ColorVision Spyder2PRO Win/Mac Reviews

• Does the job, interface just OK, half truth on dual monitors

  
  By AGTJB2D88OKXP on 2006-06-26
  It does the basic job well. The calibration runs smoothly and accurately. Hardware looks and feels solid. My two completely different brand, size and age CRT monitors ended up with exactly the same colors sitting side by side.
  
  User interface is merely adequate. Pop up help instructions are better than many I have seen. You will need to know already how the calibration buttons on your monitors work (the hardwired buttons on the monitor, not software). In order to make any edits you must run the entire time consuming calibration over. Sometimes you can use "back" within the calibration, sometimes you must start over. Also the separate "profile chooser" utility software, has not add or delete profile feature - even if it is a profile created and saved by the calibration software earlier. You can see it with windows display properties, but it may not appear in the profile chooser list.
  
  Dual monitors is the one obvious reason to choose pro over plus version. Yes, it does dual monitors, but with an asterisk. It will create separate profiles, but will only apply the correct profiles automatically at startup to both monitors if you have two separate video cards. If you have a single video card with dual outputs, it will load the same profile (the last one you created) to both monitors at startup. This quirk is documented in a readme file on the installation disk (and blames windows for the problem), but this limitation appears nowhere in advertising material, catalogs, or on the box. Fortunately there is a work around (not documented) at least with my particular video card and running XP. After windows opens, you can run profile chooser then choose the correct profile for each monitor. You may have to use windows display properties settings to specify default profile and rerun the calibration to get the profiles you want to appear in profile chooser and to select the correct profile as default.
  
  Once it's all set up, running profile chooser is a four of five click procedure, but you must rememeber to check it before using any application that uses color profiles. And check it after you open the application. I've had them change after opening photoshop - though not every time.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Spyder2pro.

  
  By A38V3PZR3I20CO on 2006-11-09
  Previously I owned ColorVision's Spyder2 program and was quite satisfied with it. It did not include, however, a program for correcting the printer's color rendition. The new Spyder2Pro includes PrintFix Plus. This along with the monitor correction Spyder2Pro works very effectively. I am very happy with the program. For the price it is a great addition to Photoshop editing. The Spyder program allows the monitor and printer to show a print that reflects what the user has taken in his digital camera. I have not found any particular negatives about the program. In the past I have used their tech service for fine tuning the program. They were very responsive and helpful..
  
  

• I would have rather given this 3.5 stars...

  
  By A2MPOTFZC2EWCW on 2007-02-02
  I bought this because I try to take photography seriously and needed my images to look right on the screen while editing.
  
  The software does an okay job of getting this done right.
  
  My problem is with the printer calibration software in that it supports a limited amount or printers.
  
  I have four Epson printers none of which are supported.
  It's kind of disappointing for the price you pay for this.
  
  -Mario
  
  

• Spyder2 Pro: Good Product but very Bad Instruction & Support

  
  By A3OWTVPGEWQVJC on 2007-03-30
  Though I have not printed after caliberation (I did 3 of my laptop monitors), but hardware is very good and easy to install. But reasons for my such poor rating of Spyder2 Pro is "pathetic" guidence and instructions. First, let me say a few words about support: (a) It is three days that I registered the product to receive my log in support, but still no response; (b)when I tried to contact them through phone, the number belongs to some other company. The number 800-544-8688 is listed every where, but it is NOT for ColorVision, NJ. This act alone deserves some severe action against the company.......
  
  Now about the product. Very easy to install the software (driver), just follow the screen instructions. But once software is installed, then what? No instruction: you are in a loop. Actually, then you have to go to desktop icon of Spyder2 Pro or program (that the software has created). Open the program and follow instructions for monitor calibration: here comes the role of the hard ware (the actual spyder). Very easy to do it. But once the monitor is calibrated, you will receive the Error that the calibration you have created has NO profile... Actually, then you have to open properties (by right clicking the desktop). In properties, go to setting/Advance/color management. Then click Add,...it will open a number of color profiles. You choose the one that you have created by Spyder2 Pro. Then choose it as DEFAULT. Then click apply / OK. Restart the computer.
  
