Color calibrators -- anyone care to comment on them?

[jdc]

thinking about adding one to my workflow

did some googling for reviews, everything im finding seems to have been done over a year ago

anyone using one on a daily basis and think its worth it?

price isnt a real issue -- well, i guess over $500 would be too much...

TIA

[mattkime]

which devices do you care to calibrate?

[jdc]

monitor for a start, then my xerox 7300

[mattkime]

I've had good luck with the Gretag-Macbeth Eye-One. The Pantone Huey isn't worth looking at.

Does your xerox come with profiles? Gretag-Macbeth offers packages which calibrate prints but they rarely do better than canned profiles. They're mostly for people who want to use art papers on inkjets. I'd figure out a way to either do a test run or find a good return policy as there is a good chance that it won't be as helpful as you're hoping.

[JoeM]

[quote jdc]monitor for a start, then my xerox 7300
Do you have a Xerox self calibration CD for the 7300? I have a PhaserCal CD that came with my 7750DN. Ther's also PhaserMatch software but I haven't used either.

[jdc]

the 7300 has a pretty detailed control panel color calibration setup, but it prints tons of sheets and requires your "eye" to get it right -- not accurate

the one review i did read ranked the spyder above the eye one

[archipirata]

I beg to differ about the pantone huey. It works great for me. I had a lot of problems with my images always coming back dark from third party printers until I determined the problem was my monitor calibration. Once I ran the huey on it, now what I see on my monitor is very close to what I get back from the print houses.

[JoeM]

jdc,
Someone just recommended the spyder over the eye-one a week or so back when I also asked for advice.

[Mike V]

I've got a Pantone Spyder, probably 6 or 8 years old.

Works perfectly.

I used to use it every week on a Sony CRT, but now with LCD I only profile once every few months. Even that seems to be overkill with the LCD, it doesn't seem to change much.


I only calibrate the monitor though and use canned profiles on an Epson 2200 with Epson inks and stocks, so I have no idea about printer profiling.