaning there was no issue.
I first did an 'Easy' mode calibration as the X-rite site advises. This went without a hitch and gave me very impressive results on the 19" already, which was pretty dim compared to the 20". Next I did an Advanced mode calibration, which among other things also adjusts the colour temperature (white point), luminance and gamma. During this stage I discovered that the 19" CRT had become too dim to fully make the contrast adjustment.
In the end I have the 19" at 7000K and 2.2 gamma. The 20" is 6500K, 2.2. The 19" seems to have aged prematurely due to the effects of cigarette smoke, but this could be further adjusted by opening it up and modifying the setting of a potentiometer regulating the contrast. It's still miles ahead of how the monitor used to be, though.
The only 'negative' about the i1Mark software is that it doesn't provide an overview of the exact result, as for example the LaCie software does. That software isn't free, however. For a free software package provided with an excellent colorimeter which I found to very easy to use, it definitely isn't a bad deal.
Definitely recommended