Seeking advice on monitor calibration equipment

[Caravaggio]

Hello, I am seeking advice on monitor calibration equipment for my new macpro with 30 inch cinema display. I am looking for professional or at least semi-professional calibration equipment. I primarily want to calibrate my monitor, but suppose I have to spend the extra money to calibrate my scanner and Epson printer. What calibration equipment do you recommend? Someone recommended X-Rite i1XT, but I think that costs around $2,400. Are there cheaper alternatives that would yield semi-professional to professional results. Is X Rite worth it? Thanks.

[pixelzombie]

we use a DTP 94 which is similar to this colorimeter:

http://www.xrite.com/product_overview.aspx?ID=788

i strongly suggest you use basicColor software to calibrate your monitor, it is well worth the purchase..calibration "kits" aren't cheap as you have found out and unless you have a need to calibrate on a regular basis you're better off just paying someone to make a scanner profile for you and google Bill Atkinson as he has done extensive profiling for epson large format printers and he gives them away for free, Epson also has very good output profiles for their inkjets if you use epson papers and toners...