[argyllcms] Re: Dell U2711 - is it any good?

  • From: Knut Inge <knutinh@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: argyllcms@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Mon, 20 Jun 2011 21:15:53 +0200

> Knut, the Spyder 3 is a colorimeter, yes? As a colorimeter, it's not
> going to work well on wide-gamut displays unless the correction matrix
> supplied by the manufacturer is for wider-gamut displays. Even then,
> there's bound to be some inaccuracy. Your best bet is to use a
> spectrophotometer to either make the profile, or to at least make the
> correction matrix for YOUR monitor + colorimeter combo, then use the
> colorimeter with that correction matrix.
>
AFIK, neither Dell nor the Spyder people offer correction matrixes for
this combination. Dell offers a per-unit factory measurement. I am
amazed that they are not offering a driver of some sort that contain
the averaged/expected response of the monitor so as to enable
color-aware applications to benefit from the default (wide-gamut) mode
knowing what those 8-bit-per-channel rgb codes actually are supposed
to mean?

I was basing my assumptions on this test by Ethan Hansen:
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?topic=53825.0
"We have been working on a thorough evaluation of monitor measurement
hardware. We used a reference-grade spectroradiometer (Photo Research
PR-730) to compare sensor performance on a variety of monitors. All
were IPS displays, and ranged from entry level sRGB gamut models (e.g.
NEC 231wmi, Dell U2311H) with CCFL backlight, to Adobe RGB compatible
wide-gamut models with either CCFL backlights (e.g. NEC PA-241W, Eizo
CG243W) or RGB LED backlighting (HP LP2480zx). We measured multiple
samples of each sensor to quantify inter-instrument agreement on a
white background.
...
The Spyder 3 turned in the best wide-gamut performance of any of the
standard colorimeters, essentially equal to what we measured on sRGB
gamut monitors. Inter-instrument variability is a problem with the
Spyder 3, however. Although the average accuracy was good, few
photographers have a dozen Spyders at hand to use in calibrating their
screens. Overall, I would rate the Spyder 3 as being the best option
we evaluated for profiling wide-gamut displays."

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