Spyder 3 Elite

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• State-of-the-art optical design, with the industry's only 7 detector color engine and largest light aperture
• Patented filter array and embedded ambient light sensor
• Unique fusion of design excellence and functionality - Spyder3's desktop cradleis
• Increases light sensitivity 400%.
• Features the largest screen sample area or aperture in the industry results in improved accuracy on LCD screens and a faster calibration time.

Accessories

• Pantone MEU116 ColorMunki Create Monitor Calibration Device and Software to Create, Manage, Search, Verify and Share Color Palettes (White)
  

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About This Product

From capturing images to digital editing and printing your work, you can rely on consistent, accurate color throughout your studio and digital workflow with Spyder3Elite. Designed for the way photographers work, Spyder3Elite is the next generation in calibration accuracy, precision and speed, allowing you to create profiles to your specifications and bring a new level of color control to your work.

FEATURES:

• Third Generation Spyder Technology - The Spyder3 colorimeter is based on a state-of-the-art optical design, with the industry's only 7 detector color engine and largest light aperture, providing unrivaled performance. In conjunction with the patented filter array and embedded ambient light sensor, Spyder3 provides industry-leading performance for the precision calibration of LCD, CRT, projector and notebook displays.
• Elegant Form and Function - A unique fusion of design excellence and functionality, Spyder3 offers a smaller footprint, embedded ambient light sensor, and LED indicator. Spyder3's desktop cradle can be used for storage, ambient light monitoring, or tripod attachment. A beautiful addition to your desktop or studio, Spyder3 improves any color workflow.
• Designed for Photographers - Spyder3 increases light sensitivity 400%. It also features the largest screen sample area or aperture in the industry resulting in improved accuracy on LCD screens and a faster calibration time. Three superior attachment methods - large area suction cup, counterweight, or tripod mount - can be used interchangeably to suit the needs of any photographer. Building on a foundation of 35 years of color science excellence, Datacolor designed the Spyder3 for the way photographers work.
• Super-Fast ReCAL Option - ReCAL reduces full calibration time by more than half allowing you to quickly and ea

Customer Reviews

• Wildly inconsistent results - Horribly disappointed.

• Rating:
• Review: I like to think that I write very fair and balanced reviews. See my others for example. This is by far the worst review I have ever had to write.
  
  Calibration means adjusting a device such that it produces the same result as a specified standard. That's the definition of the word. In my experience, this product does not actually calibrate anything.
  
  I might even suggest that many of the "positive" reviews of this product come from people who have nothing to compare it against and therefore cannot see that it is giving them such dramatically different color casts every time. The human eye/brain substantially adjusts one's perception to compensate for huge variations in brightness and color, and therefore is a very poor tool for color calibration. It is necessary by fact of biology to actually compare color variations side by side to see any but the most dramatic differences. This is not derogatory of the happy customers. It is just a statement of fact. If I only had one monitor, I might have been blissfully and blindly happy with the third or fourth attempt and wrote the preceding efforts off as user error or "fine tuning"
  
  Bottom line. I have wasted two days of my life and productivity trying to get this thing to give me the same results twice. Both of my monitors came out looking different from each other every single time, in exactly the same subdued natural lighting and location. The first time it produced a horrible blue cast on one and yellow on the other. The second time it insisted on lowering the white brightness to middle gray on one and a distinct purple cast on the other, the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, (ad nauseum) times it started to maybe get in the ballpark of decent, but still insisted on producing two very different color results when I carefully ran through the matching sequence, and carefully set all of the temperature, gamma, brightness, contrast and everything to the exact same values.
  
  The product also shipped with obsolete software. When you go to upgrade on the website, it tells you that you need to BUY AN ADDITIONAL LICENSE for the up-to-date software! I was furious, contacted the company, and to their credit, they did send me a current license code almost immediately at no charge.
  
  This is important because both versions of the software produced inconsistent and impossible to reproduce calibrations. The current version was in fact less buggy and easier to use, but that's about it.
  
  I would say that maybe each monitor was too different, and that was the problem, but one time it would make one blue and the other yellow, and then in attempting a recalibration it switched them around! So monitor differences are not causing that problem.
  
  Suffice to say I am horribly disappointed. I expect that for $200 it should at the very least tell me if a monitor or video card or, for whatever reason, something has problems that cannot be corrected, but that isn't even the case. It made both monitors look just terrible almost every time and gave different results every time. I will be returning this product and getting something else.
  

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• Great product

• Rating:
• Review: I'm really happy that I purchased this monitor calibrator. The Spyder 3 Elite really helps when it comes to properly sorting out your colors. It's also very easy to install and use.

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• Spyder 3 Elite is a great value and works perfectly

• Rating:
• Review: The installation was very easy and the product and software is simple to use. What I noticed is that very subtle color differences were apparent. To achieve true color accuracy, the software needed to set the monitor brightness a little lower. That is OK. The immediate benefit I noticed is that the screen image and the final printed image looked the same as the scene I photographed. The spyder is a perfect companion for Adobe Photoshop.
  I haven't tried calibration of my projector but anticipate a great improvement in image color. I take CCD astronomy photos and purchased the Spyder 3 Elite to perfect the hard-to-achieve color accuracy in those photos.Spyder 3 Elite

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• No support. No one answers the phone. No email return. NOTHING!

• Rating:
• Review: New iMac. Editing photos. Need calibration. Insert disk, dialogue box opens in an Oriental language, but guess to click OK. Click OK again for next box in English. Click OK again for next box. Installer closes. Email support. Nothing. Telephone, after a good long search for the number, no one answers. Sending back within an hour after opening the box. This is a joke!

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• ineffective

• Rating:
• Review: I got this thing a while ago and have tried at various times to calibrate different monitors (all Mac systems). While it accurately calibrated the monitors to each other, it was never able to calibrate to the printer. I asked a professional printer about this. He said that it was not possible to calibrate most backlit screens because they are inherently too contrasty (iMacs are especially difficult). I got a new wide gammut monitor recently and while it is doing better in color balance, it does not seem to be able to get the contrast ratios correct. I will bite the bullet and download the upgrade software (v 4.0 released april, 2010) and hope for better results.

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