Pony up for Spyder2Express?

V

Venek

Weaksauce
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Jun 1, 2009
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I got a new monitor on the way (BenQ's legendary FP241VW) and was wondering if I really should fork up the money to calibrate it properly or could I get away with tweaking the settings with my naked eye.

At the moment, I'm kind of inclined to go ahead and get it anyway so I can be almost 100% sure that the monitor's calibrated pretty well (I know the Spyder2 isn't the most accurate, but it's the cheapest, so it's better than nothing).

What do you all think, worth the money?
 
If you have to ask, you don't need it. If for some reason you still want it, don't buy the Spyder2 it's garbage. The cheapest decent calibrator is the Pantone Huey Pro.
 
The Spyder2Express is sufficient if all you want is to do reasonably accurate calibration. Software calibration might work too, but will always be less accurate than using a hardware calibration tool.

On a sidenote, I've got a Spyder3Pro on the way. I do graphics and video work, ergo I can use the additional accuracy of the Spyder3 :)
 
I think you should set up colours to your liking unless you want to do a colour critical work.
 
Pantone Huey might be better. It's a bit more, but it's more accurate, or the Eye One Display LT.

Honestly, the Spyder2 is not that good, and it never did a good job on my FP241VW when I had it.

The FP241VW is a great screen, with very average color calibration, but once calibrated is pretty good.

Congrats.
 
Thanks for the replies everyone, I ended up getting a used Huey off eBay. I like the idea of not only being able to calibrate my monitor, but also for an HDTV I plan to get in the near future. Movies should pop out on Blu-Ray!
 
Be careful with purchasing the Huey Pro off ebay as about 1 in 5 units are defective. It will leave your monitor with some hue of red/green/blue after calibration.

I bought a defective one off Amazon and returned it.
 
I've been using spyder3pro on my displays. I like it but I've never used Huey.
 
To those saying that the Pantone Huey is better than the Spyder2/3, could you give some more information on why this is the case? I nearly bought the Spyder3Pro, but now I want to make absolutely sure I'm getting the right kit. Thanks :)
 
Yeah, the dE for the Spyder2/3 is indeed bad compared to the Pantone Huey Pro. Of course, the latter can't beat the LaCie device :p
 
Even the Spyder 3 is not that good on the darker end of the scale. Makers of some free TV calibration software warn about this.

The Eye One Display LT is probably the best of the affordable calibration devices.
 
Snowdog said:
Even the Spyder 3 is not that good on the darker end of the scale. Makers of some free TV calibration software warn about this.

The Eye One Display LT is probably the best of the affordable calibration devices.
Click to expand...

I'm actually considering the LaCie Blue Eye 2 at this point. Still fairly affordable (just a tad over 200 Euro) and provides the same calibration quality as the Pro version (which just has better reporting options, really).

The Eye One Display LT uses the same sensor as the LaCie calibration devices I read somewhere. Is this correct?
 
vick1000 said:
If you have to ask, you don't need it. If for some reason you still want it, don't buy the Spyder2 it's garbage. The cheapest decent calibrator is the Pantone Huey Pro.
Click to expand...

QFT I have the Huey Pro, for the cheap it rocks.
 
Elledan said:
I'm actually considering the LaCie Blue Eye 2 at this point. Still fairly affordable (just a tad over 200 Euro) and provides the same calibration quality as the Pro version (which just has better reporting options, really).

The Eye One Display LT uses the same sensor as the LaCie calibration devices I read somewhere. Is this correct?
Click to expand...

Same hardware, but the software is different.
 
vick1000 said:
Same hardware, but the software is different.
Click to expand...

The LaCie software is more accurate in calibrating, then? Could one use another software suite with the hardware or is it locked somehow? I.e. using the LaCie software with the hardware from an Eye One kit.
 
What this thread is missing (I think) is information about which calibrators that are able to calibrate wide-gamut monitors.

