X-Rite ColorMunki Photo for Monitors, Printers and LCD Projectors X-Rite ColorMunki Photo for Monitors, Printers and LCD Projectors

Pros: An absolute must for any professional photographer, or up and coming advanced-amateur. X-Rite once again performs above and beyond expectations in a simple to use device w/ excellent results. Unlimited software seats as long as the computer is owned by the end-user.

Cons: Unfortunately the price is a bit high. This thankfully can be slightly negated by the savings if you're printing on a regular basis- first time accuracy saves money...but then again printers are far from inexpensive.

Other Thoughts: If you're using a newer monitor that has x-contrast you're going to need to disable it at your monitor- otherwise it will throw your brightness and contrast out of wack the moment it goes to calibrate and you'll get poor results. Standard white point is D65, but you might prefer your results in native.

Pros: Good color calibration of monitor if you can get the software package to work.

Cons: Software isn't compatible with windows xp 64 bit even though X-rite says it is. Tech support was less than helpful and kept regurgitating the info posted on their web site. Basically, if you have a problem and it isn't mentioned on X-rites site, your on your own. The install package is 300MB and it had to be downloaded from X-rites site. The install CD only contains a program to download the software. Considering how basic the software is, it shouldn't be 300MB. In my experience it's very poorly written and is the main drawback to this product.

Other Thoughts: The calibrator does a good job once you get the software working. I had to upgrade to Vista 64 bit to get it to work. If X-rite can get their act together and release decent software this will be a good product. Two stars only because the calibrator itself does a good job profiling.

Pros: The Munki is the funk. It is the best monitor/printer profiler that I have ever used. I've used Colorvision's Spyder and Spyder 2 Pro systems and I was never satisfied with the any of the resulting profiles for any of the paper(s) that I used. With the Sypder software, I was continuously tweaking the profiles to get the correct color. That process defeated the purpose of using a color profiling system. In just one profile with the Munki, I was able to get printouts that are extremely close to what I saw on the screen. IMO, the Munki's monitor profile is also better than the Spyder 2 Pro's as well. The before and after test verified it for me. I now have confidence to profile and print on different papers (if I choose) and get the results that I expect; and this is all done using MIS 3rd party ink.

In one word...SWEET

Cons: Not a con, but the cost is not for the casual; but, when compared with the Colorvision system, the cost is on par. Because I print many photos for my small customer base, for me, it's definitely worth the cost. The instruction booklet is basically useless, but it is a quick read and there are several help videos that you can view as you use the product. The videos can help guide you through the monitor and print profiling process.

Other Thoughts: The videos miss a few keys; such as, during the monitor profiling process, there is a sliding latch that you must open. This latch exposes the sensor to the monitor, which takes the readings. I had to repeat the monitor profiling step because the latch was closed during my first monitor profiling attempt. (This could have been my fault, that step may be in the video, but I did not notice it.)

The print profiling process took me about 50 minutes to complete due to my ink needing at least 20 minutes to dry. (You'll make 2 printouts during the process.)

The monitor profiling process took about 10 minutes to complete (due to the closed latch error). Even with that error, both processes worked out much faster than the Colorvision system and is much simpler to use.

Digital Dark Room: Vista Ultimate 64 bit, Dell 2407 monitor, Epson 2200 Stylus printer, MIS Ink.