Colormunki Display vs i1 display pro

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  • #11956

    GoldenSW
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    Hello, I’ve read that in terms of calibration quality they are the same and the price difference is justified only by the sensor’s better speed and software. If I’ll use displaycal, does that mean the only difference will be the speed of the calibration? What about the difference of lifespan between the two?

    #11958

    The lifespan should be equivalent – unless silvery exterior branding panels slower or faster than black ones – although the warranty may differ (perhaps depending on where you buy it).

    As for speed – “up to 5x faster” may be deceptive. The firmware limit on sensor readings only applies if the sensor can actually take a reading in that time. The slowest readings are for the lowest light levels; those may take the same time on both. Florian estimates that the ColorMunki is roughly 70% of the speed – that is, the i1 Display Pro is ~40-45% faster at taking readings. Personally I found the CPU side of profile and look-up table creation takes the longest, even manually taking 175 readings. (Of course this is on an anemic laptop.)

    If you plan on using DisplayCAL and other open-source software, and you’re not a professional calibrator for who time is money, I’d say save your money and go with the ColorMunki Display – but I guess it depends on how much you value your time as well (considering you may be able to do other things while it’s churning away anyway).

    Of course, how much money may vary, too – for some reason it seems significantly cheaper in the UK than the USA right now.

    Calibrite Display Pro HL on Amazon  
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    #11980

    DarthFader
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    Are both of those Spectormeters?

    What useable life do Coloriometers like Xrite i1Display2 have, some say just a few years before the filters lose it?

    #11988

    Florian Höch
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    Are both of those Spectormeters?

    No, they are both colorimeters.

    What useable life do Coloriometers like Xrite i1Display2 have, some say just a few years before the filters lose it?

    There’s not much if anything in terms of statistical data on this topic. Almost all consumer colorimeters use some type of organic dye based filters, which degrade over time, which in turn depends on exposure to dust, humidity and temperature changes. You can probably extract a useful lifespan of very roughly three to five years out of such a device, while glass-based filters and/or sealed designs (where the filters are behind a lens or otherwise not directly exposed) can have a useful lifespan that is expected to be considerably longer than that.

    #11990

    They are both colorimeters (that work kinda like the human eye, detecting very specific frequencies of light and then determining the overall colour from that), not spectrometers (which detect varying frequencies within a range). If you want a spectrometer-style device, consider the ColorMunki Photo/Design or i1Photo Pro 2. But you probably don’t want one if you just want to profile displays.

    As a metaphor: if you want to take someone’s temperature, you generally want a thermometer, not a thermal imaging camera. The latter may be cool, but it is also several times more expensive; and it may not be the most accurate tool for the specific job you want it to do, even if it can also do several other things you don’t care about.

    An X-Rite product engineer said as much (just prior to the initial release of these devices):

    The signal-to-noise ratio of the final XYZ values will be much higher for the colorimeter due to its increased sensor surface area, and the total amount of energy being measured per sensor. Unless you need to measure the color of a laser, a colorimeter will almost always provide a better measurement for much less money.

    Thermometers also tend to be simpler devices – hence, less to go wrong. As you can see in this teardown (don’t do this at home), there’s not a huge amount to go wrong. The more flexible devices have flex cables that can break – they’re also bulkier, with more parts.

    Nothing lasts for ever, but you should expect to get several years out of one – as I see Florian just noted. There is a minimum one year limited warranty noted in for the Display, but in the UK I’ve seen it sold on websites as two, and you may be able to argue for a replacement after that if it is due to a manufacturing defect or design flaw. Perhaps divide the cost by three or five to give an annual cost of calibration. Bear in mind these products have been sold for around twice that time – there haven’t been mass reports of failures.

    If you’re concerned about getting an old one, check the date on the back of the weight when you get it. I bought a ColorMunki Display one off Amazon recently and got 11/2017 rev B-02. (The box may say 11/2010; presumably that’s the last time they changed its design. The firmware is from 2014. They don’t seem to change much, probably because they have the design pretty much down by now.)

    #11994

    DarthFader
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    Thanks for the informative replies guys, I’m assuming as a colorimeter ages and the filters fade it may still  meter the greyscale info correctly but start to loose color balance accuracy or is that not how it works?

    I noticed my old i1Display2 still gets the gamma and brightness/black levels correct(hope I’m getting those terms correct – I’m referring to the parts that determine brightness and shadow detail in an image) but the whitepoint accuracy seems to be a bit off.

    #11998

    Florian Höch
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    Nothing lasts for ever, but you should expect to get several years out of one – as I see Florian just noted.

    Just to clarify, the i1D3 line of instruments (ColorMunki Display/i1 Display Pro) are a sealed design, and also have glass-based filters. Their lifespan should thus (considerably) exceed the rough estimate I would assume for other consumer grade colorimeters (i1Display1/2, Huey, Spyders).

    I’m assuming as a colorimeter ages and the filters fade it may still meter the greyscale info correctly but start to loose color balance accuracy or is that not how it works?

    When the filters fade or otherwise degrade, you’ll most likely notice that the measured color gamut of a display seems to shrink, there may be side-effects like an overall color cast (which happens when the filters don’t degrade uniformly), which is also why whitepoint and overall color accuracy suffer. I just tested my old i1Display2 from 2004, and while it does produce measurements that at least somewhat still resemble the actual display response in terms of color gamut, it’s a basically useless device for profiling now (I haven’t really used it since I got my i1 Display Pro in 2012).

    #11999

    DarthFader
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    Thanks Florian

    #23495

    S Simeonov
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    In terms of speed how much exactly faster is i1 Display Pro vs colormunki display. My question is for windows calibration and madvr 3d lut.

    #23760

    Florian Höch
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    On average very roughly 30% faster.

    #23762

    S Simeonov
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    On average very roughly 30% faster.

    Thanks, Florian.

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