So true. I have struggled trying to calibrate my 19" Dell Ultrasharp for free with Adobe Gamma and then WiziWYG and could never seem to get it quite right even using Matt's squinting trick. I had finally decided "you probably get what you pay for" and last week Amazon.ca had a sale on the Spyder2 Suite for $156 Canadian with free shipping (still on BTW). That was only $26 more than I would have to pay for Spyder Express (comes without the printer profiling software) locally and reasonable enough to get me off the pot and order it. I received it yesterday and in only a few minutes I must say the monitor is now very pleasing and it is good to know that I now have a standard to reference by. My monitor factory RGB presets are about 10-15% off the settings Spyder chose. Some of my previously processed photos look better now but a lot have to be re-tweaked from the point I started using WiziWYG. Not blaming WiziWYG though, probably something I did wrong. But, with the Spyder2 Suite I now know it is right.

The suite comes bundled with ColorVision PrintFIX PLUS to print test charts and then helps you build printer profiles to match your calibrated monitor to different inks and papers. That would undoubtedly make the process complete where Spyder Express would leave you only with half the setup. I have gone through a bit of the manual and that part of it looks quite involved and something I will do when I have more time to spend. The information posted previously in this thread is undoubtedly going to be a big help. Thanks for all that info guys.

I did find a colour test image with a good written guide of what to look for in the picture that may be of help for anyone here to view and or print, to at least get an idea if their monitor and printer are set correctly.

Here is a link to a PDI test image and you will also automatically be downloading the Freeware License Agreement with it. Please read it and abide by its terms.

http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/Downloadable/Test_Image.zip


Here is a list of items to look for when reviewing the test image print:

A Smooth even gray ramp on the right of the image, without visible color casts or breaks in the gradient.

Good skintone color throughout the range of different skin types and their shadow areas, especially the difficult pink skintones in the second face, and the areas where the skin transitions into the hair on the third face.

Dark areas in the hair of the first model that show detail without clogging.

Bright, saturated, colors without loss of detail in the robot, the beta fish, and the colored beads.

Good deep tone detail in the purple sand in the fish bowl and the background of the tapestry.

Bright sunflower yellows in the sunflower, distinct from the lemon yellows of the lemon.

Good saturated blues in the vase and its stem.

No problem tones in the dark areas of the lemon, the peach,the orange, and the apple.

A rich range of greens in the cactus and the sunflower leaves.

Rich brown tones in the binocular case, transitioning well into the dark areas.

A good range of varying warm highlights in most areas.

The tint of each shadowbox section is effected subtly by the contents of each box.

Cool blue highlights on the optically brightened golf balls.

Good detail in the colored areas on the elephant, without bleeding from the blacks.

Here also is a B&W test image with an article included:
http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/article_pages/black_and_white_test.html


Hope this is helpful in determining if you too should buy a calibration system. Wish I could have afforded the PRO version

Regards

Drew

I did not mean to imply you were promoting bull fighting George. I just wanted to voice my opinion that while I agree with your princple, your choice of subject matter made it hard for me personally to appreciate it as art, just as I would find all those other examples you listed. That is all I intended. Is it too late to retract the vomit comment?

Regards

Drew

Don't get me started Don

I feel George has a valid point about expensive equipment and sharp prints having nothing to do with good art. Obviously he leans towards the artistic side and that is what I constantly look for too. Ofutter on the other hand is a photographer that places a great deal of importance on technical perfection. Is there anything wrong with that? I think not, just a different direction. I have not seen any of his photos but I am sure if he puts that amount attention to technical detail then he probably is well cabable of great art as well. Unfortunately too many people that do not have the technical abilities try to pass their poor work off as art and many people fall for it.

One thing I TOTALLY disagree with George about is his choice of subject matter to make his point. Bullfighting has got be the most embarassing example of the inhumanity of humanity there is. I don't care how well the brightly coloured hooked spears contrast with the cogagulated blood on the glistening sweat covered blackness of the bull, there is absolutely nothing artful about the agonizingly slow murder of a helpless animal in front of a crowd of cheering neandrathals. It makes me want to vomit.

phew

Drew Peabody

Thanks George and Liam for the Infranview tips. It seems quite good and glad I downloaded it.

Cheers (and thanks again Matt)

Thanks to good old Matt I have located the problem and just like he said, it is a problem with Windows. Here is the Windows Knowledge Base article if anyone else is interested.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/896269
Who would EVER of thought Windows would be the culprit.
Sorry to trouble the Pentax Users but in the end it did prompt me to finally download InfranView so it was not a bad thing.

Many thanks to all that responded with your suggestions.

Cheers

Drew Peabody

I have been working on this all night trying to eliminate the possible causes and have ended up going in circles.

I have saved the first 24 files of one card in a seperate folder and found 9 consistent photos of the 24 that erroneously report as Read Only. I downloaded them in every different way possible using the camera and cable, and the card reader, as well as using different software only to prove that some of the files seem to be corrupted(?) on both memory cards. I also have proved that this only happens using Windows Explorer and Windows Picture and Fax Viewer to rotate but again, only on those specific 9 of the 24 files. There must be something different about those files that Windows doesn't like. I am however able to rotate those 9 without a problem in Elements, Photoshop and now InfranView but must save each individual file as rotated and they never mention those files being Read Only. I'm not sure what the heck I have proven now.

I have tried Mannesty's suggestions of forcing it out of Read Only and also checked the disk for errors, all to no avail.

Here is a very weird observation that I never noticed before; if I rotate any file on the card and save it in the camera, the picture stays rotated when viewing in the camera but still downloads to the HD unrotated. What is going on with that?

I only loaded Firmware version 2.0 about a month ago, maybe something to do with that because I have never had this problem before doing that. Coincidence??? Golfdiesel says he has experience this problem as well. Is it since you upgraded your firmware?

Still looking for ideas.

Drew

Thanks Don but already doing all that. No, not switching between RAW and jpeg but sure wished I had taken some of them with RAW now.
OK, off to work I go.

Drew

Thanks for the replies.

Liam: I load my cards to the HD via a SanDisk card reader using Windows wizard. I do format my cards after all files have been backed up to DVD.

John: Yes, that is the weird part, ALL the files' attributes show Read-Only as unchecked. Only the files that fail ALWAYS fail. That makes me lean towards it being a camera problem.

I will have to determine if it is a Windows corruption, a card reader problem, or a camera problem and try to eliminate each one. I will also look into getting IrfanView Liam. It sounds good even if I can correct the problem.

golfdiesel: Just plain good news to hear that I am not alone on this.

Thanks again

Drew

Anybody got any ideas on this?

I just returned from a trip to the ocean and nearly filled two 512 mb SD cards with highest quality jpeg files using my *ist Ds. When viewing them with Windows Picture and Fax Viewer about 25% (guessing) of them will not rotate and it tells me that the file is read only and cannot be saved rotated while the other 75% are OK. None of the files' attributes show as read only. This happens on both of the memory cards and the even stranger thing it affects only some of multiple shots of the same scene. I have never noticed this before and I'm stumped.

Drew