Hello Terry,

Thank you very much for your advice. I will try it out per your recommendations. I just wonder if this happens to all good monitors (Eizo, LaCie, NEC) used for professional colour editing. It might only be related to cheap monitors like Dell, as they do not have as much electronics to boost the colour and brightness fast. It seems like wasting a lot of time to start working with pictures.

Regards,
Roma

Hello again,

I have got DELL 2209 WA. I have tried to calibrate it a few of times with EyeOne 2. First impression is good as the calibration is much easier than of Dell U2410. I will post my results later. However, it takes the monitor about 30 min to come up with real colours (final) starting with very pink. Interesting that after calibration I have a pink tint on my monitor. It is noticeable when the monitor is just  turned on, and goes down with time. However, I believe I still can see it. May be I have a problem with my EyeOne 2 which is a bit more than a month old.

Does it have to take 30 min and more for an IPS panel to heat up? My old ViewSonic with TN panel is bright right after I turn it on. Is it a major difference between TN and IPS panels?

Please advise. Thank  you!
Roma

Hello Chas,

I can see it now. Thank you for clarifying this point. I believe when a monitor gets old, these settings must be changed. There is so much to try out, as the standard software and recommendations do not always work. What is CM? Just wonder.

I am now waiting for DELL to put 2209WA monitor on sale. In the meantime I have noticed that NEC is selling refurbished LCD2690WUXi-2 for a very attractive price ($749 USD). I have read reviews and they are very good.
http://www.necdisplay.com/Products/Product/?product=02e0c734-0bbf-4b25-bb28-03d1e7f855cd

I do not do professional photography, but I would like to have a monitor I can trust in terms of colour reproduction. Should be good for wrokign with text too though.
Thank you!

Roma

Hello Adam,

Perhaps I was not lucky with the U2410 as my calibratration was not good as I explained in my previous posts. I can see you sucessfully calibrated it in the Standard mode and reached 30 and 50 for brightness and contrast.
For your calibration you used CM, however, I could not find information on the net. Could you please provide more information so I could read about it? I am still thinking if EyeOne 2 is good for me, as I have read about dpt-94 which is a good product as many reported. However, it is sold with various software, what is confusing.

Please let me know what you think.
Best,

Roma

Hello Chas,

Thank you for your advice. Today I have learned that NEC is also manufacturing a wide colour gamut LCD2690WUXi2. See what I have found on the NEC web site:

Sporting a wide color gamut panel, the 26" NEC refurbished MultiSync LCD2690WUXi2 equips you with all of the features and benefits ideal for high-end graphics applications.
97.8% coverage of the Adobe RGB color space
With NEC's exclusive X-LightTM Pro backlight/sensor design, brightness and color settings can be held constant over the useful life of the display
ColorCompTM technology compensates for slight variations in luminance and color uniformity, providing even color across the screen
Superior screen performance (1000:1 contrast ratio, 1920 x 1200 native resolution, 320cd/m2 brightness)
Supports internal programmable 12-bit lookup tables (LUTs) for calibration
Ambient light sensor and automatic backlight adjustment allows for use in any lighting condition

Regards,
Roma

Hello Chas,

That is a very interesting thought. I will certainly check it out when I have a better monitor. Do you still own Dell2209WA and what you think about it now? I am going to try it out when on sale.

As I can see from your latest post, the recommended setting while calibrating are not to follow all the time. Perhaps, somebody else will share his/her experience. That would be great for someone like me who makes first steps and learns from others.

Roma

Hello Chas,

Does it mean you are happy with the monitor when use it for pictures? Based on your opinion I am thinking about purchasing it for pictures and text reading. What about calibration? I have EyeOne 2.

Regards,
Roma

Hello again,

Well, after a lot of reading and thinking, also trying different calibration modes, I decided to send back the Dell U2410. First reason - not too happy with calibration results. Main reason - I wanted to use the monitor for photography also for reading text. Reading text is not as good as on my old ViewSonic VG2230wm, which is just  a TN panel. However, less painful for eyes...

By the way, when I tried to calibrate the ViewSonic yesterday, my results were not bad. I will post them later, though they are not very important as the screen was not designed for  colour accuracy.

Now I am thinking about Dell 2209WA as somebody has suggested on the forum. I will certainly wait when it will be on sale as the regular price is unrealistic for the monitor with limited functions and connections. It could be a good panel for reading text and working with pictures. Any thoughts?

I would certainly love to buy NEC 2490, however, in Canada its price is way too high ($949) when in the USA it is only ~$700. Canadian dollar is par to USD now or very close.
Thank you,
Roma

Hello,

Thank you, Terry and Chas, for your comments. One thing I have changed - I REMOVED the ambient light attachment. I know it sounds silly, but I listened to a salesman who left it on when he arranged the product demonstation. I have read a lot today and even in the one-page instruction, which came with the unit, they said to remove it!

OK. I redone my calibrations (sorry, Chas, I read your message after I finished). Before I began, I noticed GENERAL OPTIONS screen (image is attached). This option has never been explained anywhere. Which options do I have to use? I have tried both - for small display (image is attached) and for Large display. This was done in Native White colour mode.
In all calibrations, when I followed the instructions and set up Contrast to 100, after calibration it went down to 63-64. However, my brightness from 0 did not move anywhere as after the constract calibration it stayed too high at 136-142. Certainly, the final result - luminance was too high - about 140. This is in the Standard mode with final contract at 63% and Brightness at 0%.

