ColorMunki X-Rite Smile

[Bob Andersson]

Hi folks,

The "ColorMunki X-Rite Smile Monitor Calibrator" arrived today. Software installation was a bit of a pain (Windows 7) as I was prompted so many times if I wanted to install various drivers (I lost count) that I began to wonder if the installation routine had got stuck in a loop. At the end a restart was required and then monitor calibration was simplicity itself. With the sensor plugged in to a USB port I fired up the ColorMunki Smile software, placed the sensor over the screen and sat back and watched the light show. I'm glad I went for a cheaper option as the difference after calibration wasn't huge (slightly cooler flesh tones on my wide gamut NEC monitor) but for about the price of a budget 50mm prime I think I got good value.

Bob.

[popo]

Have you used other monitor colour calibrators before? I got one of the Spyder range and the software "could be better". Does seem to take a slight green-ish tint away from my monitor when calibration is enabled, although you don't really notice it unless you toggle a before/after comparison. Kinda like we don't really "see" white balance changes so obviously with the naked eye as easily as cameras do.

[Bob Andersson]

Hi popo,

No, this was my first one.

I've previously taken the view that if a monitor looks OK then it is good enough as my images aren't generally printed (except a few astro-photos) and the chances are that most of those viewing said images will be doing so on either uncalibrated monitors or with software such as IE which seems incapable of correctly applying an ICC profile. For example, images which display beautifully in Photoshop using the AdobeRGB colour space and which, after "Saving for the Web" as sRGBs display with very similar colours using either Firefox or IrfanView are way too saturated when viewed with IE or with the Windows 7 screensaver. I'd sort of hoped that, despite searching for and failing to find any configuration errors, the calibration would correct some obscure Windows configuration error but that didn't happen so I'm forced to conclude that Redmond generated software doesn't coexist peacefully with my wide gamut monitor.

Only a problem when I share images on the web and I can get around it by re-saving a JPEG using IrfanView but that isn't ideal.

Bob.