  After restarting, to check whether you are using the created Spyder2 Pro profile, open the "color profile" on the desktop or program. You will find the name of your Spyder2 Pro created profile at the top (or this should be the only one)and at the bottom, radio circled ONLY ... blackened. If not, then the monitor is not using your newly created color profile....
  
  I wrote down these steps, so that other should not waste time or curse ColorVision for the lousy product... Actually, the product is good, but instructions and support are "pathetic." I hope ColorVision is reading this review and doing some thing about it.
  
  

• Worked Out Of The Box

  
  By A2UBCQAFQ7V8DC on 2006-11-10
  Having seen this product demonstrated at a recent photographic conference I purchased it as soon as I got home. When it arrived I immediately calibrated my PC monitor and Epson digital projector. The process is very simple with easy to follow screen prompts that walk you through the process. My images have been taken to a new level of color accuracy.
  
  This was the best investment I could have made to advance my photograpic color accuracy.
  
  
• More than I needed
  By A2W3U5MHPVUP7E on 2007-04-16
  I wasn't sure which version I should buy. I knew I needed to calibrate my monitor, but that was all I knew. After the purchase, I am happy and think that it is a great product, but I have not used any of the expanded features this version offers. The low end would have been more then enough for my part time digital photography business needs. I don't have a high end monitor or a high end video card. I have typical equipment. I benefited from the purchase, but feel I should have bought the low end version. The hardware is the same in either case.
  
  
• For One Video Card with Two Monitors (PC)
  By A17M11QUT8YSJJ on 2007-02-08
  Don't waste your money on this version, get the standard version. While it does say on the box and common marketing material that it supports multiple displays, what it does not point out is that this is only true (PC) if you have a video card-PER-display! If you are a mac user you can ignore this annoyance.
  
  I am extremely frustrated that ColorVision does not make this very clear in their comparison of versions.
  
  Otherwise the calibration is fine, I have not tested the printer side of the software just yet.
  
  
• Excelent color matching for Dual Monitors
  By AL6HNKWDTDE4W on 2007-04-23
  I bought the Spyder2Pro for the specific task of color calibrating my dual monitor setup. 1 monitor being my 15" MacBookPro the other a 22"Samsung LCD. Installed the software and ran the setup on both screens. Worked better than I could hope.*
  *One thing that I noticed was that you have to run it more than once with different ambient lighting to get the desired color settings. The ambient light feature really changes color (wether you have sunlight, flourecent, incandecent ect.) you just have to keep running it till you like what you see and if it matches your printouts. Took me twice on each monitor with different BG lighting (I found a room lit by indirect sunlight the best). On my apple the Dual Monitor thing DOES work flawlessly, I am able to run 2 different color profiles at the same time (1 for each monitor).
  
  
• Does what it says on the box
  By ABI52Q6LUZ163 on 2007-10-12
  I upgraded from the Spyder2Express, not really an upgrade because its cheaper to just purchase the pro version than it is to get the upgrade, which means I ended up with a spare device.
  
  On my mac the dual screen supports just works, I use a single card with two outputs and it does support two profiles at the same time. Worked first time, but Mac dual screen support is much better than Windows.
  I also calibrated my Windows systems and my laptop with no issues.
  
  Makes the complex task of calibrating your screens pretty simple.
  
  One point to highlight before you start though and this applies to ANY product of this type.
  You simply MUST try to learn what you are attempting to do BEFORE starting any calibration process. If you do not know what the device is trying to do, then you will have problems. Color management is a complex process, expecting this device to simplify it while ignoring all the other aspects of a color managed workflow is a recipe for failure.
  
  This applies to Gretag and the others as well.
  
  
  
• Spyder2Pro Saved the Day
  By A3AR11XCSZSQ6B on 2007-06-09
  I bought a high end Dell with Vista Ultimate and a Quadro FX 1500 video card. As I expected, there was a slight bluish tint to the screen, but I was not worried because I expected that the card would have controls to counter balance the caste. The normal Nvidia Quadro cards do, but the ones in the Dell do not. They were so vanilla it was incredible. After I found that there were not any updated drivers, the last was from December 2006, I was really upset. As a last resort I got the Spyder2Pro. I don't know whether I made many changes or whether I could have used the Express, but the results were fantastic. My grays were all neutral. I am an artist and need to transfer work between different computers. All my other monitors were fine. Now this one looks the same as the others which are as I like them. I haven't tried any of the other software yet, but I wanted to write how great this product was.
  
