[Leica] RE: Monitor brightness issues

[oliverbryk at comcast.net (Oliver Bryk)]

Hoppy wrote:
"Oliver, I'm not familiar with that Nokia calibration you mention for your
monitor.
Is it a hardware based system or something where you make a subjective
judgement by looking at patches on your screen? Can you set colour
temperature (6500K) contrast brightness accurately?  
A Spyder or similar colorimeter system is not too expensive and yields good
results.
Given the age of your monitor its contrast and other performance could
perhaps be deteriorating.
Just like TVs they gradually go downhill.
It would be helpful if you had a friend or colleague with a calibrated
system where you could compare. Or of course if you could borrow a
colorimeter to see where your settings are.
The sRGB colour space will give you the best start for how the image will
likely appear on other folks (calibrated) monitors. I don't suggest using it
over AdobeRGB if the intent is to print.
On a good monitor the same image in the two colour spaces is chalk and
cheese though. That is the colour can be much more muted with the sRGB. But
you should see it as others will. Theoretically!
The whole area of colour spaces is quite a big one with endless web pages
and print pages out there.
Adobe has reasonable notes on-line and there a number of dedicated books.
Just occasionally all of these experts agree on the odd point. 
Good luck with your quest."
Many thanks for your suggestions. By a stroke of good luck a photographer
friend has offered to lend me his Gretag/Macbeth colorimeter system. I have
generally followed the Adobe guidelines. Colour spaces are indeed a vast
subject, and so is perception by the human eye-brain system.
Kind regards, Oliver