X-Rite EODIS3 i1Display Pro

List of relevant hardware:

Apple 15.4-inch MacBook Pro MC723LL/A (hi-res antiglare)

Dell 24-inch UltraSharp U2410

Apple LED Cinema Display 27-Inch MC007LL/A

2007 Apple MacBook

I am a software engineer by trade, a photography enthusiast (Canon DSLR with Aperture) and a home video editor (Canon AVCHD with Final Cut Pro) at nights and weekends. I have been using a borrowed Spyder3Pro (S3P for short), which is a reference for this review.

X-Rite is perhaps the largest name in color matching products. It owns PANTONE and makes some of the most respected products. i1 Display Pro (i1D Pro for short) is its latest offering. The hardware is about the size of a memory card reader and smaller than S3P. Unlike S3P, i1D Pro has only the counterweight, lacking suction cups. The counterweight can be moved along the entire cable run. Counterweight is fine for most computer displays, but unusable when calibrating very large HDTV that some people use as a monitor or for HTPC (you will need to hold i1D Pro with your hand over 2 minute calibration run).

All in all, i1D Pro feels substantial and more high-end than S3P. It has a built-in diffuser to measure ambient light and it is capable of calibrating CRT, LCD (CCFL, variations of LED), and even projectors. It has a flare correction feature to compensate for glossy flat screen displays, such as 27" LED Cinema Display.

iD Pro includes i1Profiler software that runs on both Windows (untested) and Mac (tested on 10.7 Lion). Installation was mostly uneventful (and no reboot required), although it did prompt to me update to 1.1.1 (from 1.1.0) and register and activate the product (it otherwise becomes a 30-day trial demo app). The app resembles Apple's Aperture. Coming from S3P and television calibration experiences, I am pretty familiar with the art of display calibration and profiling. So I found the app to be fairly straightforward. Unlike S3P software, i1Profiler can calibrate luminance level as well.

I used advanced mode to calibrate all 4 displays. First, using the app's white patch measurement feature, I set luminance on my displays to as close to 100 cd/m2 as possible (by tinkering with brightness and/or contrast). 100 cd/m2 is below industry's recommended 120-140 range, but I find 120 to be just too darn bright.

The manual and online help are on the inadequate side, so if you are not familiar with profiling, you may want to visit the support section on X-Rite's website to get additional clarification. On the positive side, aside from selecting backlighting type (CCFL and white LED in my case) and luminance level, default recommended values are all good and should be ideal for all but advanced users with discriminating needs.

2 minutes later, I got ICC profiles with better color saturation, more accurate color, more natural whites, and/or deeper black level than S3P (when looking at before and after for various RAW files). The differences are sometimes subtle, but never worse and generally better. Comparing results to Mac OS X's default ICC profiles is much more dramatic, which tends to be very blue with limited color saturation and contrast level. Mac OS X's calibration mode can yield better results than the default, but still dramatically worse than i1D Pro's profiles.

On multi-monitor setup, dragging i1Profiler app from one display to another will let you calibrate other displays. The app can also measure your monitor for uniformity and color accuracy.

That said, the application did crash few times and UI is a bit unrefined here and there. For instance, all important measure button is often hidden, requiring a scroll down. Help icon next to some controls do not reveal any hints of any kind.

A companion piece is i1Profiler Tray, which can run continuously to remind you to recalibrate and uses i1D Pro to adjust for change in ambient light as needed. I am not a fan of ambience compensation, but it does work much better than Apple's built-in feature.

Also included is PANTONE Color Manager software.

I have owned this product for about 2 weeks now and here are my experiences with it. This monitor calibrator is truly fantastic when it comes to its manin purpose calibrating colors on your monitor it is extremely accurate and the process is much faster than any other calibrator I've seen out there. I really enjoy the automatic profile adjustment feature based on the current ambient light conditions, kudos to that.

However, my review is 3 star only because the software is really, really buggy on OS X Lion. In order for the ambient light adjustment to work, there is a small utility called iProfiler that runs in the background. This utility (I've downloaded the latest version from X-Rite web site which is v1.2.0) has a memory leak problem the memory consumption grows from 20 Mb to 800 Mb in less than 24 hrs (monitoring utilizing iStats). I have contacted X-Rite technical support and they are aware of this issue and have recommended turning off this feature. As such I cannot utilize this unit to its full capacity, and I am somewhat disappointed for the premium price I've paid for this product, I would expect a premium quality software.

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I've been using an olde i1 color calibrator for years, and even though the original maker was swallowed by XRite, they have been supporting the no-longer-sold device until now. No joke, XRite sent me an email about upcoming OSX Lion compatibility of that specific software just last week six years after my purchase! So when I had the opportunity to review the current flagship model of a company that takes care of its customers, I jumped on the opportunity.

