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View Full Version : Pantone Huey - You Have No Idea What You're Missing


Jeremy Charette
09-24-2007, 04:00 PM
<img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/Pantone_Huey_Charette_Main.JPG" /> <br /><br /><i>Image 1: New monitor, new toy. The Pantone Huey sits there quiety, making sure that what you see is what you get.</i><br /><br />Last weekend I finally replaced my dying 17" LCD monitor, with a 22" widescreen Acer LCD. Let me tell you, I should have done it ALOT sooner. This new Acer is so much bigger, brighter, and more colorful, I had no idea how bad the old one was until I replaced it. Out of the box the Acer was too bright, and the contrast was too high. On top of that, everything had a blue tint, with a hint of green. The toolbars in Internet Explorer and iTunes had a steel blue color to them, when they should have been neutral grey. Pure white looked like it had a hint of robin egg blue. I played with the manual adjustments myself, and while it looked better than it did out of the box, I still wasn't very happy.<br /><br />So I went down to J&amp;R here in New York City, and picked up a Pantone Huey <a href="http://thoughtsmedia.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=16193740/search=pantone%20huey">[Low Price Search]</a>. It was a toss-up between the Huey and ColorVision's Spyder2Express. The reviews I've read rate them pretty evenly, with very few real differences between the two. Supposedly the Spyder2 sensor is "better" than the Huey, but the Huey gives nearly identical results, and the Huey software has a few more options than the Spyder2Express. In the end though, I only had one choice, as J&amp;R was out of the Spyder2Express. <!> <br /><br />I raced home, ripped open the box, installed the software (I had to download an updated Vista-compatible version from Pantone's website), plugged in the Huey, and followed the onscreen instructions to calibrate my new Acer monitor. Just about the easiest user experience I've ever had. Less than 60 seconds later and WOW. Just, wow. The before and after was shocking.<br /><br /> <img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/Pantone_Huey_Charette_Before.JPG" /> <br /><br /><i>Image 2: The before shot. Out of the box, default settings. iTunes menus had a distinctly blueish tint to them, and blacks are slightly washed out.</i><br /><br /> <img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/Pantone_Huey_Charette_After.JPG" /> <br /><br /><i>Image 3: The after shot. As you can see, the blue cast is gone, greys are much more natural, and the contrast is spot on.</i><br /><br />The above shots were taken with my digital camera. I fixed the white balance (rather than using the "auto" setting which may have tainted the results), and left the EV value at 0.0. Other than resizing, these images are un-retouched.<br /><br />To my eyes the brightness, color, and contrast are perfect. Greys are now totally neutral (no tone to them whatsoever), and flesh tones look completely natural. Contrast is very linear, and I can see more details in dark blacks and near-whites than I ever could before. This is how every monitor <i>should</i> look.<br /><br />The Huey also has a built-in light sensor, and can adjust for ambient lighting conditions at set intervals (the default is every minute), to ensure that the image onscreen looks the same regardless of how many lights you have on, or what time of day it is.<br /><br />The benefits to having a calibrated monitor go beyond what you see on-screen. If you order prints, what you get back will match what you see on your monitor much more closely. Nearly every print house uses calibrated equipment. In addition, most major printer manufacturers use calibrated color profiles with their printers. No more wasted paper or unusable prints.<br /><br />When I get a second monitor sometime in the next few months, I'll drop the $40 for the Huey Pro upgrade. You get an expanded set of test patches for even better accuracy, and support for multiple monitors, so all of your monitors will look the same.<br /><br />To sum up: buy it. You'll have no idea what you're missing until you see the results. This may be the best money you spend on technology all year.<br /><br /><i>Jeremy Charette is a Contributing Editor at Digital Media Thoughts, and also works in Procurement for one of the world’s largest banks. He enjoys reading, cooking, and racing in the SpecForza league. He lives in Brooklyn, NY, USA. He's going to be really tired on Tuesday after the Halo 3 launch.</i>

Jeremy Charette
09-24-2007, 07:43 PM
I just can't say enough good things about this product.

What really struck me today is how much TIME it is saving me. Sixty seconds, and my monitor is perfect. No fiddling with the brightness, adjusting the contrast, playing with the color balance. It's just...perfect. When the lights dim in the evening, or the sun is shining full blast through the windows, it automatically adjusts.

And no matter how much time I would have spent fiddling with the manual controls, it never would have looked this good.

Jason, you need one of these. You'll be amazed how much better those 24" Dells look.

jeffd
09-24-2007, 08:05 PM
hmmm... I dunno..i think for $70...i can spend the extra time and do my own calibrations. ;) This is great if you were getting paid for it (Imagin being a mobile computer repair person and leaving all your pc's with a recalibrated screen.) but alas, I don't go through that many monitors.