I also calibrated at 6500K. Before the calibration I switched to Colour Mode and made sure that the colours were set at the default setting 50-50-50. This time contrast from 100% did not move anywhere and  stayed right in the middle. Colour calibration was fairly good, the final RGB setting is 64-54-58. They were not perfect but very close to it. Calibration of Brightness was good and it produced 120 easily at 56%.
The final report was fairly good (attached).

When I am using this setting right now, I see that the screen is a bit pink. Certainly 100 Contrast is strange, but Colour Mode is not bright to start with. Perhaps low default setting (50-50-50) is responsible for it. Visualy I would not be happy with the calibration as the colour of the screen is pink instead of white and the brightness affects my eyes.

I will try a calibration at 30-50 Brightness/Constrast. However, if this parameters should not be calibrated, how do we know that they are right? Why not 40-60? From the review referred by Terry one can see that the calibration was successful producing 30-50, but not in my case.

Any comments would be greatly appreciated.
Roma

Hello Again,

I have read many reviews on this monitor before I bought it. It is considered to be a great monitor by most users and all reviewers. However, I still can not get it to work (agree) with my EyeOne 2!. I have bought it to read text and work with pictures. I am now more inclined to replace it with Dell 2209WA as it has been recommended on this forum. It does not have many features of U2410, but could be good for text reading and working with pictures.
However, now I must find out how EyeOne 2 works. So far after a lot of reading and watching video I have not seen anything I have not done yet to make it to work.

Roma

Hello,
Thank you for looking into my issue. I have checked all possible modes with the same success. First of all, I went to the X-Rite site and checked if my driver was up to date. No. I downloaded the update and installed a newer driver. Then I checked if the solfware was up to date. No. The latest version is v.3.6.2. I reinstalled it as well.

Then I calibrated the monitor in Standard mode using Native White Point settings with 2.2 and 120. Same result - after brightness was adjusted to 100 it gave me 94.3 reading. The final calibration report is as follows.
Then I calibrated the monitor again in Standard mode using 6500K. Brightness was adjusted to 100 giving only 40.5 reading. The final calibration report is attached.

Then I read Terry's post and decided to check his idea. I used Customs Colour mode and 6500K. Default settings for RGB were 50-50-50. My contract from 100 did not go down at all! Calibrating the colour was very hard as the bars were jumping from one side to another. Though the result was not perfect, at 51-43-49 it was somewhat close. I decided to check it I could get something interesting at the recommended 82-86-83 setting. I put those numbers, and the final (not perfect) result was at 81-70-80. Again, I do not know much about the perfect colour calibration, but I could not get the bars perfectly at ZERO mark. Because the colours numbers were this time higher than before, as expected after adjusting brightness to 100% the reading was 88.5. Still not at 120. Final calibration report is as follows.

When I sat down to write this post, the screen was so bright (100% contrast and 100% brightness) that it was impossible. I had to bring everything back to Standard mode and 30 Brightness - 43 contrast.

I know it sound all very unusual to you, however, I have never seen anybody calibrating a monitor other than an Apple Display, what is different. Please help me to find out what is wrong. It makes me believe that my sensor could be less sensitive fro some reasons, however, when I used a test from the X-Rite site, it passed it without problem. What else could be wrong? What do you do before the calibration?

I tried to use the same devise at work on my display. The same result - Luminance was not even close to 120. I am going to the shop tomorrow to check if they could check my unit or give me another one to test. As they calibrate the Apple Display, I do not expect to help me much. Very frustrating experience, not good yet, but I am willing to get to the bottom of it and learn from you.

Roma
 

Hello ChasP505,

But in this case I will never be able to reach 120!
Roma

Hello Terry,

Good to hear from you as you are use Eye One 2 with great results posted on the forum. Thank you for the link. I have read this forum a few times by now looking for answers. Very interesting and educational. I will try to put colour settings higher as the monitor does not have colour temperature settings and all colours are set at 50%. Perhaps that explains why black letters do not look black as on my Philips monitor at work.

I am happy to hear your opinion that the Eye One 2 is working. What do you think about LaCie Blue Eye?
Thank you,

Roma

Hello Adam,
Thank you for your opinion. You probably are very right. As my experience is very limited (to one monitor) I can not say anything. I have my old ViewSonic and will try the Eye One 2 on it tomorrow. As I can see from the forum, Terry has successfully used this device. So far, results which I posted on another forum here are very bad with luminance reaching only 37.5 at 6500K set up.
I have read that some people have successfully used LaCie Blue Eye for the monitor. Is it better? Could you tell? I have been told that it is the same puck with different software.
Thank you,
Roma

Hello,

I have just completed two more calibrations with my brand new Eye One 2. Both calibrations are not good as the 120 target was not even within reach. In 6500 degrees calibration, I had to use 100% brightness without much luck.  Colours are much worse than in the Dell settings. Is it a monitor or a calibrator problem? Any comments would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
Roma