Customer Reviews

ColorVision Spyder 2 (Win/Mac)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I've used my Spyder2 on a Mac iBook and a Dell 2350 running Windows XP on a 17in Dell LCD flatscreen. The monitor calibrator and software in both cases did a much better job than I could do on my own with Adobe Gamma or other judgement-based calibrators. After calibration, pictures on my monitors appear much more like the prints I get from Kodak Gallery (formerly Ofoto), both in color and tone (to the extent that a projected-light RGB image can look like a reflected light CMYK image.) I haven't tested the system on a CRT monitor.

One gripe: I bought my system new from Amazon, and it came packaged as new, but the Spyder was scuffed and clearly had been used previously. It wasn't worth my time and energy to return it since it functions fine, but I don't think this was an honest business practice on the part of ColorVision.

When I was ready to buy a bigger monitor the only practical choice was an LCD, despite the inherent limitations in color space. I do a lot of digital photography, and after several months of trying to match what I saw on the new monitor with what I printed, and what others saw when I sent them pictures, I was pretty frustrated. So I ordered a Spyder. After about an hour's investment of time my monitor now displays pictures the way they should look. The software may not have a perfect user interface, but it is pretty good. The process takes a little time, but it is comparable to the time it took to set up the monitor in the first place, and hardly onerous as an occasional calibration. In fact, I would have saved many hours of Photoshop time if I'd just bought the Spyder when I bought the monitor. If you want to use multiple monitors or prepare files for commercial printers you should probably get the pro edition. But if you just want to make your monitor "behave" the way it should then get this product and spend the hour it takes to do the calibration.

I am sure a professional or one versed in color management issues can use this device and achieve good results. People just getting into this should be careful. I followed the instructions and now my monitor puts a definite blue cast to everything. So obviously, I did something wrong - but finding out what isn't easy. First, the on-screen help is a total joke, hardly has any info at all. There is no manual either. There is no explanation of color management, don't explain how it interacts with other devices, etc.

I do have two monitors, one LCD, one tube. I was able to get it to do profiles for both by unplugging one and then the other. The two monitors aren't even close to showing the same colors now - one is blueish the other yellowish. So again, I'm doing something wrong, but the application gives me no clue on what to fix.

The other apps are even less user-friendly. The profile chooser application has no on-screen help at all nor does it let you delete profiles.

The included Pantone color picker application comes with a 20 page pdf that doesn't really explain what it is or why you'd use it.

Again, someone coming from a graphics background probably won't have a problem and I'm not claiming the application itself is flawed. I may well come back 3 months from now and have no problems at all either. But you do need to have knowledge of color management to use and troubleshoot this.

Pantone ColorVision Spyder2 is a monitor calibration and profiling tool that helps you match the colors displayed on your LCD or CRT monitor to those printed on a photo printer. It includes a hardware colorimeter that measures the "color temperature" of the monitor and associated software utility.

First off, do you need such a tool? The answer is a definite yes if you work with digital images a lot. An incorrectly calibrated monitor makes photo editing an exercise in frustration, as the color you see on screen never matches the color you get on your printer. So calibration and profiling are necessary. On the other hand, if you rarely do any photo editing or use any application that's color-critical, you won't need a tool like this at all; just set the monitor to levels that you find comfortable.

(Calibration sets the monitor to display accurate, or close to accurate, colors, so red looks red and blue looks blue and white looks white. Profiling helps match the monitor settings with the printer settings so when you print, you get consistent colors and highlights/shadows.)

To use the Spyder2, you first install the driver and utility, then connect the colorimeter via USB. You then run a wizard that walks you through the process step-by-step.

While the product works and has improved the looks of photos on my LCD, it's rather poorly designed in terms of user friendliness. For example, this version does NOT work on multiple monitors. It only calibrates the monitor that's connected to the primary port of the video card. Even if you switch primary/secondary via Windows (an easy feat in Display Properties), it won't recognize the other monitor.

(My workaround is to calibrate one monitor, turn off the PC and the monitors, switch the two monitors on the video card, turn everything back on, and calibrate the other monitor.)

The calibration process itself takes a lot of patience. The hardware colorimeter is very slow in taking readings off the screen, but the main problem lies with the calibration-profiling wizard. The font is tiny, making it hard to see. The explanation is never clear, making you wonder what exactly you're doing. Brightness and contrast are not calibrated; instead, you are instructed to leave them at factory default, which is usually too high for comfort. The worst is there's no indication of progress of the colorimeter, just an hourglass icon. When I first used this I thought it had crashed. Also, instead of giving you the full details on how to adjust color temperature, the wizard just encourages you experiment with the monitor controls. This complexity, plus the slow speed of the colorimeter, makes adjusting a dual-monitor setup a total pain in the ass. (You'll have to write down all the information from one monitor by hand, then try to adjust the other monitor to match these values.)

