brightness level of new Imac / Calibration

[Hugh Sakols]

I have recently upgraded to a new Imac which is an amazing upgrade from my old G4 tower. However, I'm confused about where to set the brightness level in the OS X preferences before calibrating the monitor. Does it matter where I set the brightness before calibrating with my colorvision spyder?? Other than this issue I'm really happy with the new machine.

[Henry Ambrose]

I think the newer Colorvision software will do a pre-calibration that handles the gross adjustment to brightness. I had some trouble with my very very old Spyder not working at all with the 24" iMac and ended up buying Coloreyes and a DT91 sensor. Check the Colorvision site to see if your software and sensor will work with your new computer. Also you might Google "Intel iMac calibration" to see what's going on with it currently. My experience is about 9 - 10 months old so may not be valid now.

[pherold]

Yes, the original Spyder 1 was not very good - especially for LCD screens. The newer Spyder 2 should work just fine. In general, you'd probably want to set your brightness to the same level you were at before. Adjusting it "manually" - before you let the calibration procedure do its thing - helps your video card to not have to do so much work, but getting to a precise setting is not critical. The profiling software will take the screen wherever it is at, and fine-tune it the rest of the way to meet the calibration aims you have set for it.

-Pat Herold
CHROMiX

[Ken Lee]

Nice to see someone from Chromix here !

You guys made me a great printer profile a while back.

[Hugh Sakols]

I'm still using the old colorvision spyder (photocal 2.7). It seems to work but I have not compared it to the spyder 2. What problems will I have using the older colorvision spyder 1?

[Henry Ambrose]

I'm still using the old colorvision spyder (photocal 2.7). It seems to work but I have not compared it to the spyder 2. What problems will I have using the older colorvision spyder 1?

Mine would not work at all. It (the software) won't support it on an LCD.
Still works on a CRT. If anyone wants a cheap calibration set up I'll let this old Spyder go real cheap.

Henry

[adrian tyler]

i find my i-mac 24" too bright, whatever the calibration, even though i have it turned down to minimum brightness...

[Roger Hein]

I had no problems calibrating my 24" ALi-Mac using the Spyder2Pro. I did it once with the iMac set to 'max' brightness and once with it set to 'half' - adjusted via the f-keys on the keyboard. No issues with either calibration. Set to 'half' is easier on the eyes but curiously I find 'pure white' looks more like 'zone 9'. Not sure what to make of that.

[pherold]

A slight correction:
Most calibration software expects you to adjust your luminance using the buttons on your screen. You adjust your brightness and sometimes contrast while viewing some kind of feedback gauge with the colorimeter on the screen. Then, the color fine-tuning happens in the rest of the profiling process, and that color info gets into the video card color tables.

Adrian,
If you are aiming for a low luminance, lower than your display can do at its minimum, then your choices are limited. You could look into ColorEyes Display Pro. It's the only software system I know of that lets you enter your aim luminance and it will adjust the luminance in the video card if necessary in addition to the hardware controls. Another option is to increase your ambient light so that your display does not have to be so low.

-Patrick Herold
Chromix

[adrian tyler]

thanks patrick, i actually ended up doing fine tuning on a quato monitor but calibrate all the machines using quato i-colour 2.5 which is ok, i use the i-mac for spotting and other chores, incredible macine for the money.

adrian