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Product Description
Professional photographers know that in order to trust the colors they see on screen they must calibrate their displays. From capturing images to digital editing and printing your work, you can rely on consistent, accurate color throughout your studio and digital workflow with Spyder3Elite. Designed for the way photographers work, Spyder3Elite is the next generation in calibration accuracy, precision and speed, allowing unlimited and user defined custom gamma and temperature settings. With Spyder3Elite you can create profiles to your specifications and bring a new level of color control to help you show your work. All of this, plus new intelligent Ambient light control, Super fast ReCAL option, Expert Console, SpyderProof function, StudioMatch Assistant and front projector calibration. The Spyder3 colorimeter is based on a state-of-the-art optical design, with the industry’s only 7 detector color engine and largest light aperture, providing unrivaled performance. In conjunction with the patented filter array and embedded ambient light sensor, Spyder3 provides industry-leading performance for the precision calibration of LCD, CRT, projector and notebook displays. Embedded with a next-generation, high precision sensor, Spyder3 automatically measures the ambient light within a room for a new level of precision calibration. Spyder3 provides you with options to change either your studio lighting or display profile if the ambient light changes.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
36 of 36 people found the following review helpful
By Aarem
Amazon Verified Purchase
If you, like me, are serious about photography and especially, about printing your own photographs you need to sink a few dollars (and lots of time) towards that objective. Perhaps the single most important step is calibrating your monitor, no matter where your photos are printed. I love to print my photographs at home on the Canon Pixma Pro9000 Mark II. Until recently, I had been using the "eye" method of calibration, resulting in prints that were, well, not good at all.
I finally decided to bite the bullet and invest in a calibration device. After a lot of research, went with the Spyder3Elite. (The X-Rite Eye-One Display LT gets good reviews at other websites too, FYI).
The installation on Mac is reasonably straightforward. The device shipped with software version 3.4 (I think) which was a little buggy. Every now and then, completely at random, the "Next" button would disappear forcing a quit and relaunch. Updated to v4 (free) and that seems to have fixed such annoyances.
Calibration of the monitor itself is quite straightforward. It takes an ambient light measurement and then asks you to place the device on the monitor. You hang it on the monitor using the supplied cord/counterweight combo. It is not going to damage/scratch your monitor with typical use.
(The Elite version lets you pick the Gamma etc while, to my understanding, the cheaper Datacolor DC S3P100 Spyder 3 Pro version does not. However, unless you are a pro, I don't think that would be a big deal. I feel I may have gotten a bit more than needed and maybe Pro would've been good enough for my use. So, look carefully at the Pro and research more online.)
The calibration process, once started, takes a few minutes. Go, have a cup of coffee. When you return, you will find a message saying calibration complete, remove the Spyder3 and save the calib file. Make sure to include the date in the file name you choose because you want to pick a recent profile, see below.
Once calibrated, you see the massive difference between the uncalibrated (or, in my case, the "eye" calibrated) and the properly calibrated states. The difference is truly emphasized however when you print. The print actually, and finally, looks like it does on your monitor. So, all that laborious tweaking in photoshop or lightroom that you have been doing, finally show up that way on your print. It is of course important to use the right paper and printer profile as well.
When not calibrating, the device sits by the side of my iMac, plugged into a USB port. It is set to periodically take ambient light measurements. When the ambient light and calibration states mismatch, it gives you a subtle warning (thankfully, no pop-ups, atleast on Mac). I usually ignore those warnings until it is time to work on some photographs. Then I check the ambient light state and choose a recent calibration profile for that ambient light. This has to be done manually.
This last part is the only "con" I can think of, and the reason for four stars instead of five. It does not automatically change the device calibration settings based on the ambient light. If it does, I have not been able to find out how to set it up to do so. I am not sure if other devices do this, but this is something else to look into.
Overall, highly recommended device. If you are planning on printing your own photos, any decent hardware calibration device is an absolute MUST.
I finally decided to bite the bullet and invest in a calibration device. After a lot of research, went with the Spyder3Elite. (The X-Rite Eye-One Display LT gets good reviews at other websites too, FYI).
The installation on Mac is reasonably straightforward. The device shipped with software version 3.4 (I think) which was a little buggy. Every now and then, completely at random, the "Next" button would disappear forcing a quit and relaunch. Updated to v4 (free) and that seems to have fixed such annoyances.
Calibration of the monitor itself is quite straightforward. It takes an ambient light measurement and then asks you to place the device on the monitor. You hang it on the monitor using the supplied cord/counterweight combo. It is not going to damage/scratch your monitor with typical use.
