Customer Reviews

ColorVision Spyder2PRO Win/Mac

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

It does the basic job well. The calibration runs smoothly and accurately. Hardware looks and feels solid. My two completely different brand, size and age CRT monitors ended up with exactly the same colors sitting side by side.

User interface is merely adequate. Pop up help instructions are better than many I have seen. You will need to know already how the calibration buttons on your monitors work (the hardwired buttons on the monitor, not software). In order to make any edits you must run the entire time consuming calibration over. Sometimes you can use "back" within the calibration, sometimes you must start over. Also the separate "profile chooser" utility software, has not add or delete profile feature - even if it is a profile created and saved by the calibration software earlier. You can see it with windows display properties, but it may not appear in the profile chooser list.

Dual monitors is the one obvious reason to choose pro over plus version. Yes, it does dual monitors, but with an asterisk. It will create separate profiles, but will only apply the correct profiles automatically at startup to both monitors if you have two separate video cards. If you have a single video card with dual outputs, it will load the same profile (the last one you created) to both monitors at startup. This quirk is documented in a readme file on the installation disk (and blames windows for the problem), but this limitation appears nowhere in advertising material, catalogs, or on the box. Fortunately there is a work around (not documented) at least with my particular video card and running XP. After windows opens, you can run profile chooser then choose the correct profile for each monitor. You may have to use windows display properties settings to specify default profile and rerun the calibration to get the profiles you want to appear in profile chooser and to select the correct profile as default.

Once it's all set up, running profile chooser is a four of five click procedure, but you must rememeber to check it before using any application that uses color profiles. And check it after you open the application. I've had them change after opening photoshop - though not every time.

Previously I owned ColorVision's Spyder2 program and was quite satisfied with it. It did not include, however, a program for correcting the printer's color rendition. The new Spyder2Pro includes PrintFix Plus. This along with the monitor correction Spyder2Pro works very effectively. I am very happy with the program. For the price it is a great addition to Photoshop editing. The Spyder program allows the monitor and printer to show a print that reflects what the user has taken in his digital camera. I have not found any particular negatives about the program. In the past I have used their tech service for fine tuning the program. They were very responsive and helpful..

I bought this because I try to take photography seriously and needed my images to look right on the screen while editing.

The software does an okay job of getting this done right.

My problem is with the printer calibration software in that it supports a limited amount or printers.

I have four Epson printers none of which are supported.
It's kind of disappointing for the price you pay for this.

-Mario

I upgraded from the Spyder2Express, not really an upgrade because its cheaper to just purchase the pro version than it is to get the upgrade, which means I ended up with a spare device.

On my mac the dual screen supports just works, I use a single card with two outputs and it does support two profiles at the same time. Worked first time, but Mac dual screen support is much better than Windows.
I also calibrated my Windows systems and my laptop with no issues.

Makes the complex task of calibrating your screens pretty simple.

One point to highlight before you start though and this applies to ANY product of this type.
You simply MUST try to learn what you are attempting to do BEFORE starting any calibration process. If you do not know what the device is trying to do, then you will have problems. Color management is a complex process, expecting this device to simplify it while ignoring all the other aspects of a color managed workflow is a recipe for failure.

This applies to Gretag and the others as well.

I bought the Spyder2Pro for the specific task of color calibrating my dual monitor setup. 1 monitor being my 15" MacBookPro the other a 22"Samsung LCD. Installed the software and ran the setup on both screens. Worked better than I could hope.*
*One thing that I noticed was that you have to run it more than once with different ambient lighting to get the desired color settings. The ambient light feature really changes color (wether you have sunlight, flourecent, incandecent ect.) you just have to keep running it till you like what you see and if it matches your printouts. Took me twice on each monitor with different BG lighting (I found a room lit by indirect sunlight the best). On my apple the Dual Monitor thing DOES work flawlessly, I am able to run 2 different color profiles at the same time (1 for each monitor).

