Datacolor Spyder4Pro S4P100 Colorimeter for Display Calibration

CUSTOMER REVIEW



This is the fourth Datacolor product I own. I still have the original SpyderPro, Spyder2Pro, Spyder3Print and the newest addition the Spyder4Pro. I also own an Eye-One Display but prefer my Spyders any day of the week. The Spyder's user interface ( Wizard ) is so much more user friendly than the Eye-One that I will not recommend the Eye-One to my clients. I've had more tech support questions about the Eye-One than I care to mention.



Besides being a photographer I'm also a freelance Macintosh Tech that installs Mac systems and teaches color management and workflows using Lightroom, Bridge and Photoshop. As mentioned I'll recommend the Spyder to my clients over the Eye-One for a number of reasons. First the monitor profiles are excellent, I can't ask for any better and of course the user interface, the wizard, is much more user friendly than the Eye-One. With the Eye-One Wizard I don't know if it's asking me to do something or if it's telling me the results and I need to do something else, it gets confusing for my clients. Enough said about the Eye-One!... Let's move on to the Spyder4Pro.



The Spyder4Pro package consists of the Spyder4Pro unit, Stand, Software Installation Disk for Mac/Windows and Quick Start Guide. I know this isn't important but the design of the Spyder4Pro is really sleek and sexy! Mama-Mia! The USB cable attached is nicely supple so there's no need to twist the USB cable for the unit to remain flat on the monitor's screen. Also a little trick is to tilt the monitor up slightly so there is additional weight of the Spyder4Pro pressing against the monitor screen for a nice tight "seal". I recommend doing this regardless of profiler brands.



Installing the software is straight forward. Install the software using the installation disk and let the installer find the latest Spyder4Pro driver via the internet. ( Also Datacolor is very, very good about updating their drivers in a timely manner... another big plus with Datacolor ) During installation enter the serial number that's on the DVD sleeve label, the installer will contact Datacolor servers and return a License Code that will be used if you need to re-install the software. There's an option to print the License Code, which I recommend, and also Datacolor emails the License Code to you for safekeeping. I'm going to guess here, once you have the License Code you don't need to be connected to the internet for further installations... I could be wrong!



Once the software is installed attach the Spyder4Pro directly to the computer's USB port if possible. USB hubs/keyboards sometimes don't have enough power to run a unit so this is the best approach. Launch the software and you are greeted by the Spyder4Pro Wizards's Welcome screen. The screen prompts are easy to understand and have a Help and "?" button if further explanation is needed. The first time around you'll be prompted to do a "FullCAL" ( Full Calibration ) and on subsequent calibrations there will be options to not only run "FullCAL" but to "ReCal" and "CheckCAL".



After the "Welcome" screen, that suggests/recommends certain display settings, there is the "Measuring Ambient Light" screen. Place the Spyder4Pro on it's stand in front of your monitor and click the "Next" button and the Spyder4Pro will read the amount of light falling on the monitor. The "Ambient Light Analysis" screen will display the results. You'll have the option to "Keep current settings" or "Accept suggested settings". Select your choice and click "Next" to bring you to the Calibration screen! Hang the Spyder4Pro over the monitor and slide the counter-weight along the USB cable until it's nicely balanced and center the Spyder4Pro right over the outline shape. Click "Next" and the Calibration process begins... I nice feature is the software displays the status of it's brightness readings in realtime and checks the stability of brightness over a period of time. My Apple Cinema Display is getting long-in-the-tooth and I could see that it was having trouble staying stable at the recommended brightness setting. Calibration completed in about 7 minutes and the "Saved Profile" screen appeared. I saved the profile adding the current date in the file name and set the Calibration Reminder for 2 Weeks.



Next is the "SpyderProof - Calibrated View" screen where you can switch back and fourth from the profiled calibrated monitor view and uncalibrated monitor view. This gives you an idea on what the profile is doing. Clicking the "Next "button brings us to "Profile Overview" screen where you can compare old and new profiles and how they related to each other in a specific Colorspace. Looking at my results... dang I think I need a new monitor! You can "Quit" or there's an "Advance Analysis" feature that can test the profile's "Gamut", "Tone Response", "Brightness and Contrast", and "White Point at Different OSD Settings". But I'll let you play around with this!



My monitor is dead neutral - displaying a grayscale in Photoshop CS5.1 there is no rain-bowing in any of the gray steps. ( Meaning there's NO color banding/color contamination along the grayscale )



Spyder4Pro is great for novices and advance users alike. The software has nice advanced features that users can grow with.



via Amazon Best Seller V2 copy copy http://ift.tt/1sByMeD