Jeremy Charette
09-24-2007, 08:22 PM
I dunno Jeff, I used to think the same thing. But I finally got fed up with tweaking the settings and never having it be "quite" right. This is so simple, so easy, and so perfect...my only regret is that I didn't get one sooner.

I was flipping through some photo albums in Picasa last night, and was amazed at how much better many of my older pictures looked. Great color and contrast that I never saw before.

To me, well worth the money. Your mileage may vary.

Tim Williamson
09-24-2007, 08:39 PM
Have you had a chance to try this on one of those old-fashioned CRT monitors (I still use a 19" Viewsonic :oops: )? And do you have to leave the unit plugged-in? Or could I calibrate my Laptop screen with the typical ambient lighting, then use the device with my PC as its permanent home?

Jeremy Charette
09-24-2007, 08:58 PM
According to all the documentation and the other reviews I've read, it works just fine on CRT monitors as well.

If you unplug it the calibration settings stay intact. You just won't be able to auto-adjust for ambient lighting conditions. You will need to have a tiny app running in the toolbar however.

Damion Chaplin
09-24-2007, 09:00 PM
Jason, you need one of these. You'll be amazed how much better those 24" Dells look.

I'm not so sure about that. I have the 24" Dell (an older model than Jason's) and I've never had a problem with the calibration, aside from in my graphics programs, which was just a matter of telling them which profile to use. Beyond that, the 24" Dell really was plug-and-play...

Even as a graphic artist, I just can't justify $70 for such an incrimental difference...

Jeremy Charette
09-24-2007, 09:24 PM
Damion, I said the same thing. Then I saw the difference the Huey made. I'm sold. I suspect you would be too.

No, it's not a HUGE difference, but it does look far superior. The photos above really don't do it justice, but they do give you some idea of the kind of improvement you're likely to see.

Jason Dunn
09-24-2007, 09:31 PM
Jason, you need one of these. You'll be amazed how much better those 24" Dells look.

I've got a Spyder2 Pro calibration system, which I've done on this monitor - and it did make a huge difference. Their software SUCKS however - it's not Vista-compatible - so who knows, I might switch...

Jeremy Charette
09-24-2007, 09:35 PM
I've got a Spyder2 Pro calibration system, which I've done on this monitor - and it did make a huge difference.

So I'm sold, and Jason is sold.

I wonder why monitor calibration is such a hard sell? Is it the cost? Unfortunately, this really is one of those "you don't know what you're missing" products. Once you use it, you'll never go back.

Jason Dunn
09-24-2007, 09:56 PM
I'm not so sure about that. I have the 24" Dell (an older model than Jason's) and I've never had a problem with the calibration

Well, that funny thing about calibration is that you never see the difference between calibrated and non calibrated until you calibrate. The difference between my Dell 24" calibrated and non-calibrated is quite significant.

I don't quite understand the objections to be honest, $70 is pretty reasonable for something you'll keep for years and can use with multiple monitors (you don't have to leave the Huey plugged in).

Damion Chaplin
09-24-2007, 11:07 PM
I wonder why monitor calibration is such a hard sell? Is it the cost? Unfortunately, this really is one of those "you don't know what you're missing" products. Once you use it, you'll never go back.

I don't really have an objection to it, per se.

The reason why monitor calibration is such a hard sell is not because of price, it's because we just don't see anything wrong with our monitors not being calibrated. I mean, if I got a lot of photos back that were different hues than what I saw on the screen, that would be one thing. But I just don't. Every print I make looks just like it does on the screen already. So when you take that into account, spending $70 on a (what appears to be) superfluous product is not something I can justify.

Who knows, maybe I got lucky and already have a decently-calibrated monitor. Techno-synchronicity happen sometimes...

jeffd
09-24-2007, 11:13 PM
I don't quite understand the objections to be honest, $70 is pretty reasonable for something you'll keep for years and can use with multiple monitors (you don't have to leave the Huey plugged in).

You say that after complaining your spyder2pro lacks vista support. ;)

Lee Yuan Sheng
09-24-2007, 11:14 PM
*ahem*

Colour calibration is a must in every serious digital workflow. Without it you cannot expect to have reliable results when editing. In fact you might as well not edit. Even something as basic as Adobe Gamma helps.

The problem has nothing to do with the monitor being new or not. New monitors need not be calibrated properly, in fact I've seen some which were quite off in terms of accuracy.


Posted waaaaaaaaay back. I see I got smacked by Jason over it, but I still stand by it. If you are doing serious work (or are serious about your hobby), a calibrated workflow is a must.

Damion Chaplin
09-24-2007, 11:54 PM
Jason probably blasted you for the same reason I'm about to:

Claiming that I'm not serious about my work because I don't have a calibrated workflow is just a load of crap.

