Spyder3 express, pro, or?

So I'm thinking it's finally time to get one of those color calibrators. I'm not really sure what the best one is to get for an amateur photographer. I'm also not sure exactly how they work.

For instance, right now if I load photoshop it complains about the default ICC profile for my Samsung T220 monitor, so I tell it to ignore and not load it. Go about making adjustments, then if I view a saved picture in the windows picture viewer for example, whites look yellowed.

If I look at the same image in say internet explorer it looks fine though. Maybe the viewer having a non-white background is making my pictures look like they have a different color? You know, like how placing one color next to another can make it look different.

If I use a color calibrator will this kind of problem go away?

Nobody knows anything about the Spyder things? I figured someone around here would. I figured out the problem with my ICC profile so no need to hold off responding if you were trying to avoid going into that part of the post :) I'm really just after info about the Spyder.

I use the old Spyder2 Suite. I only calibrate right before working on a paid project otherwise it is a chore. You have to do it often since monitors change due to temperature variance. It also comes with some type of printer calibration software but I heard it's not worth anything.

I use a Spyder2 for my monitor - excellent. Different models of Spyder do different things - monitor only, dual monitors, monitors and printers - so get what you need. - TF

So I'm a little confused after reading a number of reviews. Basically I was innitially under the assumption that the Express would do color, gamma, and the brightness/contrast on my monitor. It seems like only Pro and up will do that? I'm wanting to adjust the brightness & contrast as much as the color to make sure I'm not over/under exposing when editing.

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Originally Posted by flyinion

So I'm a little confused after reading a number of reviews. Basically I was innitially under the assumption that the Express would do color, gamma, and the brightness/contrast on my monitor. It seems like only Pro and up will do that? I'm wanting to adjust the brightness & contrast as much as the color to make sure I'm not over/under exposing when editing.

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Spyder3Express supports the calibration of a single display per computer, and allows you to set the brightness where ever you want, but does not adjust brightness to a standard (as there is none) or a display-to-display match (as there is only one display being calibrated). Its great for laptops and general consumer uses.

Spyder3Pro adds the ability to calibrate multiple displays on each computer, and allows you to determine your ambient light level and calibrate to a brightness appropriate for that. It also adds multiple gamma options and mulitiple whitepoint options.

Spyder3Elite adds numerical control of display luminance, precision matching of displays, a wide range of whitepoint and gamma settings, plus specialty non-gamma settings such as L-Star, projector calibration, and special tools such as a colorimeter function, and display quality and uniformity analysis.

I hope that clears up the differences a bit for you.

C. David Tobie
Global Product Technology Manager
Digital Imaging & Home Theater
Datacolor
CDTobie@datacolor.com
www.datacolor.com/Spyder3

Wow....a company expert responds to a thread about the product. Welcome to Photographyreview.com. I was just using my Spyder2 last night. Was it that easy to find this thread and do you guys look on a regular basis?

Cool :)

I just ordered my Spyder3pro, I should have it by tomorrow (6/4). I'll post about when I get it. Quick question, where would I put the post??

Well I finally got it and its now up and running! The first time I ran the software it seemed to be a lot of work, but I went through with it anyway and got reasonable results. What I didn't know it that the software doesn't automatically tell when there is a software update and there was one. I ended up deleting all the new profiles and starting over with the update and got a lot better results a lot quicker and with a less work. Another little work around that I did was to tip my external monitor back slightly during the calibration to get the spyder tool to sit nicely on the screen. The results are amazing! It did depress me a little bit though, my laptop monitor doesn't get bright enough for a full 6500k so it has to run at 5000k. So I guess I'll just do all my editing on the external. One of the really nice features of the pro is that it constantly watches for changes in the ambient light and warns you when you need to fix it (close the blinds or turn of the light in the room). Keep in mind, the system does like the room nearly dark, it'll save me money on electricity I guess. If there are any questions let me know!