Monitor Calibration

Yes. I calibrate my Dell UP2516. I use Dell's DUCCS software with XRite I1 device.

I calibrate 3 or 4 times a year and when I compare old and new there is usually a very slight difference on one of the channels. Whether it's worth it for the money I'm not sure. Depends what you do with your photos and how good your eyes are!

I print a lot so it's useful for me as I save Adobe RGB and sRGB in different "slots" so I can switch easily as necessary (by default I shoot using adobe these days and only convert in rare instances).

Also, check if your monitor supports hardware calibration.

If you go ahead, you might want to check for used ones on gumtree, ebay etc. I got mine for less than half price and it is good as new.

Hope that helps a little.

Are third party calibrators better than the calibration function provided in Windows? My HP monitor just needs a slight gamma adjustment according to this and all looks well on the screen.

I don't print anything these days but I know it can be difficult getting the colours right with an inkjet printer. After some research, I bought a Canon Selphy dye-sub printer and prints from this seemed a lot more accurate, even if a bit limiting on print size.

If you go to the Windows settings and type 'calibrate' into the search box (or even just 'cali') the function will come up in the results. Click that and the procedure will start. When the steps are finished, it will automatically lead into 'Clear Type'. Best to look out for that and un-tick the option if Clear Type has already been set. Microsoft has a pretty good library of drivers for various make of monitor etc. Although the driver won't be labelled with the make in Device Manager, I think it is likely to be a correct one. That's perhaps how it can use this function for all monitors,

I have two all-in-one computers. One with a Dell monitor, the other with HP. The HP is QHD and the Dell is HD. I was actually a little disappointed with the monitor on the Dell. The text on it looks a bit scrawly and jagged in some programs. Tried all sorts of cures including Dell support to no avail. It doesn't make the computer unusable but it annoyed me enough to get the HP, which is great. The Dell comes in useful when for following tutorials or instructions. Having two computers running saves jumping from one Window to another.

I thought I'd carry out the calibration adjustments on both displays to see how it went. Each one looks OK but a little different in the white area, so I'm not sure how useful this calibration would be. It may just be that the Dell monitor isn't quite as good as the HP, or because they have different native resolutions. Might be worth trying the calibration though. I photographed both computer monitors and this is the result (HP on the left)..

I find that too and spend some hours/days getting the best settings. I was a TV repairer in the early days of colour TV (PAL system in UK) and optimising the picture/convergence/colour adjustments in those televisions was a fine art that couldn't be done by the user. I still tend to be a bit fussy about TV picture quality.

Regarding monitor calibration, this isn't something I've thought about too much up to now other than just using the Windows function. Do you think proper calibration only makes a difference for printing purposes? I ask because I think that providing the colours on a monitor aren't wildly off, the eye can get used to and accept what's presented. For instance, this page is supposed to be white and providing it's reasonably so, it gets accepted that way even it it is biased a little to the warm or cool side. The same with colours. All examples shown in the previous posts look OK, perhaps especially so if there is nothing side by side to compare them to.

When it comes to viewing online, if other people haven't calibrated their monitors, the colours a creator sees could be slightly different for individual viewers ..but still look very good anyway, as indeed all images posted here are.

When I printed photos, I found it was difficult to match the printed colours to those seen on the monitor but much seemed to depend on the paper used or the quality of print chosen. I used to do little swatches to try and get a good match before printing the big picture. It was at that point we got the dye-sub printer and any photos wanted as prints were printed directly from the camera. Maybe I'd have done better with a calibrator such as you have described.

Anyway, with all the ways there are of sharing images/photos there are now, even the dye-sub printer spends its life just sitting in a drawer. For printing though, the colours were accurate and permanent. As near the quality of 35mm film prints as I've seen.

That's a great quote Pete! It applies to so many things. 
Thanks.