p.1 #1 · Dell 2407 HC Owners Calibration Experiences
I know that several of us have picked up the new 24 Dell 2407 HC. I have tried a few approaches for calibrating this monitor and would like to know what approaches others are using.
My experience I am calibrating the monitor using a Gretag MacBeth Eye-One Photo SG system that I own. This system uses the Eye-One Pro and Match3 software. After calibrating the monitor I am analyzing the profile using the Monitor Validator that is available from the HELP menu in the Match3 software.
I have my 2407 HC set on the following settings:
- Contrast 100
- Brightness 0
- RGB values 88, 85, 84 (Custom Color)
My Match3 settings:
- 6,500k
- 2.2 Gamma
This setup results in a net DeltaE of 1.03 and a brightness of 159.3 cd/m2. At brighter settings I have results as low as .89 DeltaE, but these settings were too bright for photographic work.
I am interested in hearing how others have setup their monitors and what kind of results they are achieving. These are bright monitors and reducing contrast and/or RGB values to lower brightness seems to increase DeltaE (thus reducing color accuracy).
My final images are for web use and printing and I am concerned about the brightness level of ~ 160 cd/m2.
For those considering this monitor ... the increased color gamut is really nice.
p.1 #2 · Dell 2407 HC Owners Calibration Experiences
Just a few updates on the Dell 2407.
Called Dell to see what they would say about the high brightness. Needless to say, their tech support was not helpful. So if you pick one of these up, you are on your own.
Called GretagMacBeth to see if they had any tips. They recommended using the LCD's native white point and adjusting contrast down. This recommendation (with Contrast at 50) yielded a white point of about 6,800k and a net DeltaE of .96. Brightness was about 120.
I went back to using the RGB custom color controls with the following settings:
- Contrast 89
- Brightness 0
- RGB values 86, 83, 81
This yielded a DeltaE of .89 (with the highest DeltaE of the worst patches at 1.81,1.48, 1.45) and brightness of 130. I looked at some color and grayscale ramps and do not see any real problems with using the RGB sliders. I'm going to try these settings for a while and produce some prints. I think that brightness can still be lower and maintain the good color performance.
If my prints do not look right (ie they are dark), I will bring brightness down further.
Anyway, I'm not sure that I can recommend this monitor at this point in time. It does have beautiful color. The extended color gamut is apparent and really nice. I will report back in a few days.
p.1 #4 · Dell 2407 HC Owners Calibration Experiences
UCSB wrote:
Anyway, I'm not sure that I can recommend this monitor at this point in time. It does have beautiful color. The extended color gamut is apparent and really nice. I will report back in a few days.
I have had this monitor since it first came out. I too use the Eye One. I have the same problem with brightness that you have. I appreciate your post. If you find a way around the problem let me know.
p.1 #5 · Dell 2407 HC Owners Calibration Experiences
Yes ... colors are great! But overall I am not convinced that this monitor is going to cut it for photography. Just want to give everyone a heads up ... that desipte what seem like great spec's above overall performance is not convincing.
I am really getting tired of trying to tweak this monitor. Unless I have a breakthrough soon, I am going to be returning this monitor.
Stripper ... I'll post my final set of attempts when I finish them. But, I am really having a hard time putting my finger on what is wrong with this monitor. One thing is for sure, it can really make a lot of people's work look pretty bad.
p.1 #6 · Dell 2407 HC Owners Calibration Experiences
Hey guys...Wow, sorry to hear you're having so much trouble w/the monitor
I don't have the GM E1 setup, but use Colorvision's PrintFixPro and Spyder2 suite. I have my 24HC monitor calibrated to "2.2 Native," and I didn't touch the color controls. After profiling, my Brightness & Contrast is at 29 & 32 respectively (your's "seems" really high??), and while I can't give you (and don't know even what it is, sorry) a "DeltaE" like you are talking about, my white luminance is 100cd/m2 (can't remember the black lum. off top of my head). I was initially using it at ~85cd/m2, but my room conditions were too bright and the monitor was too dark for that setting.
I don't know if we're talking apples/oranges here, and pardon my whole lcd profiling ignorance, but when I use my custom paper profiles made with the Colorvision PFP, and softproof in PS, the match is the best I've ever had. While the monitor "was" head-splitting bright upon first firing it up, the brightness level and colors now almost exactly match my prints (I view under 100W 5500K flourescent).
