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Datacolor Dc S3el100 Spyder Elite
Only $172.94 @ Amazon
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Datacolor Dc S3el100 Spyder Elite
If you, like me, are serious with regards to photography and especially, when it comes to printing your own photographs you need to sink a few dollars (and lots of time) towards that goals intended to be attained Perhaps the single most crucial step is calibrating your monitor, no matter where your photos are printed. I love to print my photographs at home on the Canon Pixma Pro9000 Mark II. Until recently, I had been using the “eye” method of calibration, resulting in prints that were, well, not good at all.
I at long last decisive to bite the bullet and invest in a calibration widgets After a lot of research, went with the Spyder3Elite. (The X-Rite Eye-One Display LT gets good reviews at other internet sites too, FYI).
The installation on Mac is fairly straightforward. The device shipped with software version 3.4 (I think) which was a small buggy. every now and then, to the full or entire extent at random, the “Next” button would vanish forcing a quit and relaunch. Updated to v4 (free) and that seems to have fixed such annoyances.
Calibration of the monitor itself is rather straightforward. It takes an ambient light measurement and then asks you to place the device on the monitor. You hang it on the monitor using the supplied cord/counterweight combo. It is not going to damage/scratch your monitor with typical use.
(The Elite version lets you pick the Gamma etc while, to my understanding, the cheaper Datacolor DC S3P100 Spyder 3 Pro version does not. However, unless you are a pro, I don’t think that would be a big deal. I feel I may have gotten a bit more than needed and maybe Pro would’ve been good enough for my employed So, look cautiously at the Pro and exploration more online.)
The calibration process, once started, takes a few minutes. Go, have a cup of coffee. When you return, you will find a message saying calibration complete, remove the Spyder3 and save the calib file. Make certain to include the date in the file name you choose because you want to pick a recent profile, see below.
Once calibrated, you see the massive divergence among the uncalibrated (or, in my case, the “eye” calibrated) and the in the right manner calibrated states. The divergence is genuinely emphasized however when you print. The print actually, and finally, looks like it does on your monitor. So, all that laborious tweaking in photoshop or lightroom that you have been doing, eventually show up that way on your print. It is of course indispensable to use the right paper and printer profile as well.
When not calibrating, the device sits by the side of my iMac, plugged into a USB port. It is set to sporadically take ambient light measurements. When the ambient light and calibration states mismatch, it gives you a subtle warning (thankfully, no pop-ups, atleast on Mac). I ordinarily ignore those warnings until it is time to work on numerous photographs. Then I check the ambient light state and choose a recent calibration profile for that ambient light. This has to be done manually.
This last part is the only “con” I may think of, and the reason for four stars instead of five. It does not mechanically alter the device calibration settings based on the ambient light. whether or not it does, I have not been competent to find out how to set it up to do so. I am not sure whether or not other widgets do this, but this is something else to look into.
Overall, highly commended gimmicks if you are planning on printing your own photos, any decent hardware calibration device is an sheer MUST.
Originally this was going to get a 1 stare When i developed a profile for both my Sharp monitor and my HP LP2475w – the result was very blue and dark. The Before picture they provided looked WAY better than the calibrated version. And no matter what settings I utilized nothing worked. I tried compensating by attempting to make it redder, but that didn’t work. I tried calibrating in every way possible for regarding 20 hours, nothing worked. As far as I’m concerned, it’s defective.
However that said, I found a remainder that if you set the White Point to NATIVE – gamma to 2.0 and the Luminance to 100 or 120 (if your screen may support aid then you get good results. The whites look white, the blacks look black. Now I feel I have a screen that’s calibrated where I may see into the shadow and get good detail, and not blow out the highlights. The colors seem right and the gray scale is clean, or at least clean enough. Oh and don’t let it set the ambient light in the case of my room the light varies, and I never liked the results, not to mention that it has to stay plugged in. The default leaves the blue light on, and it’s rather blinding, peculiarly since it sits right in front of you.
The styling looks nice, it looks like an alien ship of sorts and due to the chrome, it matches black and gray themes. You have to tilt the monitor back so the thing sits flat on the screen, While you may hold it, the test takes like 10 minutes, which is just too long to holds
I didn’t give this a 1 star because I eventually got a result.
