Calibration of 24" iMac(white) please advise

Question

Hi,
We recently purchased a 24" iMac(white, late 2006), we were lucky enough to find one, I'd read negative things about the new Alu iMacs and when my wife(a photograhper) saw one in the store she said "no way" so the previous was a good choice. It seems the one we found was the last one in the city, nobody else had one in stock. I suspect Apple are pushing the "Creative Profesionals" towards the MacBook Pros and Mac Pros with ACDs hence the changes but that's just my opinion...
Anyway here's the thing, have been trying to calibrate it. I'll try to explain what it is I've been doing as a series of steps so it's easy to digest
1. We have an eye-one display 2(now X-rite "i1") with the software updates so it works fine in Intel Mac.
2. I had been browsing this and other forums and discovered that when calibrating I should specify a native white point or 6500K(for inkjet), gamma 2.2 and a luminance of 120.
3. When using the i1 software I selected LCD and then the advanced mode. When it gets to the select white point there's an option for presets or red, green and blue. The latter I cannot do as there are no such controls so I select the presets, click next, it shows the target as 6500K but the actual was 7000K. When I try the RGB presets as a test it shows the blue as being too high(7000K).
4. When specifying the target luminance I couldn't get the brightness below 145 so I had to use the "shades" software to get it to 120. That allows the profile process to complete correctly but what I don't understand is once the profile is complete do I leave the shades running(without touching the slider) and not touch the OS X brightness control or turn off the shades and leave the OS X brightness control setting where it is? Can someone please clarify/explain this?
5. I then come across the "coloreyes" software which supposedly is the best of them all so I download the demo(have 4 trys remaining). The implementation of this is very different from other apps I've seen but there's lots of info.
6. Coloreyes has this "Apple Monitor" preset which I tried but then I read in this forum that others had used the LCD Brightness preset instead, is that "LCD Brightess/Gain"(with iMac like icon) or "LCD Brightness"(with laptop like icon)??
7. Coloreyes has gamma of 1.8, 2.2 and L*, should I use this L* for a 24" white iMac late 2006?
8. Coloreyes has a pre-calibraton brightness checker, I should place the OS X brightness slider in the middle(for example) start the process and use the keyboard controls until the brightness = 0 and then start the profiling?
9. The current profile started with brightness = 0, native white point, gamma L* and luminance 120. My wife says the photos look a little dark. She doesn't use the screen as a final guide for her images more so the levels in photoshop and the final prints but I guess the onscreen results should be as accurate as possible. Am beginning to think the iMac(which was to be a much better option than a 24" Alu) was a bad idea, it's otherwise a lovely computer and she's very please with it.
If someone has an idea on this can you please reply with details in steps like above? Maybe it's an idea to paste my post and add commments or suggestions inline. I'm far from an expert on this subject, my knowledge is based on what I've found when searching google. It seems that opinions and experience vary quite a lot

Answer 1

Hi,
What do you mean exactly by "I found that for some reason I could not calibrate from the "apple monitor" setting at first." do you mean you couldn't specify native white point, luminance 120, gamma 2.2?
I'm assuming you did it this way(please correct me if I'm wrong as I more than likely am
1. You started with "LCD Brightness only"(native white point, luminance 120, gamma 2.2?) first, not "LCD Brightness/Gain" and setting the brightness to 0 prior to starting the profiling.
2. You then used that as your starting point(although profiling apps ignore the current profile when starting) choosing "Apple Monitor"(native white point, luminance 120, gamma 2.2?) without setting the brightness as that option doesn't specify it.
I'm assuming you specified the same settings twice?
Another thing that has me puzzled is how come when using an i1 with eye-one software for luminance 120 you have to push the OS X brightness slider all the way to the left and then use "Shades"(or equivalent) to decrease the brightness even further to reach 120 where as with an i1 and coloreyes you can specify luminance 120 and just use OS X brightness slider to reach the correct value? I'm assuming it's because coloreyes is a better app?
Sorry for all the questions, just trying to understand the process and find the best method/solution