Yes. I'm using a digital connector, DVI. That's what I should be using, right?, to take advantage of the display? I have the option to use a VGA connection, but I assumed DVI = better. I have also read postings from other Mac users that the contrast control is dimmed for them too. So I don't think it's a problem with this specific device.
Could you describe/measure its uncalibrated Luminance?
Is it 250 Cd/m2? 400 cd/m2? What?
The Optical info report says uncalibrated white was 217. The calibrated white is 216. Uncalibrated black was .4 and calibrated black is .34. Doesn't mention what the units of measure are.
If I reset the display to factory defaults and profile, it is substantially brighter than when I launch Optical. Once Optical is running, the screen gets darker and contrastier. So Optical is doing something even before I click the "calibrate" button. I assume it's imposing the settings I selected for white point and gamma?
the easiest trick to distinguish the two in most cases is to lower the control while the on-screen menu is up; if the whole screen, on-screen menu and all, darkens, its probably a backlight control.
This seem important to be get right to avoid throwing away visual bandwidth or whatever one would call it. I suppose I could call Dell and ask, but for now if the key is whether or not the OSD dims and brightens too, mine does, so I'll assume it's a backlight control. So I gather that's a good thing in that I can dim the display without eating into the 256 levels per channel in the video card? Do I have that right?
The Spyder/PreCal manual says that LCDs can be anywhere from 150 to 300 luminance, and the Optical instructions says that the suggested white luminance should end up around 200. So at 216, I wasn't too far off. It's just that the darker tones were too dark in photos I was familiar with.
Based upon CDTobie's and other's recommendations, here's what I'm thinking I should try next:
- dim brightness buttons to lowest level and brighten my workspace some
- use 'normal' sRGB preset and don't fool with PreCal or the individual RGB sliders for now (and if I later decide to try it, don't use the individual RGB sliders to dim the display)
- Set Optical for native whitespace and 2.2 gamma
Will try that when I get back to the office this evening.
One other question, where does one get test files to view onscreen. I have the one that came with Optical, the PDI test image. At the calibration I tried last night, I couldn't distinguish between dark grays on the Kodak grayscale test strip past #13. But I don't have any instructions that says how may of those steps I should be able to see distinctly. Is there an online source for test files with guidelines about what I should be seeing on a properly calibrated display?
Thanks again for your suggestions...
Doug
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Doug Brightwell
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