If I understand you correctly, Jules, the 'widget' you refer to is the Graflite included free in the basic package. This device is an high quality, daylight balancedlight source for assessing the colour accuracy of printed images which normally retail for around £50.00. It has been reviewed favourably by ephotozine link and by Northlight-images link, both sources I have great confidence in.

The extra £99.00 buys the Eye-one display 2 monitor calibration device, which normally retails for about £125.00. Of the devices of this type aimed at serious amateurs and semi-professionals, it, and its associated calibration software, are thought to be amongst the best. Reviews can be found at the above mentioned sites as well as many others (e.g. TFT-Central link.

You ask if it is really essential to have one at the outset, to which my answer is a qualified no, as you should find the Eizo pretty good 'out of the box', but it would be an advantage to have one at some stage - after all, even professional monitors costing thousands of pounds benefit from being calibrated regularly.

An option you might want to consider in the short term, and one that doesn't require the purchase of a monitor calibration device, is to use the default settings on the Eizo with your current printer and paper(s) and get an ICC colour profile, which corrects for differences between the on screen and printed image. A number of companies, for a small fee, offer profiling services of this type. It involves you printing a colour test chart, which they provide, on your paper of choice. This is then returned to them for comparison with the reference chart to produce produce the ICC profile for your monitor/printer/paper combination. Alternatively, I note that Fotospeed link provide a free colour profiling service for all of the high quality photo papers they stock, some of which are very reasonably priced (e.g. Those from their own range). I am about to try this service myself.

The quest for colour accuracy can, as noted by JR and others on the forum, become the latter day equivalent of the search for the Holy Grail (see also the Northern-images site for a series of excellent 'down-to-Earth articles on the topic). In the end, it comes down to personal taste and how important getting the colour balance as natural as possible, when the context demands, is to you and your potential customers.

Kind regards,

Jon

Jules: so convinced was I by the power and eloquence of my own argument (no change there, then :roll that I went ahead and ordered one

Fortunately, this was a painless experience thanks to the receipt this morning of a 'birthday cheque' for a 'monkey' from an exceedingly kind and generous in-law

'O Lucky Man!'

Jon

You should, IMHO, add the Eizo Flexscan S2243W - 22" to your list, which uses a PVA screen, covers 95% of the RGB colour space and has a 10-bit LUT (which requires a graphics card with 10-bit capability to obtain benefit e.g. AMD (Radeon) FirePro series; s/h examples of which can be bought for little cash on e-bay): link. Colourconfidence are selling them for £388.00 inc VAT, which is par for the course, and are including a free GrafiLite daylight balanced viewing lamp. For an extra £99.00 you can have a bundle that includes a GREGTAGMACBETH eye-one display 2 calibration device, representing a good saving when compared with the price when bought separately link

I paid the premium for an Eizo monitor about 5 years ago and have never regretted it and I'm seriously considering upgrading to one with a larger screen in the near future.

I know John Riley is a big fan of the Dell Ultra-sharp range and he speaks from personal experience. There are many reports (from both professional reviewers and users, however, indicating that QC can be an issue with these; although in fairness many went on to say that Dell were very good at replacing them when notified.

You pays your money and takes your choice

Best wishes,

Jon

Have been extremely impressed with the creative use of B&W by other users on the forum and felt it was time for me to cast aside my inhibitions and have a go myself

[img]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2684/5734447564_523eeeab59_b.jpg" class="comment_image" />

sRGB by prsjnb, on Flickr[/img]

[img]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3585/5733899675_e15dec6c1c_b.jpg" class="comment_image" />

Creative 3 conversion filter by prsjnb, on Flickr[/img]

[img]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3339/5734448410_8e4450c01e_b.jpg" class="comment_image" />

Green filter conversion by prsjnb, on Flickr[/img]

C&C much appreciated.

H. E. Bates

Writer and aspiring photographer

Monochromatic viewing filters are still available from Heliopan and Tiffen, both costing IRO £40 new.

The Heliopan can be purchased here link or on e-bay from the same dealer.

The Tiffen #1 viewing filter does not seem to be avaialble in the U.K. but can be purchased new from B&H in the U.S.A (IRO £30.00 including UPS Worldwide Saver but you may have to pay import duty and VAT) link.

Hope this helps,

Jon

Seconded

Great use of mono, Matt, as , IMHO, by removing the colour, you have left viewer free to concentrate on and appreciate the multitude of lines and textures these wonderful flowers possess

Jon

Super shots, Roger - beauty and interest is to be seen almost everywhere if time is taken to open one's eyes and mind

Jon

A big "Thank you!" to all contributors for the positive feedback and suggestions for further improvement (coker and aliengrove)

Delighted the title appealed to your 'darker side', smeggy

Jon

The Mistle thrush population is in decline in the U.K as a whole (RSPB conservation status amber) and this is one of the first specimens I have seen in our 'neck of the woods' in a long time.

[img]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3360/5716451432_a090c75e0e_b.jpg" class="comment_image" />

Mistle thrush_1 by prsjnb, on Flickr[/img]

[img]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2496/5716452344_d2ed3e8dab_b.jpg" class="comment_image" />

Mistle thrush_2 by prsjnb, on Flickr[/img]

[img]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3217/5715889457_c3d5070e9c_b.jpg" class="comment_image" />

Mistle thrush_3 by prsjnb, on Flickr[/img]

[img]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3044/5716453840_e9706f39c4_b.jpg" class="comment_image" />

Mistle thrush_4 by prsjnb, on Flickr[/img]

Church of St. John the Baptist and St. Helen, Wroughton
K20D with Sigma 100-300mm f4 EX DG

C&C welcome.

Jon

Consumate use, Davex, of differential focus, depth-of field and image editing tools (Photoshop?) to produce a stunningly realistic photo-montage . There remains no trace of the cage bars or edge-artifacts where the 'beastie' has been 'cut-and-pasted' onto the background image. The way the background image selected creates a 'photo-realistic' sense of proportion and perspective in relation to the main subject is truly remarkable. To all but the 'trained eye', the resulting image is indistinguishable from the 'real thing' .

If the other 799 composites are of a similarly high standard, then it is not difficult to understand why you have not been active on the forum in recent weeks

Yours in awe,

Jon

P.S. Apologies for the 'tease', but I had no alternative: the previous posts had said it all