calibrating my digital darkroom

[dikaiosune01]

My digital darkroom includes the following:
Epson V700 (I scan 35mm negatives and 4x5. Mostly black and white)
Epson 9500 MK2 (i print digital, but now i've started to print film scans too. The epson v700 is brand spanking new)
Desktop plus 32inch LCD monitor (I use a LCD TV as my computer monitor)

I'm thinking about calibrating all my equipment. But I'm not quite sure where to start. My research has lead me two options; spyder 3 or eye1. They both seem good products. But i have many questions.
- do i need to calibrate each and every piece of equipment? or just the monitor? (i.e. Huey)
- the spyder 3 with printer calibration is so much more expensive than the eye1. Is it worth it? (although I do like the spyder cube. But I dont' think it'll do much outside of photoshop).
- What is your recommendation?

[Ben Syverson]

Quick question. If you're shooting "mostly black and white," why would you need to perform color calibration?

[John T]

He did say "mostly" so I would guess there is some color. Also, contrast is also calibrated. I use a Colormunki at home and we have the i1 Extreme at work. Both work great for a complete system calibration

[Ken Lee]

"What is your recommendation?"

http://www.chromix.com

Calibration is vital for b&w too.

[Brian Ellis]

I'm not sure what you mean by calibrating "each and every piece of equipment." The only three items in a digital printing chain that I can think of that can be calibrated are the scanner, printer and monitor. A calibrated monitor isn't a choice, it's a requirement even for b&w unless you don't care whether the print looks like what you saw on your monitor. I haven't found a need to calibrate the scanner or the printer. I don't try to make a photograph look great using the scanner software, I just want to get the information from the negative into the computer. And the profiles I've used from the various paper manufacturers have been fine for the printer, I haven't felt the need for anything more. But obviously different people have different requirements.

[Michael Gordon]

Profiling your scanner is not vital, but profiling your display and printer/paper is unless you like spending lots of time and money trying to tweak an uncalibrated print into "matching" an uncalibrated display.

I offer superb and low cost printer profiling, but I won't post a link here as the posting cops will bust me. You'll find a link on my website.

I use X-Rite's I1 Dsiplay 2 for display calibration and highly recommend it.