Monitor calibration on an M1 Mini?

[Raffwal]

I just upgraded my late 2009 Mini to the new M1 Mini. I'm using an older Barco monitor and it was calibrated using an older Spyder 3, originally with Spyder's own software, later with DisplayCAL and Argyll. So I have two main questions:

- Does the previous calibration depend on only the monitor or on the monitor and computer combo? Meaning that can I just copy the old icc profile or will it be incorrect?

- What would you recommend me to calibrate with today? If possible I'd like to be able to use the old Spyder 3 and not get a new sensor since I am only an amateur and don't make a dime with photography. But if some new gear makes calibration significantly easier and better and doesn't cost an arm and a leg, getting a new calibrator isn't out of the question.

Thanks.

 

[dmiller62]

Hi Raffwal,

You won't be able to use Spyder3 (many years old, and discontinued) with any of the Datacolor software it would normally have run with, since those discontinued builds are 32-bit only for the Mac and won't run on any of the modern versions of MacOS, let alone in Rosetta2 emulation on an M1 system.

However, any other 3rd party software that supports the Spyder3, such as DisplayCal, and which has been updated for MacOS 64-bit "should" let you continue to use it.

With that said:

Spyder3 dates from a little more than 12 years ago. It was sold at a time when flat panel and laptop display backlights were CCFL; if you try to calibrate a modern display (manufacturers have long since shifted away from CCFL to LED backlight), the results won't be optimal.

 

[Raffwal]

Thanks, David! I actually already installed DisplayCAL. Luckily my display is old tech as well.

 

[dmiller62]

Also, I can confirm that SpyderX (current sensor) as well as Spyder5 (previous version) will both work properly on M1 systems with their current 5.7 software releases from November. They run fast and clean under Intel emulation mode (which is actually Rosetta2 translating all of the Intel code to Apple Silicon native). The first launch takes a couple of bounces and every launch after that is instant. The user interfaces run instantly.

There's a small issue with current Big Sur on M1 (but not on Intel), in which it doesn't return default names for displays to applications such as ours, when we query the system. Our code is set up in such a way that this doesn't cause a serious issue. In this situation (not expected, but coding is all about being able to deal with the unexpected in case it happens!) we fill in a default "UNKNOWN-X" for the starting display name, and the user can either leave it as-is or simply type over it with a name of their own, which is remembered after that.