• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

old ColorVision Spyder2 Express

S

sparks

2[H]4U
Joined
Jun 19, 2004
Messages
3,206
I got it a long time ago and its been in the closet collecting dust.

Is this any good today or is it too outdated to be used?
 
Not really a questions that many will be able to answer. It will mostly come down to support.
Doing a google search showed that there are drivers still available for it. I didn't look too hard, but seems they're old. Doesn't mean it's unusable however.
You'd probably find your answer much faster by plugging it in and giving it a go after picking up whatever drivers are out there.

===

EDIT: In terms of a more in-depth answer, it's not like color calibration has changed much. The accuracy of the tools yes, and perhaps a greater range of color formats. But calibrating your monitor to sRGB or AdobeRGB hasn't changed in probably 10 years or so. If you wanted to calibrate for 10-bit and/or rec2020 that might be an entirely different ball game. But even those might technically be able to be supported on old colorimeters (providing they have the accuracy to see the increased color spaces).
The issues to reiterate are more about software support and I suppose to some degree the accuracy of the hardware.
 
Last edited:
I found the last drivers listed and will try and see what happens.
I saw on tftcentral 2007 review compared to a LaCie Blue Eye Pro.
It was very bad, but again I don't know if it was the hardware, software or both. There are several new software tools that I will also try and see before chunking this thing.
 
sparks said:
I found the last drivers listed and will try and see what happens.
I saw on tftcentral 2007 review compared to a LaCie Blue Eye Pro.
It was very bad, but again I don't know if it was the hardware, software or both. There are several new software tools that I will also try and see before chunking this thing.
Click to expand...

If you end up buying something else, I'd recommend moving to X-Rite and getting an i1 Display Pro.
 
You can use it with AgryllCMS https://www.argyllcms.com/ to correct any irregularities in gamma from 2.2 (or 2.4) target (this is preferable for everything, not sRGB or any similar formats which are intended for mastering taking into consideration people tend to make dark details more visible than they should be when watching content, devices intended for viewing should use power based gamma)
You cannot use it to set white point to 6500K or profile monitor (measure gamut) because these devices are not behaving well with modern LED LCDs. Eyes have different characteristic than colorimeters and while white of W-LED and CCFL might look to us the same it will look different to these devices so do not trust colors it produce when you use just D65 (6500K) setting when calibrating anything other than sRGB CCFL LCD.
Also do not even try to calibrate to 100cd/m2 but set monitor as bright as it goes and calibrate on that. Accuracy of these devices is pretty lack luster and bright monitor will make calibration more accurate in lower end when higher brighness is used for calibration even though white point might change slightly (we do not care for white point anyway). Removing LCD filter and using CRT mode might improve accuracy in dark shades. Since you are not using it to measure gamut error in gamut detection is insignificant to our purposes.

I had Spyder1 (even older and more crappy calibrator) and it could kinda be usable with this things in mind. It produced discoloration when trying to calibrate to 100cd/m2 because it could not see well :dead:
I also have Spyder3 bundled with LG W2420R and used it to calibrate NEC 2080UXi which have hardware LUTs. This Spyder have filters modified to work with RGB-LED monitor and thus extreme gamut error when used in NEC software on this CCFL panel. I used i1 Display Pro from HP LP2480zx to set whitepoint to exactly D65 in OSD, then calibrated NEC using Spyder3 using 'native' whitepoint and at maximum brightness. After this I reduced brightness to comfortable levels (around 100cd/m2) and used i1 Display Pro and ColorHCFR http://www.homecinema-fr.com/colorimetre-hcfr/hcfr-colormeter/ to measure how well gamma was calibrated. It was spot on. With Radeon option to use EDID gamut it also corrected gamut fairly well. Colors outside monitors own gamut were clamped but otherwise skin tones and such were very well represented and measured well with i1 Display Pro.

