Pantone huey MEU101 by Pantone
|
List Price: Our Price: $74.99 You Save: $14.01 (16%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: CE See more digital camera details and other models |
|---|
Digital camera reviews of Pantone huey MEU101
Digital camera Review: Does the job, essential for serious photographers
Summary: 4 Stars
I have spent many hours eyeballing a screen and looking at Adobe colour blocks to attempt to calibrate my screen without a device for this purpose. I have to say, with some screens in the past and a lot of patience I managed to get my screen to represent the actual colours captured in my photography pretty well.
Recently I bought a Dell 30" HC monitor with a wider gamut. The picture is 'punchy' and out of the box it was overly red. I attempted to use Adobe Gamma, nVidia drivers etc. to create a profile that would match the way prints will look and after several tries I was still miles off. New monitors tend to provide LESS control over the hardware in regards to colour temperature, brightness, contrast etc. so I actually had LESS control over this fancy new monitor than my old one.
I considered this product and the Spyder2 and they were a close match. I went with the Huey because it's smaller, faster to calibrate and offers ambient lighting measurements - an option that I'm not completely sold on, but you can turn it off if you desire.
After calibration my monitor image had lot less contrast, was less red and looked far more natural. My girlfriend announced that it looked 'better' before I calibrated. I pointed out that my monitor isn't supposed to make things look 'good' it's supposed to how how things REALLY look so I know exactly how they should be printed. It did really demonstrate to me how you can fiddle with you monitor settings manually, make the images you are testing with look great, and then realise your prints look nothing like what you see on screen. The huey allows me to have accurate colour and the fine tuning I apply to image colours can actually be seen in prints now.
Strengths - good colour profile, fast, small, easy to use
Weaknesses - not PERFECT colour, shouln't use suction caps on a LCD!, calibration choices after profiling aren't desribed in technical terms (ie. gamma, temperature)
Recommended!
-=Liperty=-
Digital camera Review: Does what it says
Summary: 5 Stars
Very easy to use. Run the application. Step by step instructions along the way. Accurate readings. The color profiles is automatically set. It couldn't be easier. Never a complaint with any of my high profile clients when I produce/retouch their art files.Digital camera Review: Does what it's supposed to
Summary: 4 Stars
I use it with a 21" LCD monitor and it does make a difference. It also worked with the 21" sony monitor I used to have. It helps to know that when editing photos you aren't trying to clean up coloring from the monitor.Digital camera Review: Doesn't always work. Color cast can be corrected.
Summary: 2 Stars
I bought this product thinking it would help my color prints. It ended up causing the monitor to have a very strong yellow color cast. I contacted Pantone and they told me they are aware that some of these Hueys have a defective sensor and they sent me a new one no-charge. I just plugged the new sensor in and recalibrated the screen and low and behold, it's the same, very strong yellow color cast. I've had to pick cool, medium contrast and that's still a bit too yellow for my eyes. Now I look at my monitor and get a headache.
December, 2008: Updating this review to advise everyone that many times a color cast exists after calibration because you really have to reset your monitor before you calibrate it with Huey. If you adjusted your own monitor in the past, you probably picked too much blue or green without realizing it. Huey will try to overcompensate its adjustment if you don't reset your monitor therefore you'll end up with too much yellow, red or pink. Reset your monitor before you use Huey to calibrate and your colors should come out spot on.
Digital camera Review: Don't buy for a Mac with Leopard
Summary: 1 Stars
If you have a Mac running OS X 10.5 (Leopard), be advised that Pantone has been promising since last year to fix whatever is broken that prevents the use of the Huey. The company won't even respond when you ask support what is going on. They said the new installer would be available "early" in 2008. When I wrote an inquiry to the Pantone people on April 3 the automated reponse said it could take two to three days to reply. I'm still waiting.