Spyder 3 is often quoted as a wide-gamut calibrator, but what about Huey and the others?
 
I voted for the iOne Display2 with my wallet and it works fine on wide gamut. Dell 2709W in my case.

I agree with the statement: "If you have to ask you do not need it". If all you are doing is gaming, then do as suggested above and adjust the colors to your liking, then move on. It is not like accurate colors are eye popping. Eye popping colors are usually oversaturated.

Dave
 
I just bought the Spyder3 pro.
After calibrating my Dell Ultra sharp 19" flat panel I can see little difference for the
money I had to spend. OK, maybe I don't know what I'm doing but I can't be that far of base.
I'll download the latest software from "DataColor" and see if this makes any difference. There is also a program they offer called "Spyder3 Utility" which I have
no idea what it does. The Spyder3 pro software asks questions which I don't see on
the front of my monitor. I have no idea what the 3 buttons on the lower right hand corner of my monitor do.
Guess I need to do some research on my monitor.
 
Elledan said:
I'm actually considering the LaCie Blue Eye 2 at this point. Still fairly affordable (just a tad over 200 Euro) and provides the same calibration quality as the Pro version (which just has better reporting options, really).

The Eye One Display LT uses the same sensor as the LaCie calibration devices I read somewhere. Is this correct?
Click to expand...

LT and 2 are interchangeable.

The two best packages I've used are Lacie Blue Eye Pro and BasicColor Display 4.1.8 for Windows. Either can calibrate a monitor to less than 0.50 DE94 unless there is something dreadfully wrong with the screen. Anything less than 1.00 is amazing. I would have bought BasicColor squid2 but I already had the Eye One 2 from my NEC's spectraview II kit.

If Blue Eye is too expensive you can get BasicColor Squid2 for a bit less methinks. It should be easy to find if you are in or around Europe.
 
daveswantek said:
I voted for the iOne Display2 with my wallet and it works fine on wide gamut. Dell 2709W in my case.

I agree with the statement: "If you have to ask you do not need it". If all you are doing is gaming, then do as suggested above and adjust the colors to your liking, then move on. It is not like accurate colors are eye popping. Eye popping colors are usually oversaturated.

Dave
Click to expand...

Also with gaming, unless you are using power strip to force an ICM profile in 3D, calibration will not do anything to improve colors in 3D games, so the only improvement is for white point accuracy in regards to "color temperature" for D65 because most software gets you to customize that early in the calibration process.

Only the programmable monitors from Eizo or NEC can adjust colors in games due to the actual color lookup tables inside the monitors being adjusted.

Still enjoying my 2709W too :)
 
10e said:
LT and 2 are interchangeable.

The two best packages I've used are Lacie Blue Eye Pro and BasicColor Display 4.1.8 for Windows. Either can calibrate a monitor to less than 0.50 DE94 unless there is something dreadfully wrong with the screen. Anything less than 1.00 is amazing. I would have bought BasicColor squid2 but I already had the Eye One 2 from my NEC's spectraview II kit.

If Blue Eye is too expensive you can get BasicColor Squid2 for a bit less methinks. It should be easy to find if you are in or around Europe.
Click to expand...

Cool! Thanks for the info/tip :D
 
quinnyfizzle said:
Be careful with purchasing the Huey Pro off ebay as about 1 in 5 units are defective. It will leave your monitor with some hue of red/green/blue after calibration.

I bought a defective one off Amazon and returned it.
Click to expand...

Uh-oh...I think that may be what's happened to me. After calibrating it last night and getting a red cast, I thought maybe it was actually correct and my eyes needed to adjust. For a little while it seemed like that's all it was, until I read your post.

I went to Pantone's web site and, sure enough, there's an issue with some Hueys exhibiting an unnatural cast after calibration. I'm gonna hope I can get lucky and swap for a replacement, even though I got it off eBay (dammit, I already left a positive feedback too).

Thanks for the heads up, what a disappointment!
 
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