Question on using a Calibright 123 to calibrate my display

[hassiman]

Hello.
I was considering the purchase of a Calibright 123 to calibrate my LG Ultragear G8 monitor attached to my Mac Studio M4 MAX which I use to edit with Lightroom Classic.
I was wondering if the 123 unit was advanced enough to do the job or do I need a more advanced unit.
Does anyone here have any experience with using Calibrite with LRC?
Thanks!

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[Conrad Chavez]

I don’t own the 123, but I’ve used several similar devices over the years. I did a quick search on both the Calibrite 123 and the LG display. It looks like the 123 might not take full advantage of an LG Ultragear G8. The G8 is a wide gamut display (P3 gamut), but a couple of reviews said the 123 is really only for profiling sRGB gamut displays. I can’t find anything on the Calibrite website to confirm that limitation, though. If the 123 can do wide gamut then I think it would be fine.

As far as accuracy, one review’s tests indicate that the 123 is competent. And the price is great. But the 123 is relatively basic, so you don’t have a lot of control over target calibration specs. And apparently the 123 also doesn’t support mini-LED displays or HDR. Because those plus wide gamut are becoming more common, the 123 is less future-proof than some other models.

With Calibrite, the table linked below can help you choose the right one. The Display Pro HL should be enough if you don’t soon plan to buy a display that meets Adobe requirements for HDR edit mode. If you do plan to eventually get a display for Adobe HDR editing, or want to perform a Full Calibration specifically for a 14/16" MacBook Pro, then the Display Plus HL is required. You don’t have to consider the ColorChecker Studio unless you want to make printer profiles.
https://calibrite.com/us/display-device-specs/

But this isn’t intended to endorse any product in particular, so you can also consider devices like the Datacolor Spyder series, which is also popular.

 

[jrobnz]

For what it's worth I have a Datacolor Spyder X2 Elite that I've used on several monitors over the years with their software and most recently with an Asus OLED PA32UCDM using the Asus software. It's worked perfectly including wide gamut support for P3 and Rec. 2020. But you can't currently calibrate HDR with any of them I think due to a lack of standards however the Asus calibration software works around that using a special mode in the monitor.

 

[Gnits]

The HDR is a relatively new and fast evolving scene .. and the market for monitors is in catchup mode. All (or most) mobile devices in future will have some degree of HDR capability. I expect this may be an evolving TV option also. If I was buying a screen calibration tool now I would ensure it was fully HDR capable.

I have not got my head fully around HDR .. as my priority is high quality printed output and I am happy with simple srgb jpgs for my very modest email and web use..

 

[Swingman]

The HDR is a relatively new and fast evolving scene .. and the market for monitors is in catchup mode. All (or most) mobile devices in future will have some degree of HDR capability. I expect this may be an evolving TV option also. If I was buying a screen calibration tool now I would ensure it was fully HDR capable.

I have not got my head fully around HDR .. as my priority is high quality printed output and I am happy with simple srgb jpgs for my very modest email and web use..

Not all HDR devices are the same in terms of display. Even within Apples ecosystem MacBook Pro has a lot wider HDR spectrum than the iPads. Everything I view my HRD photos produced in MacBook and view them in LrM I could see the difference.
One of excuses mentioned by t;he calibration software producers that their is no definitive standard for the HDR output and they are not in a hurry to bring one to market.
There no paper media which would handle the HDR output as it is not possible to display anything whiter than white. We knew type of media to print in the future.

 

[Gnits]

There no paper media which would handle the HDR output

I do not want to change the paper and profiles I have spent years evolving as part of my workflow and accumulated experience.

As I said.. HDR is fast evolving.. and I was taken by surprise to see Adobe move so quickly.. but they have a much better view of the future options and roadmaps than I will ever have.

For me.. I am currently not interested in HDR, but cannot escape the reality that Pandora's box is open.. so for something like calibration tools, screen purchases, etc.. .. I would hedge my bets as best I could.

 

[clee01l]

For what it's worth I have a Datacolor Spyder X2 Elite that I've used on several monitors over the years with their software and most recently with an Asus OLED PA32UCDM using the Asus software. It's worked perfectly including wide gamut support for P3 and Rec. 2020. But you can't currently calibrate HDR with any of them I think due to a lack of standards however the Asus calibration software works around that using a special mode in the monitor.

I also have the Datacolor X2 Elite colorimiter. and an ASUS PA32UCG & PA32UCR. HDR Monitors. I use the Spyder X@ v6.0.1 software from Data Color to calibrate my monitors.

 

[clee01l]

There no paper media which would handle the HDR output as it is not possible to display anything whiter than white.