If you have access to better device like said i1 Display Pro (you can borrow it from someone who owns it) you can create correction matrices in ArgyllCMS which will allow you to use your Spyder2 to calibrate your display to D65 and measure gamut. Though with W-LED color drift over time is so minuscule compared to CRT/CCFL that you wouldn't even need to use your Spyder2 to re-calibrate display after you made profile using reference calibration device for a long long time :)

You can of course try to set monitor 100/120cd/m2 instead of 100% brightness for calibration but that depends on how accurate is your Spyder2 in lower tones. Best to try both and see produced profile in LUT Manager
20170205111130545.png

(I do not provide link because I am not sure which download site is safe)
If there are strange things going on with profile made with 100cd/m2 target then use the one made with 100% brightness as it means Spyder2 is at its limit.

Also if correction is not big and you use Nvidia or Intel GPU and do not have 10bit mode enabled then loading profile to LUT will produce banding. If your monitor is well made and have fairly good factory gamma (as most monitors have) then it might be not worth to calibrate it at all and just use calibrator to figure out which gamma setting in monitor OSD (if montior have this kind of setting) is closest to 2.2 or 2.4 and save yourself the trouble with LUT stuff which is terrible. For movies you are supposed to use gamma 2.4 and not 2.2. If you see you get settings which go below 2.2, in the middle and above 2.4 but do not hit either then go with the one in the middle as the best one. I would advice not going below 2.2 because it produce severely washed out colors, especially in videos which are already supposed to be viewed with gamma of 2.4 and are already washed out with 2.2. Also avoid any setting above 2.4 which make strange looking image. Actually gamma close to 2.3 is quite good compromise so if are getting it you might want to go with that.

Another thing related to calibration is correction of black level point. There is an option in ArgyllCMS to do just that and if your monitor have blueish tint as some W-LED monitors do (not all thankfully) then you might consider correcting it. It will reduce contrast ratio slightly. ArgyllCMS have option to do such correction partially and I would advise to try few setting and see which produce best looking image in movies. In games all this is irrelevant because you won't be able to use LUT in games anyway. Even if your device does not handle light output of your monitor correction of black point will be made properly because it will just match it with what white point it sees.

Also if your monitor have VA or TN panel your calibration cannot produce proper colors even if you do everything right, do not have banding and use gamut remapping in software (eg MPC-HC) because viewing angles will prevent image to be consistent in anything than just one spot for each eye. So if that is the case there is little reason to try to get them super accurate. Only IPS panels can be calibrated.

All things said if you want to have perfect reference colors just buy something like Eizo CX240. It have hardware calibration with its own LUTs, gamut remapping and white point brightness compensation and angles with better viewing angles than anything else on the market today making colors and contrast consistent even when you choose to watch monitor from angle.
 
I will try displaycal tomorrow and see how it goes.
XoR I would love to have something like an eizo but 1000+ is just not in my budget.
 
sparks said:
XoR I would love to have something like an eizo but 1000+ is just not in my budget.
Click to expand...
You can get two HP LP2480zx for less than 1000 bucks which is less 500 bucks for one: https://www.ebay.pl/itm/Dual-Matchi...833970?hash=item1ca49cf4b2:g:0CYAAOSwwZtagbqA
These have even better panel than used on EIZO CX240. Actually these HP use the best LCD panel that was ever produced. EIZO CX240 would be second best as it have lower usable contrast ratio, especially when you also calibrate black point (color of pure black)

For professional grade wide-gamut monitor with A-TW I think even 1000 bucks is worth it.
Opinion will of course vary, but I guess this only due to not seeing A-TW monitor in action than anything else :ROFLMAO:
 
Since this is the only recent Eizo releated topic I could find... I've had it enough with 144hz tn monitors and I want something good. normal 1080p 60hz monitor with finally correct gamma and colors. I did had ips before but only dell monitors and they were ... so so.
How is Eizo ev2450 or Eizo fs2434 ? Or Eizo ev2451? Or in general, what 1080p 60/75hz monitor should I get for ps4 slim, general use, browsing, media, movies and non competitive pc gaming?

Oh yeahn and sorry for stealing the topic but You have to help me convert to a good monitor finally :D It's not that those 144/240 tn monitors are bad. They are ok but I always find something lacking in the colors department and gamma shifts. At least black levels are good on TN monitors compared to some dell ips monitors I;ve used. And I kinda want to avoid 1440p since I think it's more problematic resolution since media have not moved there yet
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top