Colour Calibration

Is there such a thing as colour calibration equipment rental ? Seems so much money to buy for something you don't use that often :-/

I have to say that if you are using a flat screen monitor you need to re calibrate it every month at the very least.
We do our two iMacs and the Macbook Pro's every week.
Even so if you are only concerned with one monitor/printer then it's money well saved on wasted ink and paper.
And yes, yes they do "wander off setting" our experience tells us that if we don't have a strict calibration regime then we get off colour prints. Not good when a bride wants more copies of an image already delivered.

I'd suggest buying a Pantone Huey (which isn't that much) and using the more flexible dispcalGui and ArygllCMS open source packages

Or, alternatively, get a second hand Spyder 2, or Huey.

But, as said you should profile/calibrate regularly.
Matt

Would be my Sony Vaio since I have no room for my Pc & Monitors in my flat ... Can't wait to get a real house ! Printer I have isn't really worth the name so I would be calibrating the laptop so the images could then be sent to a lab for printing.

I use a Spyder 2 bought cheap off Ebay and Argyll colour management combined with Dispcal (both free software). Total cost no more than 50 squids, lasted for 2-3 years now at least, and very useful. The Spyder 2 seems a bit of an unloved step child, though, I think because of firmware things. If doing it again, I would get another make of equipment though stick to the software which is brilliant, imho.

I like my ColorMunki Photo. It can be used to calibrate monitors, printers and projectors. To me, it was money well spent.

Got to agree with Yves if your serious about your printing and do a reasonable amount then the colour munki is the Rat's Pyjamas.
However if your using a third party for your printing then they should print exactly to your file spec.

Thanks for all the info guys, the colour munki sounds good but does have a bit of a steep price tag heh

It's cheap if you consider the fact that you don't need one device for the monitor(s) and another one for the printer(s).

Oh I thought the spyder and huey did that aswell, will need to look into it. I don't print many images but would like to eventually get some of my photos printed and framed or maybe even a book made of my favourites.

The Spyder2 will calibrate screens and projectors.
The Huey (AFAIK) will do screens.

Personally, I get by with 95% of my stuff with calibrated screens since I print using a pro lab that doesn't mess with the images! Everything is nicely tied up that way. For the tiny amount I print, I find that the regular Canon profiles for the iP4600 work just fine - sure slight variations, but nothing earth shattering.

The majority of capture/edit/print issues boil down to improper monitor settings & calibration.

Matt