Monitor calibration on a laptop

[JoeAlmon]

Hello,

I'm using a Panasonic DMCFZ28 and developing pictures using a RAW editor on a Dell Inspiron.

Now trying to get one of those monitor calibration tools to work (e.g. QuickGamma, Adobe Gamma). The first thing they are all asking is to set contrast to its highest level. When I do that, everything looks super white and the laptop becomes virtually impossible to use, so that first step doen't make much sense to me. Any ideas on the proper way to do that?

Also I was wondering if monitor calibration was supposed to work as well on a laptop as on a normal screen?

Thanks for your help,

Joe.

[kuvahmagh]

I just used a SPyder 3 Express yesterday on my LCD, it advertises it works on Laptops, CRT, LCD, Windows/Mac and it just asked me to set my monitor to its default settings.

Have you gone through the whole process yet, if not it may ask you to change to several different levels for reference purposes?

[Doug Pardee]

The software-only calibration systems were designed for CRTs only. They don't work very well at all on LCDs.

Most laptops have terrible displays for color accuracy (TN technology). The cheaper the display, the more expensive the calibrator needs to be to have much chance of getting a decent result.

Personally, I wouldn't use a laptop display for photo editing, because it's almost certain that the colors will come out wrong. I'd want to add on a proper external display, like the Dell 2209WA eIPS screen. But that's just me.