Clear conditions

Long I went pregnant to purchase me a monitor calibration device with the consideration. Background were mostly disappointments during professional of imaging my photos that were sometimes reddish, sometimes low in contrast or not voted in the gamma curve.

Of course, critics will (and perfectionist) argue that a monitor calibration makes sense only in high-quality monitors that there would be called at a "hardware calibration" not transform any tables in the video card driver or the operating system. (In the jargon often called LUT - referred LookupTable), but write the data directly and with high resolution to display. Ultimately, this approach is perfectly understandable because the graphics card is the mode with 16 million colors - each channel displayed only 256 Nouancen - what at first sounds spectacular. 256 (red) * 256 (green) * 256 (blue) = 16,777,216th This also means that a totally bent response curve for "blue" (which can happen in elderly monitors certainly) only with loss of color gradations ("posterization", discrete edges are visible) can be straightened. If at all.

So much for the common fundamental limits in color management and ultimately all colorimeters.

The hurried reader can - without further study of the subject - in either the flagship, the Spyder4Elite, a Spyder4Pro, the favorable Spyder4Express or for me even a (used) Spyder3Elite (PC / Mac) (the last model, which is still with Windows 2000 * AND * the successor systems to work) acquire and dedicate the execution the following list, if you do not feel like the registrierungswütige Datacolor software and prefer a very easy to use and reliable open source alternative:

1. Argyll CMS and dispcalGUI download, unzip it into a wish list.

Follow the installation steps 2. dispcalGUI website.

3. When Spyder 4 must be at least the installation media from Datacolor DOWNLOAD / have ready or (temporarily) to install the software but not (!) Register in order ArgyllCMS / dispcalGUI can extract the correction data (menu item "Tools / Import colorimeter corrections from other display profiling software ... ").

4. then allowed the monitor to the default settings run for a while (30-60 minutes) and take a gray scale (eg from the website Photofriday:. "Monitor Calibration Tool") a basic adjustment of brightness and contrast before, so all shades of gray are differentiable.

5. monitors that are not connected vie DVI but VGA, you may need to wean even with the RGB sliders a color cast and adjust the gamma value, then it has the calibration software easier.

6. After starting dispcalGUI choosing a color temperature of 6500K, gamma value of 2.2 and checked if necessary. The ambient light correction ("Ambient light level adjustment") to. "Black Point Correction" must be set to "Auto", the calibration speed is often sufficient for the Spyder products "Very High", as "Quality Profiles" you can use "Low" if your expectations are not extremely high claims.

7. After clicking on "Calibrate & Profile" to start the process, the instructions are self-explanatory and the first step interactively.

8. With the above settings you have to wait about 30 minutes, more precise calibrations are also welcome to take far more than 60 minutes.

9. dispcalGUI Windows 7 sets the settings in% APPDATA% \ dispcalGUI \ storage and may wish to do so the file with Windows-board resources at the start of the system load ("Control Panel / Color Management"), for XP / Vista are it is a tool for the Startup folder.

10. Done. Spyder stake, have fun with color-true pictures.

Now for the service of Datacolor Spyder and the model range. Note: This review is from Spyder3Elite (PC / Mac), the differences from the Spyder 4 is that the latter has an onboard calibration with it. Anyone who follows the above open source approach to calibration, which is outfitted with only marginal differences between the Spyder4Elite, the Spyder4Pro and the best Spyder4Express. Its focus is on the manufacturers software that the "Express" z. T. has painful limitations.

Raymond, my friendly contact Datacolor announces itself to my question "Which product should I buy if I also want to calibrate Windows 2000 in addition to a WinXP and later operating systems?" very quickly with the short and concise advice. "[...] The best solution we have is for you to purchase a Spyder3Elite We have legacy software for this thatwill run on Windows 2K and later software for Windows 8. [.. .] ". There you are. So I imagine customer service - read people's attention and can also write something other than text modules. Plus point for the product.

I. d. T. there were on the homepage a Win2K version (which also runs under WinXP) download quick search led to datacolor.com> Support> Spyder Products> Downloads> Archives> Spyder3Elite 3.0.4 Windows. This version should - that should people who do not want that software phoned home - are activated in contrast to the followers not online / registered. An input of the product code (eg. As of the packaging / the Beilegers) is, however, still necessary.

With this software, it was me - after a few iterations and a little brain - relatively unproblematic possible to move multiple monitors on different computers to an approximately same characteristics. My secret of success was the fact that I (against the advice of the calibration software) not set all controls to their center position, but tried to offer the program already the best possible starting point.

In the first race everything was still to zero, then the result of (target-correction) you can display and, if one z. B. notes that the red channel was heavily revised downwards, the Rotregler the monitor slightly reduce , The thinking behind this is that the signals may be resolved later in the monitor and so the Spyder entering less extreme jumps in the LUT of the graphics card. Of course you should make a note of these settings, since it is only this which calibration profile applies. Once to set the color temperature for. B. from 9300K to 7500K or 6500K, the image logically warmer (= reddish) is.

