Colormunki vs i1 basic pro?

The i1 Pro is a little more accurate.

Quite a bit of the internals is shared between the two meters.

If you're measuring print or other reflective measurements the i1 Pro has a much better internal lamp. For Emissive measurements (measuring displays) they are much closer to each other.

Probably the big difference for our use is the i1 Pro has glass optics while the Munki has plastic. You've seen what clear plastic looks like in 3 or 4 years compared to glass.

both the munki and i1 Pro need periodic dark cals

Not really, that's what the periodic dark cals take care of.

Yes or just a dark surface for the i1Pro. The i1Pro 2 requires it's dark cal on the cal plate only.

The way I was told to do the i1pro was, in calman set the button action to initialize. Then when you need to do a dark reading you put your finger over the hole and press the button on the side of the i1pro.. done. Very fast and simple to do once you get rolling in your calibration, takes all of 3 seconds.

Ever put a flash light up to your finger?

I'd use something more opaque.

?? If you tv is putting out that much light you would be blind, don't you think?

Yes indeed. Since spectros don't have filters, they don't really age just sitting around in a box like a colorimeter. Nearly all the i1 Pro's we get in for re certification pass with flying colors.

If it really does bother you, I'd contact whoever sold it to you and complain. Getting shipped a meter with an expired certificate is a legitimate gripe, but I wouldn't worry too much about the accuracy.

Re-calibrations with spectros are a bit different than creating profile.

But I would use it and wouldn't even worry about it.

Moisture isnt' a huge issue with the i1 Pro, but it's always better to take better care of it.

Mine has been sitting on my desk for 3 years.

Joel,
Has anyone a SpectraCal had an opportunity to re-evaluate a ColorMunki spectro after a significant period of time? Mine is just over a year old, and I'm curious about its long term stability. I currently use it to generate a profile for my D3.

Regarding dark readings for the original i1 Pro, after doing the inital dark reading at the start of the calibration session, how far can you go before you really need to do another dark reading? (on a LED-LCD flat panel used in contact mode)

I don't know that we have. I'll ask around when I have the chance.
Edited by sotti - 9/18/12 at 4:28pm

Depends if you are going to be measuring stuff below about 5 cd/m.

If you are going to measure things that are dim, then probably 10-15 minutes.

Anything you could share would be great. BTW, I'm really liking CalMan 5 so far. I'm going to try an autocal on my Duo soon and see how it compares to my manual CalMan 4 results.

Though I'm not SpectraCaI, I have, with 7 ColorMuni Spectros now..

There is no difference, all seven are from the original release

Purchase your Colormeter as your only meter, lets have this conversation again in a few years
Edited by turbe - 9/18/12 at 7:39pm

Thanks.

In my case, under 5 cd/m only includes 20% gray (I do 9-step grayscale with the spectro). So, I should be fine from 30% on up.

Thanks Turbe. Surprisingly, except for luminance, my D3 and ColorMunki agree fairly well on my GT50 plasma and Samsung CCFL LCD.