calibration kit and good A3 printer pls ?

galanthus · #1 (**permalink**) 30-06-2007, 03:17 PM

okay guys, have given up trying to calibrate monitor and printer. Some kind members suggested calibration tools or kits ? Eeyore mentioned a spider thing ? Could someone give me an idea of what's good, what to avoid pls ? I print out quite a lot of my pics to give to friends and have had some offers to buy them so wouldn't want to end up with a disappointing print.

I use a canon 400d; have a 19 inch acer LCD and have an Epson stylus PHOTO R200, (tho looking to change this to an A3 printer if anyone can recommend a good one). I use photoshop cs2 on a daily basis really. Thanx

tessnell · #2 (**permalink**) 30-06-2007, 06:29 PM

I use an Epson Stylusphoto R2400 which is regarded as one of the best A3 printers and gives a very high quality of print. I always use Epson inks and paper - there are cheaper imitations but they are not as colour fast as the quality ones. No point in selling a picture that fades after a few years
I would advise a visit to Outback Photo cover page and a purchase of their ebook on Fine Art Digital Printing it is really excellent

galanthus · #3 (**permalink**) 30-06-2007, 06:38 PM

Oooh will look into the R2400, thanx for that.

eeyore · #4 (**permalink**) 30-06-2007, 08:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by galanthus

okay guys, have given up trying to calibrate monitor and printer. Some kind members suggested calibration tools or kits ? Eeyore mentioned a spider thing ? Could someone give me an idea of what's good, what to avoid pls ? I print out quite a lot of my pics to give to friends and have had some offers to buy them so wouldn't want to end up with a disappointing print.

I use a canon 400d; have a 19 inch acer LCD and have an Epson stylus PHOTO R200, (tho looking to change this to an A3 printer if anyone can recommend a good one). I use photoshop cs2 on a daily basis really. Thanx

as regards calbration spyders the gretag macbeth eyeone range (which are some of the best on the market) can be seen here A J Purdy & Co Ltd - Imaging Division

I use the spyder 2 pro but for enthusiast use the standard spyder 2 (which is arround haldf the price) will be perfectly adequate

galanthus · #5 (**permalink**) 30-06-2007, 08:34 PM

Thanks Eeyore. Am going to go with the spyder2, but just wanted to check whether the spyder2 pro is a more complicated programme to use than the standard spyder2. Bearing in mind here I'm pretty good with IT in general but unfamiliar with colour management stuff.

eeyore · #6 (**permalink**) 30-06-2007, 08:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by galanthus

Thanks Eeyore. Am going to go with the spyder2, but just wanted to check whether the spyder2 pro is a more complicated programme to use than the standard spyder2. Bearing in mind here I'm pretty good with IT in general but unfamiliar with colour management stuff.

I cant really say as i've never used the spyder 2 - i will say however that the spyder 2 pro is not dificult to use as the application is wizard driven.

galanthus · #7 (**permalink**) 30-06-2007, 09:29 PM

I just found this link

photo-i colour management

Looks fairly simple and so am ordering one in the morning. Thanks Eeyore

Now for the Epson R1800 v R2400 dilema .... Hmmm, better get my bloke several beers later so that he'll be too hungover tomorrow to see my bank balance online snigger

zharca · #8 (**permalink**) 01-07-2007, 04:57 PM

Hi, I think if you are serious about going down the calibration route, it will cost more to get a proper monitor AND print calibration system then just one that will set up the monitor but you'll get much better results.

It's worth taking a look at the Colorvision products. We use these at work and up until recently they were in the 2k+ league (I know this - one of our guys just left one on a train

) but their latest stuff has really come down in price to the point where you might consider it. The real tool - Printfix Pro - is still the thick end of £400, but will actually do the job to a high standard because it includes a reflex analyser for reading in the results from test prints as well as the incident "spyder". This looks like it will do the same job for injet printers that their pro stuff does for printing presses.

Colorvision do an entry-level screen calibration kit at well under £100, but I don't know how effective that would be for setting up print output.

One thought though: Please don't take this wrong, but rather than spend a lot of money on calibration hardware maybe consider spending some on a monitor that was made with calibration and graphics in mind? LaCie/Eizo/Apple etc should give sharper results and more accurate colour than the Acer. They also make their displays to comply with the full AdobeRGB gamut, which many cheaper ones can't actually do.

galanthus · #9 (**permalink**) 01-07-2007, 05:33 PM

Hi Zharca, the spyder2 pro does cover both monitor and printer. Getting a new monitor isn't really a priority for me, I'd be happy just to have a closer match between the monitor and printer. To be honest I've spent quite a lot on my digie SLR and several good lenses etc and would rather be out taking the pictures than spending too many hours poring over the screen. The day I can reduce my working hours and increase my photography hobby time I'll probably be happy to get more stuff. thanks for the advice tho. everyone's been fab.