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Spyder2

M

mike82y

Weaksauce
Joined
Jun 27, 2007
Messages
102
Hi,

I am planning to buy a 22" TFT monitor together with a Color Colibration tool. since I dont have any experiences with such devices, could some of you give me some advices?

I see that most of people are using Spyder2 but which model would you guys recommend?
Spyder2 express
Spyder2 Pro

thanks,

Mike
 
I'd go with the pro if you can afford it. The sensors are the same I believe; it's the software that changes. The Pro giving you more options.

What I would suggest before you buy your monitor is to check what kind of color controls it actually has. Download the manual and see what options are given to you. Do you have preset color temperature choices. 5000K, 6500K, 9600K etc. Or maybe there's a Kelvin slider with those values. RGB controls perhaps. They will come in helpful in adjusting your monitor before you calibrate. You'd like to see at least one of those.

The reason I mention this is because the Samsung 225bw monitor I recently bought; while having RGB controls; also has color choices which are labeled for the novice. Cool, Normal, Warm tell you little when 5000K, 6500K, and 9600K tell you a lot more. And a bunch of Gamma choices that tell you nothing either.
 
Spyder2 Pro costs more but has more options. You can see the differences here:

http://www.colorvision.com/product-mc-s2e.php

Then click on the compare tab and scroll down a bit. Personally, I'd say the Spyder2 Express works just fine. I have the Pro version and the only thing that I like about it over the Express version is the ambient light calibration, where it will suggest a certain brightness setting given your room's ambient lighting.
 
What are your thoughts on Pantone's Huey and Huey PRO?

I found this device when looking for Spyder2 on Amazon.com, but haven't heard it mentioned on here in my travels.

Pantone's website also has a Comparison Chart that compares their different models with ColorVision's Spyder2 models.

cnc137.
 
I've got a Huey. I chose it over the spyder2 express because it also has a White balance metering, which the spyder2 express does not have. It gave me quite a nice color uniformity but i can't compare it with a spyder2 express of course...
 
I have used the spyder2express and the pantone one eye display2, and i'd have to say the pantone was much more accurate if colors are critical to you.:)
 
I've got a BenQFP241W, I have never calibrated a monitor before. My question is, is it very hard to do, and does it make that much of a noticeable differance? I don't do any photo editing or any gaming, just watch movies. It's kind of alot of money to spend so I just wanted to see if it is really worth it.

Thanks
 
I wondering this also. I just bought two HP w2207 22" widescreen LCD monitors with TN panels. I know some people don't like the TN panels and I am not sure if I like them or not either because of some of the color fading/brightening down the screen, but would a Spyder2 or Huey help reduce this problem?

Will these work with a dual monitor setup? I bought two w2207 monitors since I am a web designer/developer and wanted them for working on code and images. Will these products adjust both monitors separately or does it only work on one of them?

Do these programs have you adjust the monitor setting manually through the on-screen display (OSD) or do they make you install software that loads every time you start your computer to initialize the color adjustments?

I would much rather be able to manually adjust the settings via the monitors OSD and leave them instead of having another program want to load at Windows startup.

How does software like Adobe Gamma compare to these devices? Can you get pretty good quality just by using Adobe Gamma instead of investing in a dedicated device for color adjustments?

cnc137.
 
theclipper said:
I've got a BenQFP241W, I have never calibrated a monitor before. My question is, is it very hard to do, and does it make that much of a noticeable differance? I don't do any photo editing or any gaming, just watch movies. It's kind of alot of money to spend so I just wanted to see if it is really worth it.

Thanks
Click to expand...

Calibrating is not hard to do. As for how much of a difference it will make; I guess it depends on how off the monitor is in the first place. You're liable to get much more pleasing (and accurate colors) calibrating with a hardware device. But in your case probably isn't really needed for the things you do with your monitor. If your monitor came with software that allows you to calibrate it visually; give that a try. And there are probably other software only options to try.
 
cnc137 said:
I wondering this also. I just bought two HP w2207 22" widescreen LCD monitors with TN panels. I know some people don't like the TN panels and I am not sure if I like them or not either because of some of the color fading/brightening down the screen, but would a Spyder2 or Huey help reduce this problem?

Will these work with a dual monitor setup? I bought two w2207 monitors since I am a web designer/developer and wanted them for working on code and images. Will these products adjust both monitors separately or does it only work on one of them?

Do these programs have you adjust the monitor setting manually through the on-screen display (OSD) or do they make you install software that loads every time you start your computer to initialize the color adjustments?

I would much rather be able to manually adjust the settings via the monitors OSD and leave them instead of having another program want to load at Windows startup.

How does software like Adobe Gamma compare to these devices? Can you get pretty good quality just by using Adobe Gamma instead of investing in a dedicated device for color adjustments?

cnc137.
Click to expand...

Yes, the Spyder2Pro works with dual monitor. You can also do it with the Microsoft Color applet. The monitors will be individually calibrated.

The Spyder2Pro does both a hardware pre-calibration (OSD adjustment) and software based profiling. The hardware pre-calibration will get you close, but profiling is what really makes color accurate. Unless you had a perfect monitor with absolutely flat color response you will always need profiling.

And no, software only packages do not come anywhere NEAR what a colorimeter can do.

Viper GTS
 
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