Any reasonable price for color checker.

[TonyUSA]

I was looking for color checker but seen the average price is about $70. I don't see any good aftermarket price on color checker. Seen expensive and very low price on gray card but not color checker. Any low cost color checker on the market?

Thank you,

 

[Ysarex]

$70.00 seems very reasonable to me considering what you're getting. I'd be concerned about quality if the price were any lower.

Joe

 

[JonA_CT]

Your kit:
Canon 5D III: Canon 50mm f/1.8 STM(Never used), Canon 70-200mm mkII f/2.8L IS, Canon 100-400mm mkII f/4.5-5.6L, Canon 8-15mm f/4L fisheye, Canon 135mm f/2L, Canon 200mm f/2L IS(toooo heavy), Canon 16-35mm f/4L | Canon 430EX III-RT, Profoto B1

...

But $70 to calibrate your monitor is too much?

 

[KmH]

I think he's referring to things like X-Rite's Passport color checker and not display calibration tools like one of the X-Rite ColorMunkis.

 

[TonyUSA]

Your kit:
Canon 5D III: Canon 50mm f/1.8 STM(Never used), Canon 70-200mm mkII f/2.8L IS, Canon 100-400mm mkII f/4.5-5.6L, Canon 8-15mm f/4L fisheye, Canon 135mm f/2L, Canon 200mm f/2L IS(toooo heavy), Canon 16-35mm f/4L | Canon 430EX III-RT, Profoto B1

...

But $70 to calibrate your monitor is too much?

Sorry I didn't make it clear. It is not how much. To me it is just a plastic with color stickers on it. But now I guess it is hard to make those color accurate so that is why $70.

 

[TonyUSA]

I think he's referring to things like X-Rites Passport color checker and not display calibration tools like one of X-Rites ColorMunkis.

Yes sir. Passport color checker.

 

[Ysarex]

I think he's referring to things like X-Rites Passport color checker and not display calibration tools like one of X-Rites ColorMunkis.

Yes sir. Passport color checker.

What do you want it for?

Joe

 

[TonyUSA]

Thank you everyone for your input.

 

[TonyUSA]

I think he's referring to things like X-Rites Passport color checker and not display calibration tools like one of X-Rites ColorMunkis.

Yes sir. Passport color checker.

What do you want it for?

Joe

Just want to get accurate colors when I works on LR or PS as I seen some on youtube. I already own gray card but never use it. I guess it is want more than need for me.

 

[Ysarex]

I think he's referring to things like X-Rites Passport color checker and not display calibration tools like one of X-Rites ColorMunkis.

Yes sir. Passport color checker.

What do you want it for?

Joe

Just want to get accurate colors when I works on LR or PS as I seen some on youtube. I already own gray card but never use it. I guess it is want more than need for me.

That means using the colorchecker to build your own camera input profiles. That can be a bit of a rabbit hole. It's not enough to just use the colorchecker to generate an input profile; next you'll need software to tweak the profile and then.... it can be a deep rabbit hole.

Joe

 

[snowbear]

Try using the grey card and see where that gets you. I just use the eyedropper in LR and click on a black, white or middle grey pixel in the photo; it seems to do a decent job.

 

[Derrel]

Not really sure why,exactly, you feel the need for this tool. Based on threads we've had here, it seems that almost any image posted or displayed will be seen across a spectrum of monitors and systems and varying software that makes correcting to a set standard sort of a fool's errand. Based on the number of dreadful monitors and out-of-whack settings people use, color correction seems like a dog chasing its own tail... But, perhaps there is some value in color correcting, for whatever reasons one has, so, I guess the $70 could be worth it.

 

[TonyUSA]

Thank you everyone for your input. After I watched this Learn How to Use a Color Checker in Two Minutes and I would love to try it.

 

[bratkinson]

I bought a Color Checker maybe 7-8 years ago and used it a couple of times.

I think how it works is that the included add-in software for Lightroom and other post processing programs KNOWS EXACTLY what each of the colors are supposed to look like. So when you process the picture of your color checker in Lightroom and it recognizes it as such (with your profiled camera), it will automatically adjust the color temperature of each color, not just 'simple white balance'.

In my opinion, Color Checker is best for a studio that you control the lighting and take a 'fresh' color checker picture before each shoot. As one who shoots from countless positions during events, the ever-changing white balance makes grey cards and Color Checker useless. About the only time I use a grey card these days is taking pictures of stuff I'm selling on ebay. I set WB almost exclusively in LR on a close-to-grey-card item in a photo (white shirts, table clothes, grey or beige walls, etc), touch it up then synchronize across a 'group' of pictures taken from that angle and that subject.

It should be noted, too, that the Color Checker multi-color thing must be replaced every few years. The individual color patches must fade a bit thereby <wild made up example> the 'red' at 1234 degrees Kelvin is now at 1230 degrees, making the add-in correction to 1234 produce incorrect results. I'd send you mine for free, but I can't find the add-in software CD that I think it came with. Perhaps it was downloaded when I registered it with X-rite <whenever>. At this point, I've upgraded LR 3-4 times since buying the Color Checker, so the software that came with it is not likely to work with LR 6.

 

[TonyUSA]

Thank you, bratkinson.