Viewsonic Monitor Calibration Software

I ordered this monitor on Saturday evening, Dec. 2, and received it in Bethesda, MD, early the following Monday morning. Well done, as usual, B&H Photo! I unpacked it and set it up, only to find that the proprietary BenQ Palette Master Ultimate software wouldn't recognize either the monitor or my colorimeter. You need the BenQ software to perform a hardware calibration. Other calibration software, even Calman's at $2000, will only perform a software calibration. I called BenQ tech support and was delighted to discover it's U.S.-based. I was not so delighted to have them tell me, however, that the problem with the software had arisen a few weeks ago, and they did not yet have a solution. The BenQ engineers thought a recent Windows update might have made changes that caused the problem. After a few calls, the BenQ tech support staff eventually escalated me to a BenQ technical support manager. She could not have been more diligent in working with me, and after a few days, she provided new drivers for my computer's USB serial computer. Miracle of miracles, that worked! But beware! It only worked when I attached the colorimeter to the side of the monitor via a USB-A port there and to the monitor to the computer via the BenQ-supplied USB-A to USB-B cable.  Palette Master Ultimate would not recognize the colorimeter if I used its native USB-C connection when connected to either the monitor or the computer. There were times early on when I thought I would have to pack up the monitor and send it back to B&H Photo, no small task because the monitor comes in an extraordinarily large box and its packaging is like a Rubik's cube. BenQ's tech support, however, did itself proud! The image quality of the monitor is outstanding, and with the software now working, I couldn't be happier with my purchase.

Reference has breathed new life into my Sony MDR-V6's which have been faithfully serving me for more than 10 years. The only qualm I've had with the Sony's are an apparent sibilance, even if it can be pleasant at times. Reference improves that problem (including an issue with bass) to flatten the response. This has helped immensely with mixing, but has also made general listening more enjoyable and less fatiguing. SONARWORKS has reviewed lots of headphones and rated them based on their before and after calibration performance, so if you're on the market for new headphones, that might be a good starting point for reference. They also offer an additional service for individual calibration which requires sending your headphones in so they can produce a personal profile for your headphones, as opposed to using the general profiles included with the software (you can also purchase a new pre-calibrated pair from them). That's all of course if you're looking for some kind of edge and really find yourself doing a great deal of work on headphones; it could certainly be worth the extra cost particularly for mastering headphones. Pairing this software with something like CanOpener (to simulate monitor crossfeed) will put you pretty close to a solid monitor mixing environment, so this is incredible software particularly for compact or mobile headphone-centric setups, or as a compliment to a studio setup that utilizes headphones in any critical way. Looking forward to using it with new headphones when the time comes. Highly recommended. Be sure to check the full headphone compatibility list to be sure they at least have a general profile for your particular model.

I found this monitor calibrator to be easy to use, and finally my two monitors match. The software walks you through the calibration process, and I calibrated both monitors in under ten minutes (including software download and install).

I don't know about video editing, but this is a great monitor for photo editing. It has a 14 bit LUT which means I can calibrate using my i1 Display Pro for hardware calibration vs just software calibration. This means my color profile is internal to the monitor hardware and not the computer software. It covers close to 100% ARGB which is the color space I shoot and edit in. The detail I see in photos is much greater than what I saw in my previous monitor. You can't beat the 4K. And if I decide to take a break I can watch a movie in 4K video. Look, compared to higher end monitors, you can't beat the price on this. Lower priced monitors don't have internal LUTs. In my opinion this monitor falls between those and the higher end models costing twice as much and sometimes 3 times as much. This is not an entry level monitor for photographers but it is definitely a pro monitor at a very reasonable price.

Glad to have this coverage for my Viewsonic ProColor monitor.

I bought the pro version of the software from B&H about a week ago. Software installation went smoothly on my MacBook Pro/10.9.5. After reading the manual and watched a couple videos on line I was ready to use the software to calibrate my Nikon & Canon lenses. Canon 5D mark3 and Nikon D750 need user assist to run the calibration software which I was not very happy about but got used to it quickly. The only thing I had to watch for was to use a very sturdy tripod and use a very soft touch to change the setting during the test. Of course software takes some camera movement in to consideration when it displays the result. Target setup was not difficult for me and if you setup your target correctly your calibration results are repeatable. Probably the plus version would have been good enough for me.

Excellent monitor. Easy setup and the right size. I do like the calibration having been done for you.

There's nothing glamorous about color calibration, however it is a necessary task for anyone concerned about color accuracy. I purchased the SpyderX Pro to replace the Spyder 4 device I'd used until making the move to 64-bit-only systems. I've used it with the included calibration software for my MacBook Pro, but use it with the BenQ Palette Master Element calibration software for my BenQ monitor. The process is straight-forward and the end result is beautiful, and that's what matters.

Very useful accessory accompanied by a very good software to use the color calibration in Lightroom and ACR

I bought this for my iMac and I'm very pleased with it, it's simple to use and works well. The software download and installation all went smoothly and the calibration process is quick. The monitor definitely looks better after calibration. My only niggle is that the room light measurement is returned as either very high or very low, there doesn't seem to be a level of background light that the unit regards as being normal. Most of my photography is underwater so the SpyderCUBE exposure calibration tool and SpyderCHECKR 24 Color Chart probably won't get a whole lot of use but the bundle was too good a price to leave it behind. From a brief test with my Nikon D300 the SpyderCUBE gives a useful sanity check on white balance, exposure, contrast and black point quickly and easily. Likewise the SpyderCHECKR provides calibration for the camera and the software integrates easily into Lightroom and Photoshop.