  Don't worry about the print documentation that comes with it. The on screen documentation and help menus are great and are all that you need.
  
  If you are using Vista, there is an update on Colorvision's web site.
  
  
• Monitor Calibrator
  By A1YDN7VX91MIN8 on 2007-01-05
  Very pleased with ColorVision's Spyder2PRO monitor calibrator. Easy to use and produces great results. The colors in the digital photos that I print and what I order online now match what I see on my monitor.
  
  
• Monitor Profile Color Fix
  By A2F52KH9W26CT4 on 2007-01-10
  Spyder Pro Sensor works well, print fix program is a joke!
  
  I now have true colors on my LCD screens setup was efforless, happy with proformance.
  
  It now seems that i cant get anything to print correctly to match the screen though? Printfix program includes is meant to fix this but is slow and labot intensive to get anything calibrated, waste huge ammounts of ink and paper?
  
  
• It did exactly what I was looking for
  By A3IBF7UGQXBOGV on 2007-05-12
  Take a few minutes to read directions (I know, I know). Then just follow instructions. After calibrating and following all the software prompts, I now get consistent results in that prints look like the monitor proof.
  
  
• NOT Accurate, Annoying Process
  By A1IUANSOUF93LY on 2007-09-16
  I was happy to finally get my many computers aligned with the proper calibration tool. Unfortunatley, this is a failed product. I tried calibrating many of my computers - a have a dual screen LCD setup, another wide screen design machine, and 3 laptops. I used the Spyder on 4 of them already, and it's really awful. Why are these reviews so good - this product is weak, too complicated, asks for too many manual adjustments and has not really calibrated anything. It's really just been a waste of my time. I am going to search for a real tool. This is just terrible.
  
  
• Good Product
  By A3SCV6FML8MLMS on 2006-11-06
  I have read several reviews and decided the Spyder2Pro would be a good monitor color calibrator for me. I have a Samsung 970P monitor with all adjustments via software. The calibration process is very simple and all you have to do is follow the menu of questions during the calibration process.
  I like the Spyder2Pro and would recommend it highly.
  
  
  
• Monitor Calibration
  By A1VTSDHH3RWLD8 on 2007-08-09
  It was time to bit the bullet and really calibrate my monitors. All you read about is how important it is to "calibrate your monitor". If you are like me, it's hard to buy something you are only going to use a few times a year so you think you can get away with calibrating visually with some of the freebies out there. I was shocked at how off my monitors really were (the Spyder2Pro gives you a before and after selection when you are finished). If you are like me, I always read many reviews on products before I purchase which helps me decide what to do and wonder about the people giving the reviews. I happen to work on 4 dual monitor work stations and several other single monitor computers so this was really worth the money. As far as ease of use, I had no problems understanding the calibration proceedure Color Vision gave. All but 2 of my monitors are LCD so I could lean them back at a slight angle to have the spyder rest properly. The 2 CRT's are in my Green Screen Room and are used for direct video capture using Sony Vegas. I am not one for photos or other "screen saver" junk. My monitors are all set to neutral gray... strictly business. It's wonderful to see all the monitors exactly the same. I also print on an Epson 4800 so I need to know prints are going to look like my edits in Photoshop. Good Job ColorVision!
  Worth the purchase.
  
  
• The Spyder2Pro works fine. It's about those directions.
  By A1SLR5OYOJHYEC on 2007-09-20
  This product is easy to use. Why are the directions so difficult to wade through? I ended up calling customer service, after reading the printed material and searching the CD materials. The major hangup was getting past the little popup window inside the folder with the product icon: When you open it, a popup asks for your name, the serial number and your phone number, as I recall. I thought this was the product registration page, which I postponed doing to continue my search for the directions. Had I filled in the registration material and hit "continue," I'd have finished calibrating my monitor and hour and a half sooner. The customer service rep said, "Yeah, you have to sort of put two and two together." A simple note on the registration page saying: "Do this first or we'll never let you get to our directions" would have been very helpful. Overall, the printed directions need work. By the way, the product is great. At last, my prints look like what's on my monitor.
  
