But let's get to the heart of why one would spend this much for a colorimeter: This allows you to actually see where the instrument is pointing if you are calibrating a projector screen or some other non-contact display surface.

This is the first colorimeter I have ever seen with a built-in laser pointer. The case and the optics are made of high-quality materials, and are sealed to preserve them and make the device long-lasting. It has thermal compensating circuitry that will ensure that changes in the physical temperature around the device will not influence measurement results. It was made for the express purpose of accurately calibrating these wide-gamut displays with no compromises. But unlike other colorimeters, this one has been designed to be a lab-grade instrument of the highest quality. As a colorimeter, it has a limited number of bands that it measures, and therefore can measure good, dark blacks with very little noise. The DISCUS is a colorimeter, made by basICColor in Germany, that has all the elements we are looking for, and retails for over $1200. Well now we have a new player in town, and it promises to fill this gap nicely, if a bit expensively. At that time all I could do was to tell you the way things were and leave it up to you to decide between accurate color or good shadow detail. Colorimeters on the other hand, can measure blacks well, but might not be so good at measuring these saturated colors. But the common spectrophotometers don't measure blacks very well and some shadow detail is lost as a result. To over-simplify things a bit, we usually recommend people use a spectrophotometer to accurately measure their extremely saturated colors. At that time there was a noticeable gap between the need to profile certain high-end, wide-gamut monitors and finding a device that will profile them to their maximum potential. Just last July, I wrote an article explaining the current state of affairs in the area of monitor calibration, specifically explaining the different hardware devices out there that are used to calibrate and profile monitors.

Basiccolor display no instrument found