However, there is that odd blue cast everyone spoke of (I was hoping I wasn’t one of the unlucky ones, but I was). I think their White remainder settings are messed up as 6500k looked more like 9000k – a very cool blue color, and setting it to a more reddish white balance gave it a green cast. As long as you set the white to NATIVE – then you’ll do ok, I’m writing this so google may find it, and aid others that pulled out their hair fixing it is
One last thing that I don’t like – when the software needs updating, they send you to a page to remunerate for the software. This device is overpriced as it is, and they want more cash for a tiny upgrade? Oh please…
Working on a Mac system, I was using a Pantone Huey which was OK however I ended up balancing my computer monitor by eye to a broadcast quality TV monitor. Recently I read a review that the Spyder Elite had a setting for broadcast digital video and since that’s what I do from time to time I decisive to go for it is
The Mac software is the weak point and it in truth needs to be debugged, from the installation to the upgrade to actually calibrating the monitor. It took two efforts to install the software from the included CD to convince me to forget that and download the version 3 software from the web internet sites That worked but the firstborn thing that comes up is a screen telling with regards to the upgrade to version 4 which is free to new purchasers. Thru a convoluted routine you enter your key from the CD package on the Datacolor web website and they e-mail a new key which is supposed to be the version 4 key. But that turns out to be another version 3 key which you have to enter again on the web site and then you get the version 4 key and the program will begin up. The version 4 software is much better than the version 3 so I recommend the upgrade.
Once the program gets going and you follow the instructions it works very well and my monitors are looking better than I ever been competent to do by eye or by the Huey. The program gets messed up when you undertake to check the calibration but quitting it and relaunching seems to mend its Considering that the next substitute for calibrating a computer monitor for broadcast video is more than double the price, this is a good deal. But be warned that it’s not constantly accurate just very close.
My primary display is a 26″ IPS panel-based display made by Planar, my secondary is a cheaper, LED-backlit Samsung. While I was convinced that the Planar would calibrate well, I didn’t anticipate that the Samsung would ever come remotely close to similarity it due to its narrower gamut. After calibration, they both look great. The introductory calibration process takes time, but this was expected. My applicable computer usage is limited to casual image and video editing, so I’m most likely not the most vital or goal to be attained review of this product, but overall I am very pleased with the results.
I’ve been using the Spyder calibrator (and Spyder3 Print) for years. When I upgraded my Mac to Lion, the older version (Spyder2) no longer worked since it utilized Rosetta. I need a calibrated monitor since I touch up portrait images and my own personal images for printing. If your monitor isn’t calibrated precisely, your prints will miss the mark. So I upgraded to Spyder3 Elite and installed the latest software (version 4). I noticed that the calibration test was much more immediate and easier. It as well measures the ambient light in the room and tells you to set the luminance of your monitor to a specified value + or minus 4 percent. Once this is done, the software takes over, and in a few minutes, your monitor is calibrated. If you want to use the ‘Expert Console’, you may refine the settings yourself. Since monitors need re-calibration after a amount of time of weeks or months (you specify the duration), you will find that Recalibration is even faster. Nice thinking on this.
The version 4 software of Spyder 3 provides Advanced Analysis of your monitor. You can run tests on Gamut, Screen Uniformity, Tone Response, White Luminance and Contrast, and White Point. I’m using a 27″ iMac and have an attached Apple Display. I ran these tests; the Uniformity designated how un-uniform the lighting is on both of these monitors. Although it isn’t readily apparent when using them, the results were still surprising. Even with the basic calibration, you get a nice graph of the color gamut of your monitor and how it compares to other monitor profiles, SRGB, NTC, and Adobe RGB gamuts.
I have perpetually liked the help function in Spyder. You see it on nearly every screen, and when you select it, you get help and explanations for that specific screen….you don’t need to search through a lot of selective information to find your answers. I as well commend Datacolor’s Support team. When you have a problem or question, you can search their noesis base on the web, or write up a ticket for assists Within 24 hours you get a response from a support person, and so far I’ve gotten good results.