Paper is reflective media. Monitors are transmissive media. HDR is designed to be used with monitors that can trans mit light beyond a certain brightness (usually stated in "nits") Any monitor less than 600 nits is considered SDR. HDTVs have been available for quite a few years now. HDTVs will be advertised as HDR10 or HDR10+. The future of Transmissive media will be HDR capable images. AN HDR Image file can use the "JXL" File Type Or Special JPEGs that have an SDR image block and an HDR gain map block included.

You need an HDR monitor with greater than 600 nits brightness to process Lightroom images in HDR.

With respect to your "whiter than white" paper reference, not all paper is the same "whiteness". Paper brightness is measured on a scale of 0 to 100 based on how much blue light it reflects, with standard ranges spanning economy to photo-quality. This is one of the reasons that we use different color profiles for different photo quality papers.

 

[Swingman]

Paper is reflective media. Monitors are transmissive media. HDR is designed to be used with monitors that can trans mit light beyond a certain brightness (usually stated in "nits") Any monitor less than 600 nits is considered SDR. HDTVs have been available for quite a few years now. HDTVs will be advertised as HDR10 or HDR10+. The future of Transmissive media will be HDR capable images. AN HDR Image file can use the "JXL" File Type Or Special JPEGs that have an SDR image block and an HDR gain map block included.

You need an HDR monitor with greater than 600 nits brightness to process Lightroom images in HDR.

With respect to your "whiter than white" paper reference, not all paper is the same "whiteness". Paper brightness is measured on a scale of 0 to 100 based on how much blue light it reflects, with standard ranges spanning economy to photo-quality. This is one of the reasons that we use different color profiles for different photo quality papers.

Whiter than white reference is to say there are no papers would display these images. I would expect people and even museum would use very large HDR panels to project HDR images. We will be moving away from printing large paper prints. May be large HDR photo frames, where you could display all your HDR images in one panel.

 

[Gnits]

We will be moving away from printing large paper prints

I expect so, especially for institutions that have the budget and then wider usage. It will be a target for high end marketing displays. With the massive option to easily change the image displayed.

My main long term project is a high quality hand bound book.. I am not interested in a HDR book.

 

[clee01l]

I expect so, especially for institutions that have the budget and then wider usage. It will be a target for high end marketing displays. With the massive option to easily change the image displayed.

My main long term project is a high quality hand bound book.. I am not interested in a HDR book.

I have a 77" HDTV in my living room, that I have curated my best images for viewing as a continuous slide show. I have not gone to the trouble of updating the older images to HDR and I suspect the Slideshow app on the TV ignores the HDR part of my JPEG files any how.

 

[Gnits]

Yes... it will be a moving target until it matures more and perhaps standards arrive. Hopefully not to repeat the con job that was HD Ready !!.

I was in a TV showroom before the Football World Cup... I asked the salesman how were TV sales / World Cup promotions... he said ... flat... no one interested in buying tvs.. so maybe streaming on small screens is winning the day. I asked the salesman also was he selling HDR ready Tvs. He did not understand the question. Probably varies by market.

 

[clee01l]

[QUOTE="Gnits, post: 1372001, member: 34621". I asked the salesman also was he selling HDR ready Tvs. He did not understand the question. Probably varies by market.[/QUOTE]
Sales people are often uninformed about the product they are selling. HDR10+ is going to be prominent in the specs


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jrobnz]

The big difference with making images for HDR is that not all HDR devices have the same capabilities. Most new phones tend to have some level of HDR support in addition to TV's, Macbooks, iPads, laptops and monitors that are all becoming more and more HDR capable. It won't be too long before just about every new display will have HDR support. But look deeper than the labelling because you need 1000 nits or more to get the most dynamic range. Beware of TV's or monitors that say HDR10+ but they only have 400 or 600 nits brightness. HDR10+ is about encoding dynamic tone mapping and not a hardware brightness spec.

This means unlike SDR where you can have some assurance that your image will look the same on anyone's device (ignoring calibration), HDR dynamic range varies widely. Some displays will barely have +1 stop but others could have +4 or more stops. There are tools you can use to soft proof your HDR image and see how it will look at various HDR display levels from +0 to +5 stops such as Adobe's Gain Map Demo App and Greg Benz HDR Soft Proofing Website. Of course this also relies on your own monitor's support. But if you've got an HDR display with +3 stops or more and you start making HDR images it's pretty hard to go back.

 

[Zenon]

Yes... it will be a moving target until it matures more and perhaps standards arrive. Hopefully not to repeat the con job that was HD Ready !!.

I was in a TV showroom before the Football World Cup... I asked the salesman how were TV sales / World Cup promotions... he said ... flat... no one interested in buying tvs.. so maybe streaming on small screens is winning the day. I asked the salesman also was he selling HDR ready Tvs. He did not understand the question. Probably varies by market.

Not for these old eyes. I'm not sure I could go back from my 77" tv. Sure I'm OK with my 27" monitor but I don't watch movies, etc using that. Movie on an iPhone? Maybe if I had those young eyes.