Spyder 3 Pro - a little disappointed

Kinkajou

Hey there, I used the search function but didn't see anything on this in particular, so pardon me if it's been discussed before

I just got the Spyder 3 Pro as I DESPERATELY needed to calibrate my monitor at home, and I'm honestly a little disappointed. Well, a lot disappointed. So maybe it's not the magical perfect tool I was hoping it'd be, but really, it shouldn't be this hard.

I have tried the Spyder on the mac notebook I use at home and the Dell laptop with an extra ViewSonic monitor that I use at work. Before I made the adjustments on any of the screens, I looked up the gamma for each one to make sure I was using the correct settings and found that the Dell gamma is higher (by a lot) than what the Spyder software recognizes.

At home, I had to try it many many times in varying levels of ambient light and trying different gamma/white point levels, trying it with and without the suction cup, trying everything I could think of before I ended up with something that was not exceptionally green, blue, or red hued and was approaching reasonable.

I had the same problem with my two monitors at work, especially the Dell; I ended up selecting the calibration that looks the least horrible for that one (again, experimenting with changes in every variable I could control), but it's still off. The ViewSonic seemed to respond the best (only took three tries) but I'm positive that that's still off too. We also tested it on a friend's mac notebook and it seemed worked great for him on the first try (go figure).

So, now that I know that every time I try to calibrate I end up with a noticeably different profile and that it's taken so many tries to get something that looks even close to right, I just don't trust it at this point.

Has anyone had this kind of experience before or have any pointers for how I can improve the Sypder's performance? This has been really frustrating. I guess nothing is the perfect cure-all, but...

ziggy53

I moved the to the Digital Darkroom Gear, where we discuss computers and monitors and things that are hardware to do with the image processing side of photography.

Hopefully someone that has the Spyder will chime in.

ivar

I have the Spyder3Elite (same hardware afaik) and I have to say I have had no problems whatsoever, both on my macbook and on my iMac with a second monitor. I bought it specifically because it has the ability to match multiple screens, and the Huey I previously had did not.

The only thing I did notice is that it works easier for me when I don't use the suction cup and move the counterweight closer to the puck so I can hang it over the monitors. I do need to press lightly on the puck to make sure all three 'legs' are touching the screen.

You could try and download the latest software for the Spyder (the Spyder I got didn't have the latest software on the disc it came with). Maybe there were some bugs that have been fixed since in the Windows version?

sara505

ivar wrote:

I have the Spyder3Elite (same hardware afaik) and I have to say I have had no problems whatsoever, both on my macbook and on my iMac with a second monitor. I bought it specifically because it has the ability to match multiple screens, and the Huey I previously had did not.

The only thing I did notice is that it works easier for me when I don't use the suction cup and move the counterweight closer to the puck so I can hang it over the monitors. I do need to press lightly on the puck to make sure all three 'legs' are touching the screen.

You could try and download the latest software for the Spyder (the Spyder I got didn't have the latest software on the disc it came with). Maybe there were some bugs that have been fixed since in the Windows version?

I started off with the Pro, and it was recommended that I upgrade to the Elite, which I did.

The Elite has more of the options that a photographer needs. Can't remember which. There have been other discussions here regarding same.

I have been successful with the Elite - though it does require a certain amount of futzing around, trial and error.

Datacolor is pretty good about responding to support requests, also.

Kinkajou

Thanks, guys. I'll give the SW update and positioning futzing a try. Hopefully that'll solve it...

Rhuarc

Kinkajou wrote:

Thanks, guys. I'll give the SW update and positioning futzing a try. Hopefully that'll solve it...

Any word on how this turned out? I currently have the old Spyder Express, and am looking for a new calibrator that has all the capabilities like measuring luminance. I am kind of looking between the Spyder3Pro/Elite, and the HueyPro. I would be interested to hear how your experience with the Spyder3Pro turns out. And if anyone else has suggestions I am open to them as well! I'm trying to keep it under the $150 dollar mark.

Newsy

Rhuarc wrote:

Any word on how this turned out? I currently have the old Spyder Express, and am looking for a new calibrator that has all the capabilities like measuring luminance. I am kind of looking between the Spyder3Pro/Elite, and the HueyPro. I would be interested to hear how your experience with the Spyder3Pro turns out. And if anyone else has suggestions I am open to them as well! I'm trying to keep it under the $150 dollar mark.

http://spyder.datacolor.com/s3compare.php

The Pro does NOT measure and calibrate to custom white or black luminance values, at least according to this chart. Over in another forum users have said that the latest download from the Datacolor site DOES enable this feature as per the Elite but I have had people download and try it and say it DOES NOT.

The other hardware colorimeter in the same price range is the Xrite i1D2. Its' software offers much the same, if not more, functionality of the Spyder Elite including being able to measure and calibrate to custom luminance targets.

If you have a wide gamut monitor you should be looking to the Spyder3 as its' "puck/sensor" has been designed for wide gamut where the older pucks like the Spyder2 have issues. The i1D2 also is designed for wide gamut monitors.

Best pricing I've seen on hardware colorimters has been from B&H.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/Color-Management-Hardware/ci/12000/N/4294545277

.

Kinkajou

Alright, I went back and downloaded a newer version of the software and started the process over from scratch for my macbook at home, and things seem to have turned out much better. The first time I let it measure the ambient light and then recommend 5000. That didn't look right, so I tried it again at the mac-recommended 6500 and now it seems to look much better and there is significantly more consistency between programs.

I haven't tried it on the work monitors yet, but now I have a sliver of hope... and I'm a little less angry

Thanks for the advice, guys!