This product works on both Windows and the Mac. If you have multiple systems, one license is all you need as you get the software for each platform. Spyder3 will even calibrate projectors. I did this a few months ago, and what a difference it made!
This machine is actually rather nice & easy. I have a 3 monitor set-up on a MacPro. All are Dells, but the middle one has a more prominent (HC) color gamut. I like my monitors to match as much as possible, so I’ve constantly done calibration.
I had learned the in’s & out’s of the the Eye One. But after the Lion upgrade it was useless. The software is PPC. Even before, they hadn’t upgraded the software since, what ’06?.
With the Eye One, part of calibration was adapting the monitor’s hardware controls (contrast, color balance, etc.) The Spyder deals with all this for you. Plus it reads ambient light and makes suggestions based on that. My initial few attempts on my main monitor led to “what the heck is that!” results.
Now, after playing for an hour or so, I’ve got all three monitors looking fabulously close. With a very pleasing, consistent look. The HC Monitor has always, and continues, to my eye, show more subtlety in the reds.
First difference – reset your monitors to Default Settings. On older Dells, that means PC Mode, because OS X has long since left 1.8 gamma behind. Leaving them on the custom Eye One settings seems to skew things.
Second, I use my strategy for the most part in a dark room, but since I’m pushing 50, I do need them more brilliant than average. In the original step, the Spyder would recommend a White Point of 5000 and a luminance of 90 whatevers. THAT led to disastrous results. There’s an option to “keep my settings”. Check it!
Keep Gamma at 2.2, White point at 6500 (in spite of whatsoever it recommends) and experiment with the brightness. It recommended 90, I settled on 140. Might even go a notch higher on next calibration, but again, I’m old. Play with that until you get good results. I’d say ignore the white point setting and demand 6500, then alter the luminance to whatsoever you like.
Have to say, I’ve never had all 3 match this well in terms of color tone, brightness, & contrast before, in spite of their different specs. Very panoramic. It’s definitely more “hooked in” to ColorSync, and at this price a in truth nice upgrade. It as well calibrates much faster than the Eye One.
Received it today, but there was already an upgrade from the disc to 4.0.2 software, the download prompts worked fine, the codes and activation went smoothly.
I’m a Photographer, Image Processor, Classic Camera Repairman, and an avid Mac user. This software and device work just as it should. From calibration to working profile. The best choice for Mac at the moment. Be sure to update to the current software release, ATM it’s v4.0.2 …
Mac OS X 10.7 Lion
Mac Pro 2.66 GHz Quad-Core
Apple Cinema HD Display 30-inch
Took awhile to figure out and fine tune the color. I had to do it various times before it worked. It seems that if it’s utilized with MAC OSX it can act a bit wonky. Stuff like icons need to be refreshed for their color modification to show up. All together, I’m in truth happy with the productions One more complaint or tip: if you leave it plugged in for continuous monitoring, i’ve noticed that it’ll slow your computer down.
I am upgrading a Spyder two which looking back was very fundamentals This one is much more accurate and has a lot more options you can choose from. You can adjust your calibration to the ambient light. it allows better use of your monitors control because software adjustments only do so much. On windows bootup, the profile in addition loads seemlessly, and doesn’t seem to take a whole lot of time like prior versions. I as well use dual monitor so it is nice to effortlessly have two different profiles for each monitor. My monitors are identical and in all likelihood would do OK with the same setting but there were small differences.
I have two displays. After a year of dorking around trying just to get them to match each other (let alone get them set accurately) I finally broke down and got a Spyder 3 Elite.
Very easy to install and use on my Vista 64-bit strategies Documentation is comprehensible and without apparent effort understood. Mounting on an LCD display takes such a good deal of imagination. I employed used used a strip of Scotch tape from the sides of the monitors to hold it flush to the display. Probably easier just to lay the screen flat, but…
I’m a enthusiastic amateur photographer and one thing I hate is seeing my photos on someone else’s monitor with a color tint I didn’t see on my displays. No more.
I highly recommend the Spyder 3 Elite to any individual who cares what their photos look like to the rest of the world, or anybody who cares about the color fidelity of their displays.