Spyder4 Express or Pro?

edmacke

I'm looking at the Express and Pro versions of the new Spyder4 color calibration systems.

Based on this comparison chart, it looks like the important differences are:

• The Express only has 2.2 gamma. The Pro has 1.8, 2.0, 2.2, 2.4
• The Express only has 6500K temp. The Pro has 5000K, 5800K, 6500K, "native"
• The Express only supports ICC 2. The Pro supports ICC 2 and ICC 4
• The Pro measures ambient light and automatically adjusts brightness

My question is whether I would ever need the extra features of the pro, and whether it's worth the extra $50.

I don't want to waste my money on features I'll never use, but on the other hand I don't want to forgo useful features to save a buck.

Newsy

edmacke wrote: »

I'm looking at the Express and Pro versions of the new Spyder4 color calibration systems.

Based on this comparison chart, it looks like the important differences are:

• The Express only has 2.2 gamma. The Pro has 1.8, 2.0, 2.2, 2.4
• The Express only has 6500K temp. The Pro has 5000K, 5800K, 6500K, "native"
• The Express only supports ICC 2. The Pro supports ICC 2 and ICC 4

I would just stick to ICC2. What really requires ICC4 these days? and what advantage does ICC4 give over ICC2?

• The Pro measures ambient light and automatically adjusts brightness

My question is whether I would ever need the extra features of the pro, and whether it's worth the extra $50.

In your "Monitors" thread I strongly encouraged you to consider the Elite.

Here's my understanding of the Pro's functionality to measure luminance and this is based on the software found in the Spyder3. If the S4 is just a carry over, this is what you will get.


It will use the puck to sample but setting the level is by eyeball. The Spyder software will present a screen with a gray scale like set of objects in which you will have to eyeball increasing or decreasing the brightness so that you see the squares. Ditto for Contrast. At the end of the calibration, and only then, you will be given the white luminance value on the final report page. If you are not happy with this luminance value you will have to redo the entire calibration to get around to seeing what the new tweaked value is.

The Elite will give you a dedicated module for setting the white and black luminance. You will have to enable "Measured Luminance" in the software and then proceed with the calibration. The Spyder software will then use the puck to sample the screen and you will be given a real time meter showing the current white luminance value. You will adjust your Brightness, check the real time reading, and adjust again if necessary. NO eyeballing!!

Once set you move on with the RGB part of the calibration. You don't have to wait until the end of the calibration to learn the value of your luminance.

Furthermore, I believe the Elite has some features that help to speed up calibrating a system with two or more monitors.

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Wayupthere

Newsy,
One of my next steps is a "real" monitor and calibrator. I still don't know much, but I try to soak up the knowledge from your posts!
Thanks, Gary

Don Kondra

The Pro measures ambient light and automatically adjusts brightness

Not so

It will measure the light and warn you if conditions wander too far from the current settings... then you can choose to make changes.

Cheers, Don

Newsy

I should have also mentioned that with the Elite software in Measured mode the software will ask you for your desired luminance vale and then the screen it presents will provide a gauge showing how close to that target value you are. From there you get to adjust your monitor's controls until the real time read out is bang on. Easy, much easier than eyeballing. And with two monitors side by side you know they both will have the exact same luminance value.

You don't get the option to key in your target value with the Pro (or Express) software.

edmacke

Thanks, everybody, for you input!

Newsy wrote: »

What really requires ICC4 these days? and what advantage does ICC4 give over ICC2?

I have no clue! I was hoping you knew.

Newsy wrote: »

In your "Monitors" thread I strongly encouraged you to consider the Elite... If the S4 is just a carry over, this is what you will get.

I like that the Elite has the simpler - and more accurate - luminance controls. But I'm having trouble justifying going from $115 (for the Express) to the Elite (more than double at $250) based on that alone.

So what else would make the Elite more useable in the real world? What about the gamma and color temp choices - are those actually useful or just gimmicks?

As you can maybe tell from this and my monitor thread, I don't have an unlimited budget for this stuff (did I mention my daughter owns a horse?). I'm just an amateur shooter, but I'm also tired of too dark prints with dodgy colors, so I'm looking for a calibrated monitor solution that doesn't bust the bank.

I hate paying for frills I don't need. But worse is paying for solutions that don't solve the problem. So basically I want the lowest cost solution that will make my monitor match my SmugMug calibration prints I've got (either with my current monitor - Samsung P2250 - or the ASUS monitor we talked about in the other thread, or another IPS panel).

Thanks again, all!

edmacke

Just wanted to mention, FWIW...

I emailed Datacolor's customer support, and they said that if you buy the Spyder4Express, it cannot later be upgraded to the Pro or Elite version since the hardware is different (i.e. the Express version does not have the ambient light sensor)

However, if you buy the Spyder4Pro, it can later be upgraded to the the Elite version via a software upgrade.

Newsy

An update....

I just learned from a Spyder 4 Pro user a few things.

In Advanced mode (I think it is still called this) early in the calibration cycle when you are in the Color Temperature screen where you have the a meter showing the RGB levels and are tweaking your RGB sliders to get to a Kelvin point, it ALSO shows you the Target White Luminance value and your ACTUAL White Luminance value.

I believe the "Target" value comes from the Ambient Light sensor of the Spyder4 - it is the value that it suggests after sampling your ambient light. In the Pro version you still cannot manually key in a desired target value.

At this point you can also adjust your brightness control and then "update" to refresh the read out from the puck sensor.

(I hope to have a screen capture to insert here shortly)

This is much better than what Spyder 3 Pro user's had advised to me last year - where you did not get a readout from the sensor until the summary screen of the calibration, forcing you to go back through the entire calibration to reset the brightness.

So.... if you don't need the extra analysis reports of the Elite or a specific module to target white and/or black luminance and a real time meter from the puck sensor, the Pro looks very good as it is also capable of calibrating multiple monitors.

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