So for what that's worth...I hope you find a solution soon
p.1 #10 · Dell 2407 HC Owners Calibration Experiences
UCSB wrote:
I am really having a hard time putting my finger on what is wrong with this monitor. One thing is for sure, it can really make a lot of people's work look pretty bad.
All that is wrong with my Dell is that I can not seem to turn the brightness down enough. My prints look great because I have a automated curves tweak which makes a file ready for my Epson printer. I am going to try a much lower contrast setting, as SouthFla has suggested.
p.1 #14 · Dell 2407 HC Owners Calibration Experiences
An update on the Dell 2407 HC calibration. I think that I finally have an understanding of calibrating the 2407 HC.
My first problem was that since this monitor is so bright it seems that the Eye One Pro that I own was overwhelmed and not producing good results for the contrast adjustment. This led me to initially set contrast at a high value (89). Since everyone that responded was using a lower contrast setting and the defects I was seeing on the monitor appeared to be contrast related, I stopped using the Eye One for contrast adjustment and tried several lower values. I finally decided to go with the monitors default setting of 50. I may tweak this as I go forward, but believe it is a good starting point.
After many tries, I decided that setting the monitors brightness to 0 would give me the best cd min. In fact, with the contrast set to 50 and brightness set to 0, you will see a cd min of .1.
Finally, I decided to use the RGB sliders to set the monitors white point (instead of just using the native white point which was consistently off). For my work environment, I finally decided that a luminance of 131 was about right for now. This meant that I had to dial in my RGB sliders to 98, 94, and 93.
With the monitors settings at:
Contrast=50
Brightness = 0
R=98
G=94
B=93
I got a final calibration of:
Luminance=130.9
Temp=6500k
Gamma=2.2
Cd min=.1
DeltaE=.95
With these settings it is easy to lower luminance by slightly lowering the RGB sliders. The color is great and images look very nice. I have good print matching to my HP 9180. From my experience, this monitor can perform with a DeltaE of .89. I saw this value several times as I was working through my tests. My final value was slightly higher ... but, I am confident that the monitor can be calibrated to approximately a DeltaE of .9.
I plan on using the monitor for a week or so to really get a detailed understanding of how well it is performing. I'll report back with my final ideas on the 2407 HC. Thanks for all of the help and suggestions.
p.1 #15 · Dell 2407 HC Owners Calibration Experiences
Hi,
Had just got the Dell 2407 HC few days ago and calibrated it with the Spyder2Pro and the effect was quite good. I do not have brightness issue but just made sure to reset the color setting to manufactory default before doing the calibration.
For CAD$599 and free shipping, I think it is a very good deal.
p.1 #16 · Dell 2407 HC Owners Calibration Experiences
CatKing wrote:
Hi,
Had just got the Dell 2407 HC few days ago and calibrated it with the Spyder2Pro and the effect was quite good. I do not have brightness issue but just made sure to reset the color setting to manufactory default before doing the calibration.
For CAD$599 and free shipping, I think it is a very good deal.
Where did your current settings end up after the calibration? If you reset to factory default (right thing to do), that started you out with brightness=50, contrast=50, and RGB=100,100,100, and PC Normal. That would start you out at a very bright ~300 cd/m2.
p.1 #17 · Dell 2407 HC Owners Calibration Experiences
For what it's worth, I set my monitor to the numbers above in UCSB's most recent posting and they seem very good---so perhaps I'll save that as a profile and keep at it with Spyder2Pro since I did spring for it----
(Contrast at 50, Brightness at 0, R=98, G=94, B=93, gamma at 2.2)
p.1 #20 · Dell 2407 HC Owners Calibration Experiences
CatKing ... I guess you have picked a lower color temp (50D, 55D) with your lower blue value. FYI - the PC Red setting seems to be 5500k in its native mode on my monitor.
Dadsdesk ... I don't know about portrait orientation ... I plan to use the monitor exclusively in widescreen mode.
Question to other owners: do your colors look over saturated after calibration? Color intensity just seems off to me ... can't figure out how to address the issue. Tried a lower contrast (45 instead of 50), but did not solve problem. Anyone else feel that they are getting colors that are just to intense giving photos a slightly unrealistic look?
?