I wasn't sure which version I should buy. I knew I needed to calibrate my monitor, but that was all I knew. After the purchase, I am happy and think that it is a great product, but I have not used any of the expanded features this version offers. The low end would have been more then enough for my part time digital photography business needs. I don't have a high end monitor or a high end video card. I have typical equipment. I benefited from the purchase, but feel I should have bought the low end version. The hardware is the same in either case.

This product is easy to use. Why are the directions so difficult to wade through? I ended up calling customer service, after reading the printed material and searching the CD materials. The major hangup was getting past the little popup window inside the folder with the product icon: When you open it, a popup asks for your name, the serial number and your phone number, as I recall. I thought this was the product registration page, which I postponed doing to continue my search for the directions. Had I filled in the registration material and hit "continue," I'd have finished calibrating my monitor and hour and a half sooner. The customer service rep said, "Yeah, you have to sort of put two and two together." A simple note on the registration page saying: "Do this first or we'll never let you get to our directions" would have been very helpful. Overall, the printed directions need work. By the way, the product is great. At last, my prints look like what's on my monitor.

It was time to bit the bullet and really calibrate my monitors. All you read about is how important it is to "calibrate your monitor". If you are like me, it's hard to buy something you are only going to use a few times a year so you think you can get away with calibrating visually with some of the freebies out there. I was shocked at how off my monitors really were (the Spyder2Pro gives you a before and after selection when you are finished). If you are like me, I always read many reviews on products before I purchase which helps me decide what to do and wonder about the people giving the reviews. I happen to work on 4 dual monitor work stations and several other single monitor computers so this was really worth the money. As far as ease of use, I had no problems understanding the calibration proceedure Color Vision gave. All but 2 of my monitors are LCD so I could lean them back at a slight angle to have the spyder rest properly. The 2 CRT's are in my Green Screen Room and are used for direct video capture using Sony Vegas. I am not one for photos or other "screen saver" junk. My monitors are all set to neutral gray... strictly business. It's wonderful to see all the monitors exactly the same. I also print on an Epson 4800 so I need to know prints are going to look like my edits in Photoshop. Good Job ColorVision!
Worth the purchase.

Though I have not printed after caliberation (I did 3 of my laptop monitors), but hardware is very good and easy to install. But reasons for my such poor rating of Spyder2 Pro is "pathetic" guidence and instructions. First, let me say a few words about support: (a) It is three days that I registered the product to receive my log in support, but still no response; (b)when I tried to contact them through phone, the number belongs to some other company. The number 800-544-8688 is listed every where, but it is NOT for ColorVision, NJ. This act alone deserves some severe action against the company.......

Now about the product. Very easy to install the software (driver), just follow the screen instructions. But once software is installed, then what? No instruction: you are in a loop. Actually, then you have to go to desktop icon of Spyder2 Pro or program (that the software has created). Open the program and follow instructions for monitor calibration: here comes the role of the hard ware (the actual spyder). Very easy to do it. But once the monitor is calibrated, you will receive the Error that the calibration you have created has NO profile... Actually, then you have to open properties (by right clicking the desktop). In properties, go to setting/Advance/color management. Then click Add,...it will open a number of color profiles. You choose the one that you have created by Spyder2 Pro. Then choose it as DEFAULT. Then click apply / OK. Restart the computer.

After restarting, to check whether you are using the created Spyder2 Pro profile, open the "color profile" on the desktop or program. You will find the name of your Spyder2 Pro created profile at the top (or this should be the only one)and at the bottom, radio circled ONLY ... blackened. If not, then the monitor is not using your newly created color profile....

I wrote down these steps, so that other should not waste time or curse ColorVision for the lousy product... Actually, the product is good, but instructions and support are "pathetic." I hope ColorVision is reading this review and doing some thing about it.

Having seen this product demonstrated at a recent photographic conference I purchased it as soon as I got home. When it arrived I immediately calibrated my PC monitor and Epson digital projector. The process is very simple with easy to follow screen prompts that walk you through the process. My images have been taken to a new level of color accuracy.

This was the best investment I could have made to advance my photograpic color accuracy.