(The Elite version lets you pick the Gamma etc while, to my understanding, the cheaper Datacolor DC S3P100 Spyder 3 Pro version does not. However, unless you are a pro, I don't think that would be a big deal. I feel I may have gotten a bit more than needed and maybe Pro would've been good enough for my use. So, look carefully at the Pro and research more online.)
The calibration process, once started, takes a few minutes. Go, have a cup of coffee. When you return, you will find a message saying calibration complete, remove the Spyder3 and save the calib file. Make sure to include the date in the file name you choose because you want to pick a recent profile, see below.
Once calibrated, you see the massive difference between the uncalibrated (or, in my case, the "eye" calibrated) and the properly calibrated states. The difference is truly emphasized however when you print. The print actually, and finally, looks like it does on your monitor. So, all that laborious tweaking in photoshop or lightroom that you have been doing, finally show up that way on your print. It is of course important to use the right paper and printer profile as well.
When not calibrating, the device sits by the side of my iMac, plugged into a USB port. It is set to periodically take ambient light measurements. When the ambient light and calibration states mismatch, it gives you a subtle warning (thankfully, no pop-ups, atleast on Mac). I usually ignore those warnings until it is time to work on some photographs. Then I check the ambient light state and choose a recent calibration profile for that ambient light. This has to be done manually.
This last part is the only "con" I can think of, and the reason for four stars instead of five. It does not automatically change the device calibration settings based on the ambient light. If it does, I have not been able to find out how to set it up to do so. I am not sure if other devices do this, but this is something else to look into.
Overall, highly recommended device. If you are planning on printing your own photos, any decent hardware calibration device is an absolute MUST.
25 of 27 people found the following review helpful
By Photo King
Amazon Verified Purchase
Originally this was going to get a 1 star. When i created a profile for both my Sharp monitor and my HP LP2475w - the result was very blue and dark. The Before picture they provided looked WAY better than the calibrated version. And no matter what settings I used nothing worked. I tried compensating by trying to make it redder, but that didn't work. I tried calibrating in every way possible for about 20 hours, nothing worked. As far as I'm concerned, it's defective.
However that said, I found a balance that if you set the White Point to NATIVE - gamma to 2.0 and the Luminance to 100 or 120 (if your screen can support it), then you get good results. The whites look white, the blacks look black. Now I feel I have a screen that's calibrated where I can see into the shadow and get good detail, and not blow out the highlights. The colors seem right and the gray scale is clean, or at least clean enough. Oh and don't let it set the ambient light in the case of my room the light varies, and I never liked the results, not to mention that it has to stay plugged in. The default leaves the blue light on, and it's quite blinding, especially since it sits right in front of you.
The styling looks nice, it looks like an alien ship of sorts and due to the chrome, it matches black and gray themes. You have to tilt the monitor back so the thing sits flat on the screen, While you can hold it, the test takes like 10 minutes, which is just too long to hold.
I didn't give this a 1 star because I finally got a result.
However, there is that odd blue cast everyone spoke of (I was hoping I wasn't one of the unlucky ones, but I was). I think their White balance settings are messed up as 6500k looked more like 9000k - a very cool blue color, and setting it to a more reddish white balance gave it a green cast. As long as you set the white to NATIVE - then you'll do ok, I'm writing this so google can find it, and help others that pulled out their hair fixing it.
One last thing that I don't like - when the software needs updating, they send you to a page to pay for the software. This device is overpriced as it is, and they want more money for a tiny upgrade? Oh please...
However that said, I found a balance that if you set the White Point to NATIVE - gamma to 2.0 and the Luminance to 100 or 120 (if your screen can support it), then you get good results. The whites look white, the blacks look black. Now I feel I have a screen that's calibrated where I can see into the shadow and get good detail, and not blow out the highlights. The colors seem right and the gray scale is clean, or at least clean enough. Oh and don't let it set the ambient light in the case of my room the light varies, and I never liked the results, not to mention that it has to stay plugged in. The default leaves the blue light on, and it's quite blinding, especially since it sits right in front of you.
The styling looks nice, it looks like an alien ship of sorts and due to the chrome, it matches black and gray themes. You have to tilt the monitor back so the thing sits flat on the screen, While you can hold it, the test takes like 10 minutes, which is just too long to hold.
I didn't give this a 1 star because I finally got a result.
However, there is that odd blue cast everyone spoke of (I was hoping I wasn't one of the unlucky ones, but I was). I think their White balance settings are messed up as 6500k looked more like 9000k - a very cool blue color, and setting it to a more reddish white balance gave it a green cast. As long as you set the white to NATIVE - then you'll do ok, I'm writing this so google can find it, and help others that pulled out their hair fixing it.
