Customer Reviews

ColorVision Spyder2 Suite Win/Mac

5 star:		(86)
4 star:		(44)
3 star:		(18)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Just load the software and plug it in. Follow the instruction on screen and that's it.

Couldn't be easier and the results are great. My prints now look like what I see on the monitor. Photo paper and ink are expensive. This item has already saved me more in paper and ink than it cost to buy.

I bought the Spyder 2 suite and the monitor calibration worked very well. The printer calibration, not so good. The printer calibration is strictly a judgement call. You pring a picture from the program and they match it to the monitor picture. I could have done that without paying extra for a program that is pretty lame. I thougtht the printer program would print something and then the hardware would scan it and set the printer program, unfortunatley it doesn't work that way. As I said at the stare the monitor calibration worked very well and was easy to use.

Earl Stuckey

I've had no issues with the monitor calibration. Works great.

The "suite" version differentiates itself from regular Spyder 2 by the printer calibration. It is not worth the $20 difference. The printer calibration is TERRIBLE!!!

The printer calibration included no printed documentation. The installer crashes on WinXP. The program itself crashes VERY often -- and required reboots in between crashes (warning of some obtuse 'unable to open file' message).

After spending about an hour re-booting and re-running PrintFix, all it allows is to select from a pre-defined list of printers, and then has slider bars for things like "Brightness" and "cyan<->magenta", etc. There's no way to calibrate the results other than eyeballing the printouts! That's not calibration, that's eyeballing! They don't even offer a service (or a discount for that service) of say, mailing in a few test-sheets to a lab to do the analysis (since the included sensor is unable to analyze the paper).

The final result? Prints that look identical to how I started. All I did was waste a few hours rebooting.

I decided to buy a monitor calibration tool because I do a lot of digital photos and they always look different on different computers. Sometimes I boost the colors only to find at work the colors are way too strong. It's frustrating, my 1 year old has "orange" hair. On some monitors it's brown, on others it's red. If this sounds like you (the color problem, not the orange haired baby) then this device is for you.

This is a great entry level monitor calibration tool. The software is great and calibration is easy. Now images look the same on all my computers. And the best part is this device is the same device as the pro version. First, that means you're not getting a cheap device! Second, it means you can upgrade the software to pro version if you need to. This is why I selected this model. The eye-one is not upgradeable, and it's more expensive.

Overall, I highly recommend this device.

I've never been satisfied with monitor calibration tools that rely solely your eye for making adjustments. Every time I calibrate with one of those tools the monitor looks great after the calibration, but when I come back later when my eyes are refreshed I realize that there is a blue or red cast over the display. Simply put, you can't trust your eyes. Spyder2 Express takes the guesswork out of calibration in a simple, straightforward way.

The first thing I did was calibrate my desktop LCD. It took five minutes to do and I did not realize before looking at the before and after results that I had been staring at a blueish cast for the year I had the monitor. The white background of webpages was paper white and images and text looked great. Never one to fully trust technology this inexpensive I used the freeware program HCFR (see below for more on that) to verify that the color balance was correct across all shades and to my satisfaction it was.

I then calibrated my MacBook Pro. The first pass was night and day. All of the sudden the interface looked "3D". The Apple profiles leave a hard blue cast over the everything and Spyder2 Express really cleaned it up. Unfortunately, I realized I was not using the most recent version of the software and tried again after installing the new version, but now I detect a slight pinkish hue over greys. I will have to give it another shot later.

Be careful that no light is directly hitting your display when you calibrate or it will not work. I tried calibrating my work PC but the florescent overhead lights could not be blocked out so I could not get a good read. I think that's why a lot of people are complaining that this tool does not work. To them I say, RTFM.

Here's the cool part. There's a freeware program called HCFR (Google it for more info) that is compatible with the Spyder2 sensor. With this tool you can do expert-level calibration at an even higher level than the more expensive Spyder2 Pro. But beware, HCFR is not user-friendly at all and geared toward absolute experts. It will not create a color profile for you like Spyder2 Express or Pro. However, with it, you can perform professional-grade calibration on any LCD, CRT, plasma, or projector. This weekend I will be doing my 46" LCD television. The sensor is fairly accurate past 10 IRE. Lower than that you may want to look at a more expensive sensor.

So overall a good tool for novices with perks for experts.

I read about this in Scott Kelby's Photoshop CS2 Book. I went with this model since I'm not a professional photographer. Much lower price than their highest end model. I had a little trouble installing the software, my fault didn't follow every step exactly, but finally figured it out and everything went smoothly.
I highly recommend this for calibration. I'm an amatuer photographer and I've experienced a lot of frustration with my prints not matching the onscreen photo. If you print your own pictures get this and Scott Kelby's Photoshop Book! Your frustrations will come to an end.

I am very satisfied with this product.
It is easy to use. You install and run the software, "attach" the Spyder to the screen (just follow the instructions) and get a coffee while it does the calibration. During calibration the software displays colored surfaces on the screen (RGB, black/white variations, color temperature, ...) and the Spyder measures the screen output -that's all.
After the calibration it shows a test picture that lets you see and judge before/afterwards.
The software gives a clear explanation about the how-to's, but sometimes it refers to features that are not available in this basic version of the Spyder device -you can easily ignore them however.
It's cheap and it seems to work well... so I recommend it to everyone. I feel much more comfortable now when editing my pictures for the ages to come :-)