Huey

[fmw]

I picked up a handy little tool recently called the Huey from the Pantone people. It is a small colorimeter that plugs into any USB serial port and some software. It measures the colors and luminosity of your monitor and adjusts it automatically to its "standard." As an added benefit, you can leave the unit plugged in and it will monitor the luminosity and color of the ambient light and adjust your monitor accordingly and automatically.

It is very easy to use. You clean your monitor, plug the unit in and install the software. As the software runs it will tell you to stick the colorimeter onto the monitor surface. A little suction device holds it on. Then the software feeds reds, greens, blues and all kinds of grays into the colorimeter and then, presto, your monitor is calibrated. The software shows you what your monitor looked like before and after the calibration. It just couldn't be easier.

I calibrated two monitors - a 17" LCD IBM monitor that I use for my digital imaging work and a 19" HP LCD monitor that outputs from my main business computer. In both cases the Huey lowered the luminosity slightly and changed the color reproduction ever so subtley. I wasn't surprised that the changes were minor because my print output has always been reasonably similar to my video output - never exact, of course, but pretty close.

Print output was pretty close after calibration as well and probably closer although the differences with my own monitors were subtle as I mentioned above. I left the unit connected to my digital imaging machine so that it can keep the monitor calibrated whether I'm working at night or during the day when I have daylight streaming in the window.

The unit was $79.95. Of course you can calibrate your monitor without one but it sure does make it easy and it continues to monitor that calibration and adjust it to ambient conditions. Not a bad product for the money. I'm glad I bought it.

 

[Sw1tchFX]

My prints are way off of what I see on my monitor every time. It's not my monitor though, my printer has been screwed up since day one and I don't know why. Matte paper is the only thing i can get to work right on it and even it's a little off of what I see on my monitor. Everything is brighter on my monitor than what the prints come out to. and then the glossy prints have a whole color shift in them.

 

[LarryBoy]

Sounds like a device like this would be essential to anyone using digital photography and wanting to be able to see what the print will look like on their monitor.

I wonder how this compares the Spyder2 Express from Colorvision. That's another product in the same price range that calibrates your monitor. Anyone here have any experience with it?

Larry

 

[Big Mike]

A calibrated monitor should be a must for any serious digital photographer.

I've got the Colorvision Spyder2, with the Express software package. I had tried to calibrate my monitor without it...and it just didn't work. Now that I have the Spyder...everything is great. It doesn't monitor the ambient light though.

My prints are way off of what I see on my monitor every time. It's not my monitor though, my printer has been screwed up since day one and I don't know why. Matte paper is the only thing i can get to work right on it and even it's a little off of what I see on my monitor

What kind/brand of paper are you using? My Canon printer prints great on Canon paper. I bought 200 4x6 sheets of 'Staples Brand' glossy photo paper...and they look like crap will all the settings I've tried so far. I'm sticking to Canon paper for anything important.

 

[Don Simon]

For a long time I couldn't get the prints I wanted out of my Canon, however this was due to a combination of the following...
: Cheap non-Canon replacement ink cartridges.
: Non-Canon paper.
: Using a cheap TFT monitor.

The main problem for me was the monitor. This was an inexpensive 19" TFT which works great for DVDs, games etc, but was terrible for photo work, because there was simply no way to calibrate it; contrast and brightness just wouldn't go below a certain level. I switched it for an older CRT and then had no problems calibrating it just using Adobe's software and a couple of websites. That and always using Canon's own media now gets me prints that look close enough to what I see on the screen. Black and white prints are the exception however (I'm always noticing the colour cast) and I may yet get a Spyder or Huey to see if I can improve that.

 

[Alex_B]

My prints are way off of what I see on my monitor every time. It's not my monitor though, my printer has been screwed up since day one and I don't know why. Matte paper is the only thing i can get to work right on it and even it's a little off of what I see on my monitor. Everything is brighter on my monitor than what the prints come out to. and then the glossy prints have a whole color shift in them.

then you also must profile your printer.

there si software for that... print a colour chart with the printer on a selected type of paper .. then you must read out the colours from that print with a colorimeter built for that purpose and generate a profile of the printer.

you need some colour-workflow software for that all though.

 

[Sw1tchFX]

What kind/brand of paper are you using? My Canon printer prints great on Canon paper. I bought 200 4x6 sheets of 'Staples Brand' glossy photo paper...and they look like crap will all the settings I've tried so far. I'm sticking to Canon paper for anything important.

Epson paper only. THe matte looks amazing, but glossy has a red-orange tint to it.

then you also must profile your printer.

there si software for that... print a colour chart with the printer on a selected type of paper .. then you must read out the colours from that print with a colorimeter built for that purpose and generate a profile of the printer.

you need some colour-workflow software for that all though.

Not worth it. If I want a glossy print, i'll just do it at my school, $5 for a 12x18 sheet where I can do whatever I want.