I believe you will get excellent results from both. I've never seen a comparison between the two, and I've rarely heard complaints about either. The Spyder , which I use, is technically more advanced, and can measure ambient light, but I don't know if that translates into superior profiles.
Shutterbug (magazine), August 2008 (current issue), page 128 has a quite favorable review of the Spyder 3. They show a slightly larger color gamut for the Spyder3 versus the Eye-One. They go on to state that if you own Eye-1 they see no reason to go out any buy a Spyder3, but they do feel that upgrading from the Spyder2 to the Spyder3 would be worthwhile.
I own a Spider3 but I do not have an Eye-1 to compare it to.
There are some various reviews on the net, and I did chat with one of the reviewers who had used both. He pretty much felt they were equal but did give maybe a little preference to the Spyder3. I talked to one or the "experts" at NAPP and he said the same - reco'd both, nixed the others I was considering.
So pretty much everything I have seen says they are both fine.
The DTP-94 is the best device for calibrating. Unfortunately it isn't made anymore and was sold up the river for other company products. You can find them used on Ebay and craigslist.
The DTP-94 incorporates thermally stabilized sensors. That means that as you read patches on the screen the puck itself compensates for the thermal drift within the chip. The dark current doesn't drift and it remains very accurate- so much so that it was hard to believe that a 200$ instrument (new) was as accurate as a 30K$ spectrophotometer.
It does suffer from being slow- a typical maximum integration time was 4 seconds for a measured, integrated, and averaged read. However it was easily suspended from the back of the monitor (contact) and thus the user could walk away from them. Given their cheapness a site could buy a couple dozen and swap them as needed to calibrate.
Every other probe on the market, ehhh... well here's my favorites- Klein K-10 ($6700) and the Yokogawa ($9300). The Klein is super fast, whereas the Yokogawa has a weird triple-beat process for gathering data.
We're looking at a laser aperture probe right now and I don't know the cost, but I'm going to guess 10k$
My point? Buy a DTP-94 if you can get one. They're great and I never travel to a customer site without one in my gear.
Hendrik wrote:
ColorEyes Display Pro is a great piece of software and sells the DTP-94 in a package deal.
Ahhh I knew there was another package that contained the probe. I'm not at work so I don't have access to my notes, but that sounds like the right name for it. Lacie's displays also had one (blue? blue something) that contained the probe.
I take my calibration equipment and process seriously
I am currently considering buying either of these two beasts soon. The Spyder 3 would be easier for me to buy (not only cheaper but more common to find in Europe). But I seem to hear a lot of good things about the Eye One display. I will not consider the DTP-94 (I saw no European store carrying it).
Are there more opinions about the Eye One Display (i1 Display) or about the Spyder 3 Elite, and the comparison of both ?
Ps: I prefer to bump an old thread rather than creating a new one so as to gather information rather than spreading it across multiple thread. If I made the wrong choice, please accept my apologies. ;-)
Thanks, colinm, your comment is helpful.
What I see regarding to the European market is just that buying the X-Rite i1 Display seems harder since fewer place carry it and the price is really not very good (the best I found is about 240 euros... whereas the Spyder3 Elite can be found around 170 euros). Unless there is a very important difference, I think I would rather like to get the Spyder 3 then...
purduephotog wrote:
Ahhh I knew there was another package that contained the probe. I'm not at work so I don't have access to my notes, but that sounds like the right name for it. