COLORVISION Spyder ( Windows / Macintosh )

by Pantone

Product Features

• This cutting-edge tool is an emissive colorimeter -- dividing the light of your monitor through seven filters. This result is sharper, crisper and more accurate color.
• Easy-to-use wizards and interface guide you through setting up your colorimeter
• High-quality color correction for CRT monitors, flat-screens and notebook LCD displays
• Comes bundled with Adobe Photoshop Album, for better editing & organizing your images
• Free technical support and software upgrades make it easier for beginners to make that jump to serious color correction

Product Details

Product Manual [906kb PDF]

• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B00007IT9B
• Item model number: GEU102
• Date first available at Amazon.com: November 25, 2002
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,984 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

In today's digital darkroom, even brand-new monitors need calibration on a regular basis. Monitor calibration controls your display's color so that it is accurate and consistent from day-to-day and image-to-image.

The award-winning Spyder is an all-digital, seven-filter colorimeter that works with both CRT and LCD monitors. Working together with the wizard-based PhotoCAL software, the Spyder calibrates your monitor to a universal standard for color and automatically creates a correct monitor profile. The end result--a monitor that displays accurate color and lets you trust what you see on your screen.

Designed for photo enthusiasts, the PhotoCAL software guides you through the calibration process. Select your gamma and color temperature and then attach the Spyder to your screen. PhotoCAL does the rest! An advanced feature to balance the RGB guns of your monitor is also available to optimize your monitor's performance even further.

A calibrated monitor is the cornerstone of your digital darkroom. The Spyder addresses this need by providing photo enthusiasts with a very affordable tool for calibrating their LCD and CRT monitors. The Spyder lets you trust what you see on your screen.

Features:

• Affordable and simple to use: The Spyder guides you through the calibration process in just a few easy steps. You can obtain a precise and consistently calibrated monitor without being a computer expert or color guru--at a truly affordable price.
• Patent-protected, seven-filter emissive colorimeter: The Spyder divides emitted light into more wavelength bands than conventional colorimeters that only offer three filters enabling it to more effectively describe the tristimulus matching curves--the end result, a more accurate calibration.
• Optimized for both CRT and LCD usage: The Spyder's novel honey-comb baffle for LCD calibration provides the Spyder with two light paths--one optimized for CRT's and the other for LCD's. Therefore calibration accuracy is maintained for both LCD and CRT usage unlike conventional colorimeters that optimize for one monitor type at the expense of the other.
• Advanced pre-calibration function: the PhotoCAL pre-calibration function balances the RGB guns of your monitor allowing you to achieve the widest possible gamut your monitor can produce resulting in better flesh tones, more even grays, and more open shadows.

Product Description

Spyder lets you trust your monitor as much as you trust your own eyes. This monitor correction tool provides accurate color on your monitor. Now what you see onscreen is what you'll print -- saving you time, ink and paper. A color-corrected monitor is an important tool for any home print studio or digital darkroom. Spyder gives your monitor true color, every time! Powered through Mac or Windows USB port

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Yes, you do need this, and it works, July 27, 2003

By 

Michael Sandman (Brookline, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: COLORVISION Spyder ( Windows / Macintosh ) (CD-ROM)

If the image on your monitor doesn't match what comes out of the printer, this gizmo will fix the problem. It works with both CRTs and LCD's. It takes 15 minutes and when youre done the monitor will use a custom profile that sets the mix of red, green and blue correctly, along with the brightness. You have to know in advance what kind of controls your monitor has -- no color controls -- common on laptops, or user-set RGB and color temperature controls. But the insructions tell you how to find out, and the product works with either type. Hint #1: To see the monitor controls and the calibration pattern simultaneuously, open the PhotoCal software, drag it over to one side of the screen and then open the monitor controls and drag them over to the other side. #2: Re-run the calibration after you adjust the monitor to check the results -- the software doesn't cycle back by itself.

31 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Questionable Color, June 21, 2004

By 

BlueSquares (Florida) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: COLORVISION Spyder ( Windows / Macintosh ) (CD-ROM)

First and foremost you need to know my background. I'm an Illustrator and I've been working with color and images a very long time. I'm also extremely adept at computers having my A+, Network+, MCSE, MCSA and CCNA certifications. I've always relied on Adobe Gammma to do the job but my Dell 5100 Laptop needed a lot of help.

Ok, so I've been trying to get my color calibrated correctly for a while now. The main problem has been my Dell 5100 Laptop showing colors a tad bit too dark. So I went out and bought this Spyder with PhotoCal software.

Installation was a breeze. The software booted up great onto Windows Xp Pro and Home and it instantly recognized the Colorimeter tool (the plastic attachment that measures the color on your screen).

The calibration is only Wizard-based (which kinda sucked). It guides you step-by-step with the following questions...
1) Is this a CRT or LCD
2) Would you like 1.8 or 2.2 Gamma?
3) Would you like 5000 or 6500 color temperature.
4) Can you adjust the color settings? Yes, No and Presets are options.

If you select No, then it starts the calibration immediately by scanning all gradations of RGB, White, Black and Grey.

If you select Yes, then it quickly scans normal RGB and then asks you to adjust the colors through your monitor until they all meet inside a thin rectangular box (I thought the calibrator was supposed to do this!). Once you calilbrate your own monitor, it starts running through all the gradations of RGB, White Grey and Black as mentioned above.

Finally...it asks you to save your ICC profile and it creates a nifty Startup program similar to Adobe Gamma that boots with Windows.

First was my 19" Dell 1901FP LCD monitor. Color on this monitor is quite nice but I decided to give it a go and test it out anyways. I deleted Adobe Gamma from my startup folder and away we went.

Once done, I was somewhat happy. The white, however, seemed rather blueish. All the other colors seemed ok. I was semi-content and moved on to my notebook. This was trickier since I can't adjust color settings and I had to completely rely on the Spyder to do the job. It finished and looked semi-decent. So being in a hurry I packed everything away and left to work.

At work...things got bad quick. I booted up my Dell 5100 Laptop and immediately noticed the colors were quite dark. As a matter of fact, my gamma was screwed. I was looking at a photo and I couldn't differentiate the blacks from the midtones. It was just a congestion of really dark mids and highlight.

So I did some research and found out I was supposed to calibrate without any ambient light sources. This was buried in the PhotoCal CD and was never mentioned in the Wizard. At the time I had daylight and tungsten lights (Reveal lightbulbs) so I guessed that's what I did wrong. So tonight, in complete and total darkness I once again calibrated both the LCD and Notebook monitor and I achieved the same results. The notebook was deathly dark and although the colors were much better off, I simply couldn't adjust the gamma. The whites on the Dell 1901FP 19" display were still blue-toned.

This product did not calibrate my Notebook as promised and it left my LCD's colors questionable. In my line of work, there can't be any questions. This product is going back.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Product, November 21, 2004

By 

David A. Lessnau (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: COLORVISION Spyder ( Windows / Macintosh ) (CD-ROM)

PerezDesignGroup's review, below, is an excellent one that fully describes this product. My only difference is that on my two desktop computers' LCD monitors I didn't have any problems with the gamma (as he did with his laptop monitor). Both of my monitors calibrated fine. So, unlike his two star rating, I'm giving the product a four star rating.