One last thing that I don't like - when the software needs updating, they send you to a page to pay for the software. This device is overpriced as it is, and they want more money for a tiny upgrade? Oh please...
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
By W. Hohauser
Amazon Verified Purchase
Working on a Mac system, I was using a Pantone Huey which was OK however I ended up balancing my computer monitor by eye to a broadcast quality TV monitor. Recently I read a review that the Spyder Elite had a setting for broadcast digital video and since that's what I do from time to time I decided to go for it.
The Mac software is the weak point and it really needs to be debugged, from the installation to the upgrade to actually calibrating the monitor. It took two attempts to install the software from the included CD to convince me to forget that and download the version 3 software from the web site. That worked but the first thing that comes up is a screen telling about the upgrade to version 4 which is free to new purchasers. Thru a convoluted process you enter your key from the CD package on the Datacolor web site and they e-mail a new key which is supposed to be the version 4 key. But that turns out to be another version 3 key which you have to enter again on the web site and then you get the version 4 key and the program will start up. The version 4 software is much better than the version 3 so I recommend the upgrade.
Once the program gets going and you follow the instructions it works very well and my monitors are looking better than I ever been able to do by eye or by the Huey. The program gets messed up when you try to check the calibration but quitting it and relaunching seems to fix it. Considering that the next alternative for calibrating a computer monitor for broadcast video is more than double the price, this is a good deal. But be warned that it's not always accurate just very close.
The Mac software is the weak point and it really needs to be debugged, from the installation to the upgrade to actually calibrating the monitor. It took two attempts to install the software from the included CD to convince me to forget that and download the version 3 software from the web site. That worked but the first thing that comes up is a screen telling about the upgrade to version 4 which is free to new purchasers. Thru a convoluted process you enter your key from the CD package on the Datacolor web site and they e-mail a new key which is supposed to be the version 4 key. But that turns out to be another version 3 key which you have to enter again on the web site and then you get the version 4 key and the program will start up. The version 4 software is much better than the version 3 so I recommend the upgrade.
Once the program gets going and you follow the instructions it works very well and my monitors are looking better than I ever been able to do by eye or by the Huey. The program gets messed up when you try to check the calibration but quitting it and relaunching seems to fix it. Considering that the next alternative for calibrating a computer monitor for broadcast video is more than double the price, this is a good deal. But be warned that it's not always accurate just very close.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
The worst customer service
I've had this unit for about 1.5 years and when I installed it in OS X Leopard all was ok. I liked the results it produced. Read more
Published 12 months ago by J. Price
3.0 out of 5 stars
Great hardware, flawed software, missing documentation
I didn't have any problems with monitor calibrations not coming out very accurate. I mention this because of the other reviews about a Blue cast. Read more
Published 16 months ago by W. Munn
5.0 out of 5 stars
Spyder Elite 3
The Spyder Elite 3 is simple to install, easy to use and very effective. The software asks a few basic questions relating to your monitor and from then on its automatic. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Iry S Hamilton
5.0 out of 5 stars
What You See is What You Really Get
I had the Pro Model for 2 years. It was working fine at first, then the color output from the calibration suddenly became too warm. So I sold it and got the Elite Model. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Arthur del Rosario
5.0 out of 5 stars
First Monitor Calibrator
Bought my first monitor calibrator after years of internet-window shopping... since I recently purchased a new 24" IPS monitor (that has yet to arrive due to two order delays from... Read more
Published 17 months ago by Victor Chang
4.0 out of 5 stars
good but not perfect advance
the new spider elite 3 is much easier to use than my spider2 and appears to give a better accuracy of calibration, also faster, in using it over the past 2 weeks. Read more
Published 17 months ago by DWS
5.0 out of 5 stars
Really a necessity if you want to edit photos.
I use this on a Mac Mini with a LG Monitor and an Apple Cinema Display. The LG has a lot of options to change the gamma, color temperature, contrast, etc. Read more
Published 18 months ago by But I'm feeling much better now...
4.0 out of 5 stars
spyder3 review
I found this product easy to use, and does exactally what I wanted it to do. My only dislike is the way it hangs over the front of my moniter during calibration. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Paul the Photo Guy
5.0 out of 5 stars
Seems to work great on IMAC 27"
I have been using this for about a month now. I have calibrated about 4 times and have had no errors or problems. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Matthew B. Collum
5.0 out of 5 stars
Works great!
I recently purchased the spyder elite to calibrate my monitors for photo printing. I just got back the prints I ordered and they were perfect. Read more
Published 20 months ago by danceitoff