  
• Not for all monitors and not for beginners
  By A1LPKKMIPSFLHU on 2007-03-11
  I have two monitors that I wanted to adjust, one is a CRT the other a LCD. Before I begin, I expected the Spyder to adjust my monitor with little manual adjustment to the monitor itself. The adjustments needed for brightness and contrast was left to on my own judgment.
  I had minor issues with the CRT (Sony E540). The minor had to do with adjusting the brightness. As stated before, it's up to your own judgment if it follows exact requirements as per instructions. Therefore I create 3 profiles and basically review photo's using these profiles for best fit.
  
  As for the LCD (Toshiba Syncmaster 172n) I couldn't use the Spyder. Let me rephrase that, If I tried it would have taken hours to adjust. The reason being is that this monitor does not have the necessary color preset to begin the process. It required manual adjustment using the software to get the correct color temperature.
  
  There are other advance features that I have not yet delved upon, so I can't comment on those features. The one good thing that I did like was the ability to create many profiles, but that in itself doesn't quantify the price.
  
  In conclusion, it wasn't a good buy for me. It maybe that I'm not intuitive enough to understand color adjustments. So if you're a beginner like myself, I would recommend trying another product. I gave it a 3 star rating because I have not delved into the advance features so not to give a poor rating but not a great one, I choose the one in the middle.
  
  
  
  
• easy to use good enought for day to day jobs
  By A3D7P56LYM5OXC on 2007-05-13
  I give only 4 stars because I usually work with 10.000$ spectrophotometers and the tolerance of this little fellow is not amazing for what I intended to use. However it is very good for most of the day to day calibration for print, digital cameras, scanner, ICC profiles and monitors.
  
  walter
  
  
• Seeing Clearly
  By A2PYFG9HO6RVQO on 2007-01-09
  The ColorVision Spyder2PRO is working flawlessly with my iMac G5 monitor. It has improved my prints by more accurately helping color profile my monitor and Epson Printer. The supplier shipped my order just as was promissed.
  
  
• color management software
  By A559I1MO2EIBF on 2007-05-22
  After using other color management software, I found Spyder2PRO the best. I believe it is the most accurate and precise. It is straight forward and easy to use. I get the results I am looking for.
  
  
• Maybe It's Just Me, But
  By A3MQ9WK3TRCDR2 on 2007-11-23
  Been using this for about a month now. Overall cannot see any great improvement over using Quick Gamma, which is free, but then again, I've got an inexpensive AOC CRT monitor, and a laptop LCD monitor with the notorious Radeon Mobility card that won't allow external programs to write to it.
  
  Anyway, I've calibrated to all the settings on the menu and also tried to achieve the 2.2 gamma, 5800 color temperature profile suggested with the ambient light option turned on. The latter was not doable with my monitor. I also saved ALL the profiles produced. Bear in mind, each profile was produced using different brightness, contrast, and color temperature settings, all of which were set outside the program, using the control knob on the monitor itself.
  
  Here are a couple of things that were weird for me with respect to the CRT. EVERY ONE of the profiles produced is apparently identical. The screen color or brightness do not change one little bit, no matter which profile is selected as default in the windoze xp pro display properties color management menu. Nor is there one bit of difference among them within Picture Window Pro color management, as each is selected in turn as the monitor profile Second, the so-called before-and-after display at the end of the calibration process is a joke. The before picture does not resemble my display prior to running the program at all, and this before picture is identical after each calibration, no matter what the prior settings were.
  
  On the LCD, there is no difference between the before and the after picture, which I chalk up to the stubbornness built into the Radeon Mobility card, nor is there a bit of difference among the profiles, built under differing parameters as with the CRT, in Picture Window Pro color management, though they all produce a different, but identical, set of colors and brightness levels than produced by the profiles from other hardware manufacturers.
  
  So, as stated, maybe it's just me. Or, maybe it's a function of how little my monitor cost, though it produces great colors for me, as I will address next. But, I'm not quite convinced that Spyder2Pro was really worth it for me.
  