Again, if I had ANY indication that my calibration was off in the first place, I might feel the need for such an object. Since I have never calibrated my monitor, we can assume my calibration is off. However, since it's not something I or anyone else has ever noticed, and that includes the stuff I receive back from printing presses, it's a real hard argument to convince me that I need such an item.

You saying I have to have one or I'm not serious about my work is like me saying you shouldn't have one because I'm serious about my work and I've never seen the need for it.

Definitely a case of different strokes for different folks...

bmhome1
09-25-2007, 04:49 AM
Color calibration and color profiling has entire books written on the subject. One can spend $1,200 for a color screen calibrator. Do those users look down on the Huey? Of course they do.

The problems begin when prints DON'T match the calibrated screen. Then blame shifts to finding who's right and what's at fault. The chain can grow deeper and deeper chasing intertwined factors until you find yourself editing onscreen in dark room painted dark grey and wearing black shroud.

NOTHING matters except happy holding print next to image onscreen feeling to YOU they match. Not 30 prints later, just direct out of printer 1st one. Then have retail shop make print without special instructions and see how they match. Then realize inherent limitations ever getting screens and prints only so far.

You just might find yourself mentally compensating tones editing images onscreen learning the trends. Some have born instincts, some never can ever make choices obvious to others. A perfect print can look horrible getting refreshed a few hours later. Read Ansel Adams tribulations diary books how elusive decisions become.

You MIGHT have to calibrate a screen getting satisfaction, but not necessarily. It's a topic with absolutes clearer before you knew better.

Jeremy Charette
09-25-2007, 06:10 AM
Indeed, color calibration and profiling can be taken to a ridiculous (and unrealistic) extreme. As far as the accuracy of the Huey vs. its more expensive competitors, I found an interesting comparison on DPNow.com. The Huey followed the standard sRGB color space more closely than either the Spyder2 Express or Pro, and even beat out the GretagMacbeth Eye-One Pro spectrophotometer, which runs $2800.

http://dpnow.com/2597.html

Spend more money if you want, but for an MSRP of $79, that's a heck of a bargain in my book. I'm not working in a dark room with 20% grey walls and 6500k lights, but I can clearly see a difference with the Huey vs. without. Can you "train" your eye to accomodate for slight differences between your monitor and prints? Sure. But why bother? Why not have all of your displays match? Why not have your printed results closely match what you see on the screen the 1st or 2nd try? I'd rather spend the $70 and take the easy route, thankyouverymuch.

Crocuta
09-27-2007, 05:46 AM
Well, you convinced me. I'll give it a try.

Jeremy Charette
09-27-2007, 06:59 AM
Let me know what you think. I'm really interested to hear other peoples' opinions. So far color calibration is 2 for 2, with Jason and myself.

Seems like the only people who are poo-pooing calibration are the ones who haven't done it yet.

Tom W.M.
09-27-2007, 07:10 AM
I set one of these up several months ago for a friend. I second the description of the software--it was so simple and direct that it left me with a "why was I needed to do this" feeling.

I really need to get a calibration device, myself. My dual monitors have noticeably different color from each other (that they're cheap monitors doesn't help). And, to my eyes, my new laptop has rather desaturated color. The only reason that I haven't gotten one of these yet is that I'm a poor college student.

Jeremy Charette
09-27-2007, 08:25 PM
And just for the record, I'm STILL tired from the Halo 3 launch. Finished the campaign on normal and I've been playing the heck out of multiplayer.

I must be nuts. I bought the Limited AND Legendary (aka "Cat Helmet") Editions. If you really want a Legendary, go to the store and buy it. I hadn't even pre-ordered it, and there were over a dozen at my local Best Buy right on the shelf.

bmhome1
09-28-2007, 12:29 PM
My "poo poo" comments were based on having first Spyder Color puck and $800 color profile editing software back in 2002. AGAIN, when your prints no longer even are remotely close AFTER calibration screening, the real fun begins. Trust me, it's a moving target. There just might be 30 year pro photographers bothering to deepen discussion besides trolls to dismiss. I've forgotten more about anything you can ever learn on arena. I'll continue, dropping sophomoric reactions.

Roosterman
09-29-2007, 04:54 PM
I just can't say enough good things about this product.


Looks like you and I have the same monitor. I also noticed it seems a bit bluish. Think I'll order one of these myself. Thanks for pointing it out. :D

Roosterman
11-03-2007, 03:32 PM
I got my own Pantone huey and have to agree that it is amazing. My color was so far off, I didn't at first like the adjusted look. Huey gives you the opportunity to switch back and forth between the fixed and unfixed. I was so used to the unfixed look, the fixed look horrible. I decided to leave it and see if I got used to it. I would change back and forth and started to look at the details and the color representation. There is no doubt the fixed is much more real in appearance. Great buy and product! :D