The device is thoughtfully made: Its big lens is protected by a diffuser which swivels off for measuring and also acts as a stand, and there is protective felt so not to scratch your monitor. Definitely an upgrade from the plasticky feel and clipon protector on my old device! It's a bit odd that the i1Pro goes on the monitor with its narrower edge rather than flat like the others I know of, so you have to make extra sure that it sits flushly. But it's no big deal.

As for documentation: there isn't any, unless you count the little leaflet which tells you to install the software before plugging in the meter. Speaking of the installer, it puts on Pantone software as well by default, without a word about what it does or whether you need it. It's some sort of color management which retails for $40, but not pertinent to monitor calibration. I suppose this is one aspect of a "Pro" package, but at the risk of appearing amateurish, I think a manual if not a tutorial would have been in order at this price point.

There were some additional hurdles to get the software to work on my system: on an WinXP machine (I know, not the newest) it would crash upon PC boot, and I had to consult the FAQ and download two updates from XRite's web site. Also, the generated profiles didn't "take" initially, which caused various uninstalls of drivers, etc. It took me a few hours to sort out that the Intel custom control panel had to go but "XRGamma" had to remain in the Win Startup folder.

The software has an Easy Mode which requires only two things: your monitor's backlight technology (CFL, LED, Wide-Gamut), and your preferred illuminant... yeah, not much help about the latter either, and the default is D65 ("sun at noon") which seemed too blue to me. I eventually went with D55 ("Viewing booth"). The Advanced Mode lets you do more things like ambient light readings, a monitor uniformity test, and flare compensation (for those glossy displays) those may be a little over the top for a hobbyist, but I can see how this would be beneficial in a small graphic outfit, weeding out lemon monitors and calibrate imaging work stations to a tee. The license is quite open to such a use by the way: all it states is that you have to own the monitors.

The process is FAST. My old colorimeter mucked around for at least 15 minutes, but this one is done after two. And I believe it made a much better profile than the old (cheaper) one: pictures look better from the start now, and the color space is larger when viewed at in Microsoft's color applet.

In short, the i1Display Pro works well. The lack of documentation is shameful and the software isn't perfect yet, BUT I think the i1 pro has a serious edge over cheaper colorimeters in speed and accuracy.

Read Best Reviews of X-Rite EODIS3 i1Display Pro Here

I am a part-time professional photographer who shoots only RAW (of course), with custom white balance, and in the Adobe RGB color space. Color is imperative to me all the way through the process even though the majority of clients seem to only view images on computer monitor's these days, which of course is a normally horrible method (consumer end) for viewing quality images. Either way, I do not mind spending money for quality color management. In this regard, I still cannot believe how expensive this item is compared to other proven solutions.

I used this product on a Dell U2410 monitor in the Adobe RGB color space in a dual monitor setup. I found the software a little clunky on a Windows 7 system w/ 16 GB of RAM. It could have had something to do with my pre-existing installation of Datacolor's Spyder 3 color calibration system. The manual leaves much to be desired, but that is an ongoing trend among all manufacturers. The lens on the device is among the biggest I have seen. The increased lens size is becoming standard among all manufacturers these days. The easy mode calibration only requires minimal information to achieve calibration whereas the advanced mode incorporates ambient light, flare adjustment, and some other features most people will never use. I will say that compared to my Datacolor, calibration is lightning fast with this device and dead on in terms of accuracy. Datacolor only yields slightly different results which could be owed to the subjectivity of viewing (we all see color differently by the way).

Is this device necessary and/or is it worth paying for? Well, clearly once you get beyond the point and shoot level of photography, color balance (and white balance) should be priorities. However, most people who do not study a color balanced workflow, will screw up somewhere. One screw up, and your final images could potentially end up worse than when you started (i.e. forgetting to convert from Adobe RGB to SRGB for monitor display). If you decide to go color managed, you are either all in or out; there is no half way. So, if you take the time, color calibration is critical. But, there are cheaper alternatives I would start with. The end difference between this device and a cheaper version (not too cheap) is minimal and barely, if at all, noticed.

Butit is a great color calibrator beyond doubt.

PSBefore installing or using this device DISABLE ALL COLOR MANAGEMENT applications including any System controls such as Intel color management. Also, visit the X-rite website for latest software release and update your graphics card driver if you don't already do that on a regular basis. I would also do a system reboot.

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I'm a professional HDTV calibrator with over $20,000 invested in equipment and training so I was a bit skeptical that this relatively inexpensive device would do the job. While it can't compare to the absolute accuracy of my professional equipment it's certainly a viable alternative for the DIY home theater enthusiast and a far better solution than using a calibration DVD to adjust your new HDTV to deliver optimum video performance. It's relatively easy to use and the results are a definite and substantial improvement compared to how most displays come adjusted (or not adjusted as is often the case) from the factory. So, if you don't want to spend the $$$ to hire a professional this Xrite unit is the next best thing and you can use it to "tune up" every display in your house. A good investment for anyone who wants better pictures.

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