On several forums that I read regularly (photo.net for one) I notice that people are using and recommending inexpensive monitors. They also don't mention anything about calibration. One guy in the photo club I belong to told me he bought two (don't remember the brand) monitors for around $249 each and he is happy with them. I have seen his images on our photo club's website and they look great. He has lots of equipment for lighting and numerous lens and seems very knowledgeable about cameras. I haven't seen any of his prints. I wonder why some people are happy with inexpensive monitors? I have a MacBook Pro laptop and of course it's too bright. When I make any adjustments in PS, they print out too dark on my Canon printer. I attached a ViewSonic monitor and calibrated it. It won't stay calibrated. Maybe I'm having problems because of the MacBook Pro. One lady in my photo club even told me that there was something wrong with my printer and I should by a new one. Now I am confused about what is going on after hearing other people using low end or nongraphic monitors. A salesman at the Apple store says he works at a graphics company and they don't calibrate their Mac monitors. Uh? So after much consternation (not wanting to spend $1,000 and do I really need this, can't I just get by with a cheapo), I bought the NEC PA241 with Spectraview and puck from B&H; a lot more bucks than $249! When I calibrate it, the screen still seems bright to me whenever the background is white. I have it plugged in to my MacBook Pro. Is anyone familiar with Spectraview II? Is there a way to verify what the current profile is to see if it has changed from what I set the targets when I last profiled it? I have printed some photos after softproofing them. I was surprise that I had to tweak them in softproofing because the colors looked muted in one image and in another the colors changed. I just want to make sure that this expensive monitor is working properly.