ColorVision Spyder2 Express Win/Mac

by ColorVision

Product Features

• Sleek, dual-phase hardware design offers effortless calibration
• CRT, LCD, and laptop displays to industry standards
• State-of-the-art optical science; before and after viewing
• Exceptionally smooth gradient steps and neutral grays
• Outstanding reliability backed by a 2-year hardware warranty

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 1.4 x 4.2 x 4.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000ES4PYU
• Item model number: S2E100
• Date first available at Amazon.com: July 7, 2004
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (172 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,257 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Calibrate your display--just like professionals. Spyder2express calibrates monitors in three easy steps--simply plug it in, specify your display type, and it does the rest, automatically calibrating your monitor or laptop. Check the before-and-after. You'll see the improvement!

Features:

• CRT, LCD, and laptop displays to industry standards
• Easy software wizard guiding you through the calibration process in just a few steps means you don't have to be a color guru
• New state-of-the-art optical science provides a five-fold increase in color sensitivity over previous technology with a patent-protected light baffle for accurate characterization of LCD displays
• Sleek, dual-phase hardware design offers effortless LCD, CRT, and laptop calibration while protecting delicate LCD screens
• Outstanding reliability backed by a two-year hardware warranty
• Sophisticated gray balance and tonal response algorithms provide demanding users with exceptionally smooth gradient steps and neutral grays
• Unique before and after viewing feature lets you compare your display with and without calibration

Product Description

The most effective entry level monitor calibration, just plug in by USB, let it calibrate, remove from monitor…done! Easy as 1-2-3!

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

64 of 64 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Basic Colorimeter March 11, 2007

By BobP

Edition:Express|Amazon Verified Purchase

Pros: Good, well contructed, colorimeter for the novice, easy to use software walks you through every step. I notice a definite improvement in my new 22" WS LCD's picture. I had tried Adobe Gamma and Quick Gamma, but these programs rely on your eyes for making brightness and contrast corrections, and setting gamma. My eyes are not as sharp as they were 20 years ago.

Cons: The new updated software, version 2.3, has been out since June, 2006 but Colorvision is still shipping with the older version. Go to their website [...]), download 2.3 (110.3 MB), install it, and use the keycode on your 2.2 version to run it. The 2.3 version changes the target white point for LCDs to 6500K instead of Native. I personally prefer 6500k anyway. Gamma 2.2 and 6500K are the only choices with the Express. If you want more choices you will have to purchase the more expensive Pro version.
After calibration and exiting the software I got a "Can not find color profile" error message. Rebooting solved this.
With the counter-weight adjusted, I still had to tilt my LCD monitor back 15 - 20 degrees before I could get the Spyder to lay completely flat on the screen.

67 of 68 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Spyder2 Suite (including PrintFIX PLUS) September 2, 2006

By W. Cushman

Edition:Suite

Sypder2, the monitor calibration product, is excellent. My monitor never looked this good! Documentation is a bit terse, however. Additionally, you have to know how to do a few things such as (1) disable a program from starting when you boot up and (2) manually adjust your monitor for brightness, contrast, and color temperature and reset it to the factory defaults. Of these, the most important is probably knowing how to disable Adobe Gamma on startup (if enabled), and this is not explained adequately. Some patience and possibly a call to tech support may be required.

PrintFIX PLUS (the printer profiling tool) is less intuitive and more difficult to use. There is no printed documentation, and the Help files are a bit terse. You start by picking a printer/paper combination (any one will probably do, but pick a matte profile if you want to make matte prints). You probably won't find your printer/paper combination in the list, but it really does not matter. These profiles can be used as starting points for profiling of any color printer. You disable the ICM profiling included with your print driver (in the print dialog box for your printer), then make a test print. You compare your test print with an image of the print on your monitor and then make adjustments for brightness, saturation, contrast, color, and viewing conditions.

It's an iterative process to be sure, and some patience is required. The printer profile that I created was much more accurate than any of the ICM profiles provided by HP. It made a HUGE difference in print quality.

I use the ICM profiles from Spyder2 and PrintFIX PLUS in conjunction with Photoshop Elements 4.0 and do all of my critical color printing from within that application. (Note: the ICM profiles that you create with these products are accessible from within the Photoshop Elements Print dialog box. You don't have to install them.)

Additionally, I have not experienced any crashes or other instability issues when used with Windows XP as reported by one reviewer.

Conclusions/Recommendations:

Spyder2 is recommended for any intermediate or advanced amateur photographer who uses Photoshop Elements or equivalent. Novices might be better off with Spyder2 Express, which is considerably cheaper but less robust.

PrintFIX PLUS is recommended for anyone who has some experience making color prints requiring color correction and that has an older printer or even a newer one with inadequate ICM profiles to get satisfactory results. Patience is required.

52 of 53 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars So That's What it Should Look Like November 10, 2006

By Brian Koch VINE™ VOICE

Edition:Express

I am always editing photos and then getting back the prints and wondering where I went wrong. I tried using manual color calibration tools which did make a big difference, but my color was still not quite right. This was so easy and accurate I regret not doing it sooner. All you have to do is install the software, disable any color altering settings you currently have in use, plug it in and let it go. It takes a few minutes going through various colors and then it is done, just like that. I have done this on both my desktop LCD and notebook LCD and they both look great. The colors just seem to have more contrast and detail. I would highly recommend this to anyone looking to get accurate color representation out of their monitors but don't want to spend a lot of time doing it.