Which color Spyder do you recomend ?

Antonio Correia

Spider3Elit / Spider3Pro / Spider2express

I use a Mac and I want to go a little further with the use of the Spyder.

I like the Spyder3Pro for "Serious Photographers" and for it's moderate qualities when I look at the comparation table.

Thank you for your advise.:bow:D

Ric Grupe

I step on spiders!

Look at this one, Antonio.

Antonio Correia

Thanks Ric.

It is a more expensive solution... :cry

I just had a look andread that this equipment is sold in Portugal, what means that I can have guaranties on it.

Is this what you use ? I think so. Also on a Mac ?

Great. It works on laptops !

D

pathfinder

Antonio, I have used a Spyder2 Pro with good results, but if I was to purchase again, the i1Display2 is what I would purchase today

Antonio Correia

pathfinder wrote:

Antonio, I have used a Spyder2 Pro with good results, but if I was to purchase again, the i1Display2 is what I would purchase today

Hello Jim:D
Long time since we didn't talk over here ! Are you OK ? Hope so.

In the last minutes I had been looking for threads about this calibrating business and I came up to the - stupid ? - conclusion that I don't need one.
You are going to say: you don't need one ? Are you kidding ? huh
No I am not.
Let me explain you: I never plot/print at home. We have a basic printer for text and nothing else.
When I want to print I go to the shop and ask the girl to make the prints.
If they turn to be too red, yellow, whatever she corrects the photos according to my taste, which she already knows.

But here rises another problem and this I really want:
book printing. I want to print books not only for "home consumption" but to offer and present my work.
And here, yes here, I need to have my monitor as best as possible, according to what I want in the book.
Complicated business indeed. Too many parameters envolved.

I am now in the process of printing books for Cristhmas and not only but when I have photos enought. But I am very demanding on quality of the prints and of the books.

Do you guys think I am wrong ?

Thank you. Take care. thumb:D:D

Scott_Quier

Antonio Correia wrote:

Hello Jim:D
Long time since we didn't talk over here ! Are you OK ? Hope so.

In the last minutes I had been looking for threads about this calibrating business and I came up to the - stupid ? - conclusion that I don't need one.
You are going to say: you don't need one ? Are you kidding ? huh
No I am not.

Please pardon me, but ... I think you are either kidding or haven't thought the process all the way through.

Antonio Correia wrote:

Let me explain you: I never plot/print at home. We have a basic printer for text and nothing else.
When I want to print I go to the shop and ask the girl to make the prints.
If they turn to be too red, yellow, whatever she corrects the photos according to my taste, which she already knows.

But here rises another problem and this I really want:
book printing. I want to print books not only for "home consumption" but to offer and present my work.
And here, yes here, I need to have my monitor as best as possible, according to what I want in the book.
Complicated business indeed. Too many parameters envolved.

I am now in the process of printing books for Cristhmas and not only but when I have photos enought. But I am very demanding on quality of the prints and of the books.

Do you guys think I am wrong ?

Thank you. Take care. thumb:D:D

Yes, I do believe you are wrong. If you are going to be printing books, unless you are getting all your printing done by the lady to whom you referred above, you will need to supply your printer with correctly color balanced images.

Imagine this scenario:

• You are going to suppy your images to a printer.
• The printer has and provides you with an ICC profile so you can soft-proof your images - helps to make sure that images are going to print as you intend
• You look at the soft proofing images on your monitor. They look good to you.
• But, your monitor is set at too cool a color balance and you don't know this.
• Because the printer makes the assumption that you are providing him correctly balanced images he/she returns your book/prints and they are hugely warm - not what you had intended. For portfolio work, do you not want to control the image color through the entire process?

Every step in the process from capture to print introduces errors. It would seem to me that introducing an opportunity for those errors to be larger than necessary is counter-productive. Softproofing is not fool proof, it's only an approximation of what the printer will deliver. But, it's sometimes the best we have. A meat butcher, given the choice, will use a sharp knife rather than an un-sharp knife.

Antonio Correia

Scott., how could I have been so silly as not to have thought the way you have ...

It is so obvious ...
Thank you.

So, before printing:
properly calibrate the monitor

I think I'll get that i1Display2 used and suggested by Ric and sugested by Pathfinder !
bow:D:D

Scott_Quier

Antonio Correia wrote:

Scott., how could I have been so silly as not to have thought the way you have ...

It is so obvious ...
Thank you.

So, before printing:
properly calibrate the monitor

I think I'll get that i1Display2 used and suggested by Ric and sugested by Pathfinder !
bow:D:D

I'm glad I was able to help.

Antonio Correia

Scott_Quier wrote:

I'm glad I was able to help.

That's the way we are here, isn't it ?

Jay_Z

Questions on calibrating ...
I have an HP w2207 monitor and ThinkPad T60p laptop - I would like to somehow calibrate to aid in adjustments/editing of the photos.