The package includes a slim installation guide written in a dozen languages -- and it's printed in tiny font and leaves out much useful information. There's no electronic user's guide, to my surprise. For example, there's a program called ProfileChooser but there's no documentation at all on what it does. When I launch it, it shows me some info but doesn't seem to do anything useful.

Summary: if you do a lot of digital imaging work, this is a must-have as it allows you to objectively calibrate your monitor. If you have a multiple-monitor setup, consider the more expensive Spyder2PRO package, which should support such a setup. Overall the basic Spyder2 package is not a good value, but a necessary expense for digital photographers with a limited budget. If I could choose all over again, I'd probably have probably gone with the Spyder2PRO package.

I was prompted to write this review after reading some others. This tool is designed to profile your monitor, not image ediing software. It is used as part of a comprehensive workflow to allow an image taken with a digital camera or scanned in to be consistent on a monitor, either a CRT monitor or an LCD monitor. All this software does is make sure your monitor dsiplays colors that are consistent with a standard. Ideally, if you are viewing the same image on multiple calibrated monitors they will look the same. This reduces variables and allows a consistent approach to image editing and printing. The ColorVision Spyder does a good job, especially at its price point. There are better monitor calibrators but they can cost considerably more. The Spyder is more than adequate for most of us and I use it myself.

It is one step to calibration. The next step is calibrating your printer. The idea is that when you view an image on your screen, work your magic on it, etc, when it is printed on your calibrated printer it looks exactly like it did (within the capabilites of the printer) on the monitor. An application like Photoshop is profile aware and can be setup to use profiles so when an image edited in Photoshop is printed, it is an accurate representation of what you see on the screen.

This whole subject is complex and requires a lot of work and study. For many the Spyder is an adequate tool and is quite easy to use.

I bought the Spyder 2 Plus believing the Colorvision software would also install on Adobe Photoshop CS2, but it doesn't. I called their support desk and they walked me through the simple procedures unsuccessffully. The person with whom I spoke said that the installation disc was probably corrupted, and I was then directed to their website to download the latest Colorvision Profiler shown, which is dated August 2002. It is a bit behind the times, apparently, to work with CS2, because it also didin't work at all.
I don't know what the PlUS is all about, if its latest downloadable program is three years old, and it doesn't funcion with the latest Adobe Photoshop CS2. This important information is not posted anywhere.

I have been a serious amateur for the better part of 6 years now, and the idea of getting a properly calibrated monitor started nagging at me a couple years ago, when my hobby became a serious thing. At that moment I considered the original Spyder, but never got to buy one; I was confident the optic methods on screen were enough. Then I reviewed monitors calibrated with the Spyder2 and I was blow away. This was my first purchase for the year (01/01/06!) and there was no better way to start the year. The comprehensive control the Spyder2 gives almost guarantees that you will get a perfectly calibrated monitor, to be seen the way it was meant to. I have a setup with two monitors and the Spyder2 and its profile manager makes it easy to calibrate and load the profiles on both of them, minimum maintenance required. Of course, set your mind on the need of periodically re-calibrating your monitor for maximum color accuracy: once you have seen the best it can give, you will not settle for less. Highly recommended!

another reviewer mentioned receiving used equipment. I, too, received a used product - scuffs on the spyder and opened software box. unfortunately, my product was broken as well.

the product may be good in theory, but then, it would need to work for me to comment on that particular facet.

you may want to consider other alternatives.

I purchased the Spyder 2 to calibrate a 23" Cinema HD Display. It is easy to set up with a G5 tower. The on-screen prompts make it a breeze to use. The resulting profile nicely tweaks an already excellent monitor.

The only disappointment (and it is minor) is that I wish it would go through the calibration cycle faster than it does.

The Spyder 2 promises to calibrate your monitor so that the images on the screen will look more like what is being produced by your printer. It does this by building a profile for your monitor and running that profile when you start your computer. Installation and running of the of the software and the hardware that attaches to the monitor to build the profile was flawless. A little more information in the form of a printed manual or pdf file would have been nice, but the software does a good job of hand-holding and stepping one through the process. With the monitor calibration completed the images on the screen were indeed a little closer to what my printer, an HP 5550, was producing. From this point of view I would rate the Spyder 4 stars because it does what it says it is going to do.

However, more is involved in getting your monitor image and printed image to look identical. Not mentioned in the Spyder 2 information is that each printer also has a profile that must be used to get accurate translation from the screen to paper. And finally, each photo paper is a little different in the colors it produces. Taking all of this together, experience with your monitor, printer and specific type of paper is probably better at insuring success than depending on the Spyder 2. If I had it to do all over again would I buy the Spyder 2? No! For most people it will simply be an unnecessary and expensive piece of equipment that is not likely to significantly improve their success in printing pictures.