As far as greyscale and colour calibration goes, this is exactly what an ISF tech *should* be doing. I say should because being "ISF certified" doesn't necessarily mean you know what you're doing or will do these sorts of calibrations. Many will not even venture into the advanced colour management adjustments as they're very display specific. At the very least they should be setting brightness, contrast, and greyscale properly as per my guide.
The problem is that anyone can pay the $$ to take the ISF course. That's pretty much all that being "ISF certified" means. It doesn't mean you're any good at what you do or even know how to calibrate properly. You paid for a course. You don't need to pass a difficult test (it's in their best interest that as many people be "ISF certified" as possible), you don't need to re-certify after X years, you don't even have to use "ISF certified" equipment.
Seeing the words "ISF certified" after someone's name doesn't mean they know what they're doing or have the proper equipment.
Long story short: The term "ISF certified" is pretty meaningless. Experience means everything, the title means nothing. There are ISF certified techs who are next to useless. There are non-ISF certified techs who are excellent. There are of course ISF certified techs who are excellent too.
Depending on the display, a good calibrator may also do other work too. For example, for rear projection setups they will often clean the mirror and the optics, move the lenses closer for less overscan, disable SVM, and so on. All this takes time so it costs money. If you get a quote from an calibrator, make sure it includes an itemized
list of exactly what it all means. And very important: Make sure you ask what each of the items means. If they don't want to explain it to you, walk away.
The other thing is that today most displays are digital which use bulbs. These bulbs shift in colour temperature over short periods of time meaning that recalibration (or at least a quick tweak) is required from time to time. Nobody wants to pay someone to come out every 6 or 12 months to do this.
People may get the impression that I don't like calibrators. Quite the opposite: I have far too much respect for the GOOD ones so I want to show the layperson how much work is involved. There are far too many bad calibrators out there taking money simply because they got "ISF certified". They do a poor job and do a disservice to the excellent calibrators out there.
Kal
