monitor calibration worth it?

[vampyiere6]

So as the title says is it worth getting a monitor calibrater like the spyder elite 4?

Its for ips monitors i have 2 of them atm and 1 tn panel in eyefinity and i will be getting a 3rd ips screen of same as the other too Asus vx279Q. and i want them all to be the same because it bothers me the colours are different atm i notice a huge colour difference between my ips and tn monitor but thats not something i can do anything about until i will get a 3rd so they all are the same.

Will you notice a "big" difference that colours looks much better and contrast and so are better?

so would the spyder elite 4 be worth it? i will be using it on my 3 monitors and my friend and sister will most likley use it too.

But its 200€ so does it do a much better job then when you manually try to change settings i have had my ips screens for about 3 weeks now and i still change settings on them because i think something is a little off overall the monitors are great but i just want the best out of them and that they all are the same.

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

If you want to sync colour output on all your monitors you need to use a software + hardware tool that produces a standard reference which you can apply to all of them -- the Spyder or a competing product like the X-Rite/i1 Display Pro.

The latter is more accurate according to the reviews on Amazon. Having used a Spyder myself I wouldn't be surprised if that was true because I got disappointing and inconsistent results with the Spyder but didn't fancy shelling out for a different one.

 

[carmona87]

Hi there,

For monitor calibration I use a Spyder4Elite myself. My colors look the same on two different monitors.
There could be some technical and some natural reasons for them to be different even after calibrating.

It is very recommendable to use such a calibration tool, given that a calibration with your own vision isn't possible. Your eyes will always have a subjective view of colors due to the white balance they (or your brain) do. Be aware of that when you compare a TN-Panel display with an IPS-Display. A TN-Panel display has a much lower angle view, so colors may vary viewing it from different angles. What also decides the view of colors is the backlight technology.

If you mix LED and convenient halogen backlight, your eyes aren't able to accommodate to different types of light source. So be sure to use the same backlight technology.

One more thing: Be sure that your graphic card has got enough LUTs (Look-Up-Tables). For each monitor it needs one LUT to save and activate a monitor profile. Most of the latest graphic boards have got 2 LUTs, but not all of them have got more than 2. So be sure of that if you wish to have 3 monitors calibrated equally at the same time.

The technology of the Spyder is quite the same as others have. They use light sensors with color filters to detect the color hue of your monitor. Depending on the software version, you'll have more options to regulate and fine-tune your calibration. At the end it will bring out the best of your monitor colors, as much as possible.

Disregarding these circumstances, the calibration hardware can have a technical failure as it happens for all technical devices. But if my Spyder would have a failure, I would notice that due to a big color tint in a wrong direction. In this case I would just contact the manufacturer.

Hope this helps out, color management tends to be a complex field.