Spyder3Elite

Few firms have done more to simplify colour management than Datacolor (formerly ColorVision). Its Spyder line of colourimeters have always delivered reliable screen colour with a minimum of fuss, and its latest offering, the Spyder3Elite, ups the ante on technology to make the process both simple and supremely reliable.

The Elite is the successor to the Spyder2Pro, which at £195 sat at the higher end of the monitor calibration market. Improvements include a larger light-measuring aperture, a faster calibration process and an embedded ambient light detector.

The device is designed for photographers and is able to provide colour profiles for LCD and CRT displays, notebooks and even projectors. Attachment is via suction cup (CRTs), counterweight (LCDs and notebooks) or tripod mount (projectors).

Driving the process is the bundled Option ReCAL software, which enables you to quickly and easily re-calibrate frequently, for example, before an important shoot or a post-production project.

Once attached, the Spyder3 automatically measures ambient light levels. By virtue of a history log of lighting conditions, Spyder3 is able to discern true lighting changes from fluctuations caused by studio flashes or shadows. After measuring RGB, black and grey levels, the SpyderProof function soft-proofs in before-and-after fashion, using thematic photos for checking saturated colours, skin tones, gradients and black-and-whites.

And thanks to user-defined choices for white point, gamma, white and black luminance, the package has the flexibility to accommodate typical workflow scenarios; photography pros can tune calibrations to optimise shadow detail, studio light or lightbox matching, as well as output device.

StudioMatch Assistant, meanwhile, is designed to provide users possessing multiple monitors with consistent calibrations. It calibrates displays to a single calibration target by accounting for each display’s white and black luminance, as well as studio light conditions – meaning you can rely on consistent and accurate colour and luminance throughout the studio.

The Spyder3 also supports next-generation displays, including wide gamut, LED backlight and Adobe RGB models, and a new Display History Utility tracks monitor attributes to provide a white luminance trend. This is a very useful tool for tracking changes in a display’s performance over time.

Spyder3Elite is also the only consumer-level calibration solution for front projectors, giving users confidence in the colour fidelity of projected work.