Calibrate a MacBook Pro?

[walter.sk]

A friend of mine asked about the best way for her to calibrate the display on her 13" MacBook Pro, on which she does her photo work in Light Room.

Coming from the PC universe I am not familiar with the ins and outs of the Mac world, but I told her in general of the problems with using a laptop for photo work:  difficulty setting the brightness level, the variability caused by inconsistent viewing angles, and the issues of a small display.  I suggested getting a desktop display to plug in to, but I also said I would inquire here as to whether anybody has had success calibrating/profiling a Mac Book Pro.  Also, what would be the least expensive way to get decent results?  (The range of devices available for display calibration only, such as EyeOne Display 2, Spider, ColorMunki Display, etc.)

[jonathanlung]

I use a second gen MacBook Air whose colours shift significantly with small changes to viewing angle and only has a 6-bit display, but I use the built-in display calibration tool in the System Preferences->Display->Color panel for free colour calibration. I have never received a huge surprise when getting prints back from the lab but, then again, I'm probably less picky than many of the people around here. I don't mean that with any disrespect, of course — I'm just not at the level of skill where colour accuracy is a major concern, yet. Actually, I *was* hugely surprised that, in natural light (I don't have any high CRI lamps), the colours turned out as expected. I was expecting some problems because of the poor quality of my monitor!

Edit: I wish it were easier to calibrate each colour channel separately but free is free!
Second edit: I totally forgot about the shareware SuperCal! But the built-in calibration tool will do in a pickle and is much faster.

[Fips]

I have calibrated my MBP using a Gretag McBeth i1, now sold by X-Rite under its brand name. Works very well and takes only about 5 minutes. While with the stock configuration the display looked nice, I found the gamma value, temperature und general color rendition to be far from being perfect. "Calibration" by eye with the tool provided by Apple improved the situation a bit but using a colorimeter leads to far better results. However, I feel that the MBP Display (at least the one on my 2008 unibody) is not as good generally though.
Since modern LED lit displays don't require calibration as often as the old CRTs, it might suffice for your friend to just borrow a colorimeter once to do the calibration.

[kikashi]

I used a Huey on my MacBook Pro (which is nearly 5 years old). It improved the display very significantly. I re-do it very seldom and usually to very little effect.

Jeremy

[Ellis Vener]

A friend of mine asked about the best way for her to calibrate the display on her 13" MacBook Pro, on which she does her photo work in Light Room.

Coming from the PC universe I am not familiar with the ins and outs of the Mac world, but I told her in general of the problems with using a laptop for photo work:  difficulty setting the brightness level, the variability caused by inconsistent viewing angles, and the issues of a small display.  I suggested getting a desktop display to plug in to, but I also said I would inquire here as to whether anybody has had success calibrating/profiling a Mac Book Pro.  Also, what would be the least expensive way to get decent results?  (The range of devices available for display calibration only, such as EyeOne Display 2, Spider, ColorMunki Display, etc.)

Currentl ythe best buy on the market is the ColorMunki Display colorimeter and software kit. If you have several displays, the Xrite i1 Diplay Pro is the way to go.

The Spyder 3 canbe quite good , but professional color management people I respect (Scott Martin; Ethan of Dry Creek.com) have both reported unit to unit variability. Since these guys sees dozens if not more sets up at various clients every year I am inclined to take their words for that.

For the recent generations of   Mac Books, iMacs, and Apple Cinema Displays which use White LED instead of the older CFFL (sp?)  backlighting technology , skip the i1 Display 2 / Spyder 2/ Huey  generation of colorimeters.

I use the i1 Display Pro fro displays and an i1 Photo Pro kit for profiling printer/paper combinations.

[langier]

If your friend has the $$, get a desktop monitor and the Colormunki. The increase in screen real estate will more than pay for the expense in efficiency and if she simply keeps the desktop monitor calibrated and locked-in, there won't be problems with color as I've found in working on my MacBook in the field. I find that I'm constantly changing the brightness as I switch location which puts you out of calibration in short order. Having to drag the puck and recalibrate in the field isn't my idea of having fun!

Best bet is a dedicated monitor in a stationary location and keep it profiled and calibrated regularly.

[walter.sk]

After reading these responses, I agree that the best be is a desktop monitor and a Colormunki to profile her display and printer.