Colorimeter Rental / Loan
 

I just bought a Dell U2311h IPS panel LCD and need to calibrate at some point.

Does anyone know where colorimeters might be rented or loaned out?
Or would maybe some of you guys be interested in pooling together for RS Photography Lab to own one? =p

The $100 or so that one of these cost doesn't seem justified when I'd only need to use it once. =(

Err....you should be calibrating weekly. Just go buy one.

^

As senna said... it's something you use frequently. I do it on my screen every time I am processing something to print out for ppl/job.

I bought my spidey while working at London Drugs' camera dpt. I think it cost me like 110 after all the discount and taxes... has been problem free for the last 4 years I have it... well worth it if you invested good money on equipment and good monitors.

Do the colours on a monitor change weekly?!

I don't know what you do, but if you're doing image processing on a professional level, weekly calibration is a must - especially if you're working with a high end monitor with wide colour spaces like CMYK or Pro Photo. Some will do it everyday. For a home user who is just doing image processing of snapshots, then I'd say calibrating monthly should be fine. The colours of a screen will go off kilter so slowly that you won't notice it in most cases.

Yup just a casual user here. My biggest worry really is to get a proper gamma profile up and replace the factory defaults which are said to be pretty terrible.

^
IMO, having a calibration device is not 100% about having a proper color, but consistency throughout the process. I don't do this because I usually just throw my files at King photo, and all I need to for my monitor to match up the color profile. But for pros/prosumers who print out their own shot, they want to have a consistent color between what they see and what they print. Hence, they calibrate the printers as well. (it's built in in most modern color calibration devices)

So, this way, they know exactly what to expect once they print it out.

For around 100 bucks, I think it's no brainer, or check out if you have friend who shoots too and share it with him/them. This is what I do, I share my spidey with other 2 friends.