I primarily use Lightroom 2.0 or Photoshop Elements. Between the two displays, I have slightly different brightness, etc and the HP has a gloss screen which makes a difference.

Will something like the Spyder help to calibrate the color, brightness, etc? I want to make sure the adjustments I am making are the ones I intend to be making! Is there a better way to go (looking for a mid range product - less than a Huey calibration system, etc!).

Any suggestions/recommendations on this, let me know.

Antonio Correia

Jay_Z wrote:

I have an HP w2207 monitor and ThinkPad T60p laptop - I would like to somehow calibrate to aid in adjustments/editing of the photos.
I primarily use Lightroom 2.0 or Photoshop Elements. Between the two displays, I have slightly different brightness, etc and the HP has a gloss screen which makes a difference.
Will something like the Spyder help to calibrate the color, brightness, etc? I want to make sure the adjustments I am making are the ones I intend to be making! Is there a better way to go (looking for a mid range product - less than a Huey calibration system, etc!).
Any suggestions/recommendations on this, let me know.

i1Display2 no ?

I am almost buying it. I mailed different shops in Europe but the price is very similar... Always around 280-300 Euros with IVA / VAT.
:cry

Scott_Quier

Jay_Z wrote:

Will something like the Spyder help to calibrate the color, brightness, etc? I want to make sure the adjustments I am making are the ones I intend to be making! Is there a better way to go (looking for a mid range product - less than a Huey calibration system, etc!).

Any suggestions/recommendations on this, let me know.

I've used the Spyder2Pro for a couple of years now and have had, I think, very good success with it. It's worked on at least 4 different video cards matched up with at least 4 different monitors (one of them was an old CRT) and a couple of laptops (one with matt screen and one with an XBrite). The color temperature, saturation, brightness, etc seem very similar from one to the next. Prints done through my SmugMug account with their color adjustment turned off have looked very, very good.

I would be inclinded to believe that their more recent products would do as well but .... YMMV

HTM

Jay_Z

Scott_Quier wrote:

I've used the Spyder2Pro for a couple of years now and have had, I think, very good success with it. It's worked on at least 4 different video cards matched up with at least 4 different monitors (one of them was an old CRT) and a couple of laptops (one with matt screen and one with an XBrite). The color temperature, saturation, brightness, etc seem very similar from one to the next. Prints done through my SmugMug account with their color adjustment turned off have looked very, very good.

I would be inclinded to believe that their more recent products would do as well but .... YMMV

HTM

Great, thanks for the info/feedback on this! Just wanted to make sure this was going to help me with this - I want to be making correct adjustment so when they print from SmugMug they are how I intended! Wasn't sure if this product would be a good option - reviews seem decent.

pathfinder

Scott, I have used the Spyder2Pro for several years as well, on my 24 in and 30 in Apple displays, as well as for 2 different laptops. The screens all look similar, with similar contrast and color saturations. Prints that I print myself on my Epson 3800, or via Smugmug, both match my on screen images very closely. So -= I have been quite satisfied with it.

I would think that the newer Spyder3 Pro will work equally well.

That said, the iOneD2 gets very high marks, isn't that expensive ( at least in the US Antonio - seems expensive in Euros, even with the change in exchange rates ) Andrew Rodney seems to favor the i1D2 as well.

The Color Munki seems interesting, because it will create printer profiles as well, that seem to be of good quality.

Antonio Correia

Thank you Scott and Jim.

The i1Display2 is almost on the way from Porto, Portugal.
At the distance of a phone call I'll make in a couple of minutes...

Moogle Pepper

Not wanting to hijack the thread, but I am looking at the i1Display 2 and the Protone Huey. The Huey is cheaper.. but what are the pros to that brand compared to the display2?

Travis

Scott_Quier wrote:

I've used the Spyder2Pro for a couple of years now and have had, I think, very good success with it. It's worked on at least 4 different video cards matched up with at least 4 different monitors (one of them was an old CRT) and a couple of laptops (one with matt screen and one with an XBrite). The color temperature, saturation, brightness, etc seem very similar from one to the next. Prints done through my SmugMug account with their color adjustment turned off have looked very, very good.

I would be inclinded to believe that their more recent products would do as well but .... YMMV

HTM

My experiences with the Spyder2pro are the same as Scott's. I've used it on both my laptop and my LCD flatscreen and have been impressed with my Smugmug prints.

Antonio Correia

You know guys, in this global world, competition is feracious.

I went to the site of the i1Display2 and took notice of the representatives in Europe.

I sent a mail to a couple of them: some 4 in Spain, some 5 in Germany, some 5 in Great Britain.
Then I received proposals. Different ones.

After - mark my word: after - I have bought the item in Portugal, I received a proposal from Germany 30 Euros sheapper !

Too late. :cry
The item is on the way.:D

And Moogle, feel free to ask whatever you have in mind.

:DI hope to lay my hands on it this evening when I come home