ColorMunki Photo - Monitor, Printer & Projector Profiler
by X-Rite
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List Price: Our Price: $449.00 You Save: $50.99 (10%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $380.00 (click here) Category: Digital Camera See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of ColorMunki Photo - Monitor, Printer & Projector Profiler
Customer Review: x-rite colormunki
Summary: 5 Stars
It works as advertised. Support is excellent includin a downloadable video, which is one of the best ive seen.Customer Review: The Munki is out of its cage
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a great product, top notch I have used a Spydr and this is a superior product to that.Customer Review: Was this really worth it?
Summary: 4 Stars
After doing thorough researching all over the Internet for what to get for a hardware color calibration solution, I finally settled on this one for the main reason that it is the cheapest spectrophotometer you can get under $500. All the other solutions like the Eye-One Display 2, Spyder 1/2/3 are simpler (and thus cheaper) colorimeters, which are supposedly not as accurate. I wouldn't know, as I have not used them to compare and contrast between this Colormunki. I was also thinking of getting the Eye-One Pro ($1000+ solution), but after using this Munki, I can safely say the price will not be justified for what I need it to do (photograpy with editing/post-processing in Lightroom and Photoshop).
In any case, the product arrived much sooner than the tracking suggested (delivery estimate of Oct. 17th). In fact, I got a knock at the door, not knowing it was the postmaster delivering this very item. Shocked that it came almost a week before it was estimated to be due. So kudos to Amazon for that fast delivery service on a FREE Super Saver shipping rate.
However, using Windows 7 RC build 7100, I initially ran into a hiccup because the drivers would not install upon plugging in the device via USB. My guess is that Windows 7 does not yet implement these drivers natively (like it does most other devices, notably printers). So just a fair advise to those in Win7 RC, this device is not true Plug and Play (yet).
To alleviate this, I went into Device Manager after connecting the device to the USB port and expanded the "Other Devices >> Colormunki" and double-clicked to bring up the properties. From there, go to the "Drivers" tab and update the drivers by clicking on the appropriate button in that tab. I just simply let windows install drivers "Automatically" and it did a fine job of doing just that. I can't decide whether Windows got the drivers from the Internet or from the CD the device came with, but both were accessible to Windows when I did this, so your mileage may vary, depending on your connection and disc availability. Within a minute, drivers were installed and all were good to go.
Profiling was a breeze. In fact, I am actually shocked at how easy it was to do and am asking myself now if the product was really worth this amount. The device itself looks like it was made for $10 and costs no more than $50 with everything out the door at the manufacturer's end. But the fact that it costs $360 on Amazon (and up to $500 retail) is astounding. So there is a difference in what my display (Samsung SyncMaster 225bw) looked like before and after, but after doing multiple runs and profiles, I got a consistent result I could finally just keep. However, if the cost of simply making sure you set your display's Brightness and Contrast to bring it down to a level you were not using before is worth $360 to you, by all means, I'm sure this product does what it's supposed to. However, I'm still scratching my head as I type this wondering if I could have done this myself without such an over-priced (imo) device (Brightness set at 31, Contrast at 90). Yippeee!
Customer Review: Does exactly what I hoped it would do; some customer support reservations
Summary: 4 Stars
I decided to get the Colormunki after struggling for over a year to get my Canon Pro9000 printer to produce prints that were consistently accurate representations of my photos, as they looked on my monitor - I had a monitor calibrator, but that's only one part of what you need in color management. I had used generic profiles for the paper I was using in the past and did all thing things you are supposed to do with the color management settings to get things right, but still experienced highly inconsistent results. After much reading, I determined that getting custom profiles for my printer/paper combinations might be the way to go. The Colormunki allows you to profile your printer specifically for the paper you are using, in addition to calibrating your monitor.
The profiler controls are easily understood and engaged; in order to profile the printer you will need to use at least two sheets of whatever paper you are profiling, and you will need to profile for each type of paper you use - each paper gets its own custom profile - so there is some initial expenditure of ink and paper to get your profiles ready. But that's nothing compared to the ink and paper you would have wasted trying to get an acceptable print without a custom profile, so I don't see that as a disadvantage.
Things did not go smoothly at first though - you're supposed to use the Colormunki to scan a series of color patches and when I first printed out my color patches my printer was apparently low on magenta and did not properly print out the patches that had magenta in it. I was unaware of that, and as I attempted to scan the patches, the Colormunki would simply tell me the scan had failed and not offer any tips as to where to begin locating the point of failure. It wasn't until I used the online help and wandered in and out of several articles (their online article resource is not well-organized) that I finally stumbled on a sentence that pointed me in the right direction. Once over that hurdle, the profiling proceeded very quickly and very easily. I was then able to make more profiles without any hitches at all. But my review gets 4 stars instead of 5, as I believe the makers of Colormunki could have done a much better job in creating and organizing the help documentation. There needs to be more of an effort on their part to address the questions that might arise for a user that has no knowledge of the finer points of color profiling - their help documentation seems to gloss over a number of things, or assume that the user would already know them. Given that the product is marketed to the general consumer, this is potentially a serious misstep on their part.
I cannot speak for the projector profiler feature as I do not have a use for that and have not tested it.
In summary, I've seen a vast improvement in the color accuracy of my prints since using the Colormunki, but be aware that troubleshooting any problems with this product can lead to a lot of frustration if you don't already have the expertise that would help you know where to start looking.
Customer Review: So easy a Munki could do it!
Summary: 4 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
I'm fairly new to setting up color profiles, so I approached the use of this device with some trepidation. Fortunately, the good folk at X-Rite decided to include a training DVD for people just like me. The instructors were articulate, if a bit over exuberant about the product, and the quality of instruction was above average. The DVD proved to be really useful to me, and I'd highly recommend that you view this from start to finish, if you are not already well versed in the use of spectrophotometers.
The unit istelf is a "one stop shop" of sorts. It is a single unit that handles a number of tasks, including a self-calibration function, and setting up profiles for projectors or LCD monitors. A rotary switch on the side lets you dial in the function you need.
One downside here is that the rotary dial is a bit awkward to rotate, and needs some acquired muscle memory to get right.
The dial positions for each function are not labeled. Fortunately, the software walks you through the positions using easy to follow images.
The software that comes with the device allows it to be used on any number of computers owned by you. You are also allowed to make one copy of the software for backup.
I installed this on Vista 32 and 64 notebooks, and things went without a hitch.
However, when I used the Advanced mode for calibration, I immediately hit a snag. The software launches not one but two modal windows. So if your brightness/contrast control is done via software, there is no way to get to it. Even when I resized the topmost modal window, the second one just below refused to get out of the way, obscuring my video controls. I was finally able to manage using some fancy window footwork ... using about a half inch of the desktop that was not covered by the modal windows, but this was rather awkward.
On the other hand, using the Easy mode is a lot less trouble, since it pretty much does everything for you, and all you have to do sit by and watch.
For those interested, the ICM profile can be accessed using (in Vista): Personalize > Display Settings > Advanced Settings > Color Management tab > Color Management.
Overall, I found this fairly easy to use. It encourages you to recalibrate every 1 to 4 weeks. And, with how easy this device makes this process, I can't imagine why I wouldn't.
The million dollar question is whether this device is worth the money.
The adjustments made my monitor warmer and less bright. And when browsing my photos using Photoshop, the pictures did look very realistic.
Happy calibrating!
-Damodar