In my continual search for a better way to calibrate the Dell 2209WA with a Spyder2 colorimeter, I stumbled across a more precise method than what I described in my earlier articles.

First off, I highly recommend the use of HCFR Colorimetre along with your Spyder2Pro software. In the following method I began the calibration process with HCFR to set the RGB values and white point before calibrating with Spyder2Pro software. This gave me a more accurate calibration than with my previous methods.

For those who are unfamiliar with HCFR Colorimetre, here a few setup tips.

1. Transfer a copy of CVSpyder.dll from your Spyder2 directory to the HCFR installation directory.
2. Start HCFR and make it full screen.
3. In “Measures”-“Sensor”-“Configure”, set the calibration to LCD, read time to 300 and check the “extend read time on dark measurements”.
4. In “Advanced”-“Preferences”, click the “references” tab and set the color space to sRGB, check “display gamma with black compensation” and set the reference gamma to 2.22.
5. I believe I left all other settings at default.

To begin calibration,

1. Open up the “File” menu and click “New”.
2. From the generator list, choose “View images”.
3. Select “Spyder II” from the sensor list
4. Click finish.
5. Initially set the 2209WA brightness to 10% and keep the contrast at the default 75%.

You will now have the Color Measures 1 window visible. Leave the upper left entry set to “Gray scale”, center your Spyder2 on the screen and click “Go” on the far right side of the Color Measures window. After clicking “yes” on the next pop up window, the program will begin taking readings on ten shades of gray.

After the readings are taken, open up the RGB Levels graph under the “Graphs” menu and check out where the three individual channels appear. Ideally all three should center on the 100% line. If they don’t, go into the 2209WA menu and make your way to “color settings”-“preset modes”-“custom (RGB)” and adjust the sliders one at a time, redoing the HCFR reading each time until you get all three channels to center on the 100% line.

After setting the RGB values, set the white luminance. Your white luminance value in cd/m² will be the “Y” value under 100% gray. I recommend you keep the 2209WA contrast setting at the default 75% and adjust the brightness until you get the desired white luminance. I set mine to 130 cd/m² and achieved this with a brightness setting of 5%.

Now a Spyder2Pro calibration can be done using the Native 2.2 setting within the Spyder2Pro software. Once the calibration is complete you can then use HCFR once again to check the results. And be prepared to calibrate at least weekly as this monitor does not hold calibration for long periods of time.

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