17 out of 17 people found this review helpful.
Very useful little gadget!
Date of Review: Sep 29, 2006
The Bottom Line: Beware profiles that are too warm though visually pleasing, expect problems with some laptops.
Update!!! As an update, I have decided to return this item. Why? While I thought my monitor calibrations were beautiful other than on my iBook, I started looking at some prints from calibrated labs using ICC profiling. I looked at prints from Costco and MPix, both created using Photoshop's convert to profile and previewed with soft proofing. Guess what I found?
The colors were consistently a CLOSER match to the monitor using profiles made by the Apple ColorSync utility than to the profiles made using the Huey. Subjectively, the results from the Huey LOOKED better. But the reality was that they were inferior profiles where it counts - color matching. The Huey profiles were all really warm and LOOKED GOOD. But they were wrong! And that's what counts.
I'm assuming my unit is defective and I've returned it as such. Other units may not have this issue, but buyer beware. And also be warned, just because your profiles LOOK NICE, make sure they're actually RIGHT by comparing them to prints you know should be right :)
original review follows Pantone Huey... the little color calibrator that could!
Huey? What on EARTH is a Huey? Obivously a play on the term hue, the Pantone Huey is the smallest, and one of the two cheapest colorimeters + software packages on the market today. The ColorVision Spyder2Express is the other super-cheap ($70ish) package on the market.
AHHH!!!! I'm lost... I mustn't need one of these doohickeies! Oh how wrong you are, how wrong you are. Have you ever had a print that doesn't match your monitor? Almost certainly! Every computer device in the world reproduces color in a different and unique way using entirely different models. Your monitor uses additive mixing where it adds together different colors of light (red, green, and blue) while your printer uses pigments that absorb light (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black pigments). It's almost a miracle these devices could possibly match! And of course, they usually don't. So how can we make them match?
Color management... the answer to all your problems. To make this seemingly impossible feat happen, every device has display color in a similar way or know how to change colors if it doesn't. Windows has very limited color management that is well beyond the level of most users. Adobe Photoshop on Windows adds some additional color management to help, but it's beyond most users. Mac users traditionally get far better color matches, because the entire system has built in and automatic color matching. But they still need to know what things look like.
How to let color management know how things look? Ideally, you'll do two things - you'll get your monitor as close to "normal" as possible so files that AREN'T color managed (most of the web and lower-end photo editing software, and more) look decent and you'll also tell your printer EXACTLY what things looked like to you. Seem hard? Seem expensive? It was...
Enter Pantone Huey The Pantone Huey by Gretag-Macbeth (well respected names in color) sits on your screen for about a minute measuring a test pattern. It then adjusts the monitor as close to the standards as possible and writes a file (an ICC profile) to tell printers and Photoshop EXACTLY what things look like to you. With a couple mouse clicks and almost no knowledge. If left connected, it will also attempt lightening the screen to compensate for room lighting.
OK already, does the thing work? YES, with a minor reservation. Testing on a variety of Mac and Windows systems, it got the monitor color darn close to right on the first go. Things weren't so fortunate on the computer I bought it for. An http://www.learningcenter.sony.us/assets/itpd/mylo/prod/index.html. On my iBook I either got WAY WAY too red or WAY WAY too green (depending on if it was right side up or upside down). I fought with it for hours. I finally figured it must be pressure under it or angle or something. I attempted calibration at an angle. Ta-da! Placing the sensor at about a 45 degree angle top-left to bottom right results in a profile that looks great and seems far better than a ColorSync software profile. I'm not sure if I should blame Huey or the iBook's LCD. Something wierd is going on here. I'll still use my
LG L-1520B for colour-critical work - the calibrated first-time result on it is near PERFECT with a much better color gamut than the ibook is capable of (12" iBooks have very muted colors).
Conclusion The Pantone/Gretag-Macbeth Huey represents a fantastic value for the money, but it had real issues with my iBook's LCD causing me to suggest possibly considering the (less featured software-wise) Spyder2Express. Research both products before you buy. But still the Huey is cute, small, fun and functional - and the ambient light correction could be a nice added bonus. Happy color correcting!
Adorama
