I just bought an LG 22" LCD widescreen monitor. I have to say I think its great to use. I have played around for ages with various calibration pages on the internet and with the inbuilt software. I had a 20" Sony Trinitron which gave up the ghost but I was surprised how bright this new monitor was in the default settings. I now have the brightness at 30% for all photo use and I think it may still be a bit bright. I wonder if a Spyder or Huey would help in this situation. I notice that the black in the Gretag Macbeth chart is not deep black but on the screen other item are a rich full black. Am I misinterpreting what the chart is about.

Andy has been very helpful with advice, but I now find I have a further problem.
When printing from my PC the colour is not replicated on my printer. I understand the spider2 suite will calibrate my monitor, but unfortunately my printer - an Epson stylus photo 1400 -is not supported by the spyder software. This means that I cannot then set my printer to the monitor calibration.
Unless monitor and printer are in harmony, there is nothing to be gained by just fixing one part of the problem.
Bear in mind that I am a computer illiterate (tell me which button to press and I am happy) does anyone have any advice as to how I may solve my problem??
Thank you..Barry

I'd say no, you aren't misinterpreting what the chart is all about. I bought a flat panel monitor for a 2nd PC and found its colour reproduction was hugely improved by using a monitor calibration device. It made a difference, though not a massive one, when I used the calibrator on my CRT, but the difference it made to the LCD screen was very appreciable. A work colleague bought a Huey Pro (or to be more accurate, bought the software upgrade to "Pro" from the Huey basic he already had) and was astonished by the difference it made to his 2 screen setup. He'd never been able to get the two monitors looking the same up until then. The basic Huey doesn't allow for 2 profile/2 screens on a single PC.

You can find my reviews of both the monitor and the calibrator in the equipment reviews sub-forum.

Duncan

Now confused
 

I have downloaded the WDC test chart from AP website. In Explorer (unmanaged) and Lightroom (managed) the blacks are really black I can see separate tones from 3 (99%) onwards, so why does the images I see of the Gretag Macbeth chart show muddy black in the darkest square wherever I see it. What am I missing. There is virtually no colour cast in the greys. This is the chart. http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/downloads/

Looks to me as though you need to calibrate your monitor before you try to assess the various colours, tones and shades from charts! Try using the small monitor calibration program called QuickGamma, it's free to use as long as you like. It makes a very good job of keeping your monitor calibration in spec. Log on to Norman Koren web site here http://www.normankoren.com/index.html . Download the program and read the help file, it's full of good tips and links to setting up your monitor and printer, here's the download link. http://www.normankoren.com/QuickGammaV2EN.exe.

nirofo.

I have sussed the problem. I was looking at poor reproductions of the GM chart. I have calibrated my monitor using Quick Gamma already. I am now getting prints which look like the screen and and a screen that is a delight to look at. I think it is easy to become obsessed with this topic, I know I did. I do not have to make scientific colour comparisons, I just want my screen to look good to me and the prints to be close to this image. I think I got led astray by the difference between CRT and LCD monitors. My old monitor an excellent Ilyama Pro 17" is not as bright at full brightness as my new LG 22". I also had a Sony 20" which was getting on a bit and finally quit. I now have my monitor set at 25% brightness and get good black and near black separation.

Anyone any ideas why my Huey pro isn't recognized anymore. I have it set to remind me once a fortnight to calibrate and when I went to do it today, it keeps asking me to plug the sensor in. I have tried it on two other computers and it won't work on those either, do you think the sensor has died, I wouldn't be surprised if it had the wiring is so flimsy..

Have you checked that your USB connections are still working, if they are try re-installing the software. I use a Spyder 2 Pro, if I plug in the sensor before I run the program it says it can't find sensor attached to this computer. I then have to unplug the sensor, close down the program, restart the program which then can't find the sensor, plug in the sensor and it finds it! Weird, but that's USB and Microsoft for you. Incidentally, which version of Windows are you using?

nirofo.

I think I have tried everything even doing a restore to the last time it was working, I thinks its dead. I will try emailing pantone to see if I can purchase just the sensor.

Has anyone any input on the spider 3 pro, will it calibrated dual monitors the same as the Huey. Doing a restore has set both my monitors back to default setting and the colours are crap so need to sort something out soon.
I have found the Spider 3 Pro at roughly the same price as Huey and it looks more robust.