  Fortunately, I bought the suite that includes PrintFixPro 2.0. Now that program is a whole 'nother story. My old (ancient by computer time) Epson Stylus Color 1520 and its little sibling, the 600, print what I see on the screen all the time now. Even the black and white comes out right, after adding the extended gray measurements to the printer profiles produced.
  
  Conclusion: for me Spyder2Pro seems a bit of a joke, because I can calibrate by eye, with a little help from Quick Gamma, and produce as good a picture; PrintFixPro 2.0 is great. A little tedious, printing, drying, and reading the patches, but the result is worth it. Sort of wish I'd bought it as a standalone, but then its being bundled with the Spyder only cost about $100 more. Someday, I might have a monitor where the Spyder will do more good. As it is, what I see is what is printed, and that's what I was after, Spyder or no.
  
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• Buggy. When it works it's great, IF you can get it to work.
  By A4GEUTDY8VSMZ on 2007-08-02
  Works great, but MANY people have had a hard time getting the computer to recognize the device. Software will often say "Please plug in your sensor", when the device is already plugged in!
  
  IF you get it to work you will be VERY happy with the results-- just be prepared for an endless series of downloading drivers, re-installing, re-booting, etc, etc.
  
  
• Spyder2PRO not clear
  By A1NQI1M4BNOJYI on 2007-11-16
  We purchased the Spyder2PRO after reviewing the information on Colovision's website. Because of a delay in loading the program, the return timeframe from the 3rd party supplier had already passed. When we loaded it, we found out that it was incomplete. We had not received all we THOUGHT we were getting. We really needed PrintFix PRO suite. I take responsibility for loading it late, and not being able to return it. When I called Colorvision, they were very helpful, and for an additional several hundred dollars, supplied what I needed.
  I think Spyder2PRO needs to supply more accurate information to their retailers and to their customer relations people. We find the product to be helpful rather easy to use.
  
  
• Great Product!
  By A1XTCF4N10JRHU on 2007-01-10
  Very simple and easy to use, install it... run through the wizard and poof, amazing results.
  
  
• easy to use color calibration
  By A28ZHF15E8UQGM on 2007-04-13
  I found the Spyder2Pro to be overall, an easy product to use ... although it did take some doing, and a bit of time, to get the calibration device to sit flat on my notebook screen. I would say that was a big downside to using this device. I also did not see much of a difference (if any) in the before and after screen, after calibrating my monitor ... I have one other notebook computer (a smaller VAIO which is my take-out-in-the-field computer), but have not yet taken the time to calibrate this one to see if there is a difference.
  
  
• nice product
  By A2WD43P3ZAMVG1 on 2007-07-24
  Very easy user interface. Detects dual monitor setups. Can calibrate your monitor even if you don't have any hardware controls on the unit like the iMac and the other Apple displays. Reminds you when you need to recalibrate. Results are pretty nice. Monitors look great. If you are serious about digital photography this is a must.
  
  
• Colorvision Spyder Pro
  By ALKG70LENT1L9 on 2007-01-20
  I found it quick and simple to connect the "spyder" up and profile my display for printing on my Epson R1800. The results were astounding. Perfectly matched prints on the first try.
  
  
• ColorVision Spyder2PRO Win/Mac
  By AG10PAV26NLRH on 2007-04-15
  I found this device and software to be entirely user-friendly, and to do exactly what it is advertised to do. The instructions are complete, and easy to understand. The process took about half an hour, and the results were amazing!Spyder2PRO
  
  
• On the Fence...
  By A1INZ6RH5ZLR7Y on 2007-12-17
  I specifically purchased Spyder2Pro to calibrate my MacBook Pro 17" to a new Dell Ultrasharp 2407WFP. After many failed attempts to get the Dell to look closer to my MBP display with its built-in Dell monitor controls, I turned to Spyder2Pro because I mirror the display. I ran it a few times with different settings, but I honestly have not found the right profile yet. It certainly looks better than it did before but some colors are just not right and that bothers me. My problems are blues look too purple, tans lean towards orange, and whites have a cast. As a Web Designer, I want better accuracy when proofing my sites on my own monitor before I present to clients and see it on their different monitors. I have not tested the printer side of the software yet. I'm on the fence as to whether I'd recommend the product.
  
  

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