As an .icm file is created, you can rename them ideally equal accordingly, in my case Hyundai_L90D_R50G50B50H100K50.icm. R = Red, G = Green, B = Blue (for analog lines), H = brightness, K = contrast.

It monitors the way supported with RGB sliders, those having only brightness / contrast settings, those at denem you can adjust the brightness of the LCD backlight and of course those that allow direct selection of a color temperature and combinations thereof. The menu navigation can be a bit cryptic, we must for the RGB option only in a special sub-menu and a complete recalibration (in which all RGB Nouancen be played) is only possible with a little fiddling, but that should not those horrors, the seriously deals with the color rendering of its screen.

In the final result, the software had not so extremely strong effort in my Hyundai, the pre-post differences (the software by means of some sample images also indicates) subtle but not serious. With an older, long way past Samsung saw it as a different matter, had glaring problems with the display of shades of blue. Whether because now the LCD filters are faded or the phosphor of the built-in compact fluorescent lamp has aged, I can not judge.

By the way you can in the so-called "LED monitors" (there are currently millions of tiny little RGB LEDs installed, the name rather indicates that at the edges or in individual clusters on background a pair of white LEDs sit) quite severe do because "white" is not equal to "white" - the color of LEDs often scatters not insignificant, creating local variations in the color reproduction.

In this context, it is also useful occasionally to check the monitor, this can be the Spyer back slightly and herverschieben to capture other areas of the screen. Unfortunately, the software does not allow the test window (where the color and brightness levels appear and be detected by the colorimeter) to position at will, so you will remain more or less confined to the central area.

At least in the version 3.0.4 of Spyder3Elite (successor I have not tested it, but probably at least in Windows XP and Vista inevitable) installs a small program in the autostart function, the correct color Konfiguratin therefore takes place only when the user has logged in. That's not so bad, but may initially cause irritation. Of course, should that goes from the manual fortunately clearly, other Farmanagementtools (Adobe Gamma, Windows-board resources, PaintShopPro Gamma, etc.) are switched off and remain so. Just so there are no conflicts.

As a die Nerd I also tried to uninstall Spyder Elite and easy to import the generated .icm file in the Windows color management and so to come also to a calibrated monitor, unfortunately without success. The idea behind it was that one could then calibrate other monitors to computers of acquaintances without bothering with a software installation. As I now know, does the approach _prinzipiell_, but only from Windows 7 and better. Too bad.

The attached by previous speakers criticism that the Spyder only worked directly into the USB port without an extension cable, I can not confirm that. At least two additional meters of a product by Delock with USB A male to USB A female funktionierter the device properly. If one does not wish the continuous ambient light monitoring, the Spyder can remain marked out and packed in everyday use, the software does not mind.

On the whole, the software and the hardware fulfilled my expectations to that effect. With a time of 1-2 hours and some interest in the matter, it should be the normal user definitely possible to persuade his monitor to a halfway standardized color reproduction. The Spyder makes a high impression, scratched thanks Filzfüßchen also the sensitive surface of glossy displays do not and can be equipped as needed with a suction cup for CRTs. On cable, there is a balance weight, so the colorimeter from sliding down on the screen and the role of tape can remain in the toolbox.

Anyone who wants to improve the color fidelity of his projector that can also do. Of course that only works with one connected to the projector computer (which LUT is then configured) because the Spyder are no recommendations on how to possibly. The controller must adjust the projector, especially not in real time. With a bit of playfulness but also leaves here a workaround, see, because on the basis of pre-post correction curves you see quickly where there is suffering and can readjust. Of course, each iteration takes time, which is why the process only diehard cinephiles is recommended. Computer / media boxes which are connected to the projector with HDMI / DVI for the purpose of playing video files, work indeed fine, inasmuch as the Datacolor software is running on it.

The perfect couple dispcalGUI / Argyll CMS can even projectors, laptops, smart TV, etc. and calibrate "tethered" "remote" by a PC it generates a (dynamic) web site, which must show the device to be calibrated then. The Spyder depends electronically on the PC, but analyzes the image from the terminal. Clever, right? Those who can not make friends with the partout Spyder software, will be pleased with this alternative. This ambitious and well-maintained open source project exists in binaries for Win2K / Vista / Win7 32bit, Vista / Win7 / 8, several Linux Ubuntu / Kubuntu / Madriva / openSUSE and Whitebox-flavors and can be compiled for Apple platforms , Argyll CMS works with the Spyder 2, 3 and 4 (the installation media from the manufacturer required), as well as numerous products from X-Rite. Instead of the command line version also dispcalGUI can be used short search engine query returns all relevant information.

Conclusion: Four stars for a very useful product that soothes the conscience and failures in the Ausbelichtung largely avoids. An asterisk I draw from the partly somewhat complicated and not always self-explanatory software and the compulsory registration of newer versions. True professionals must of course continue to turn up their noses, because without a hardwarekalibrierbares display ranging from one to several thousand euros with dedicated, darkened viewing space no 100% color-evaluation is still possible for picky customers.

Many Greetings!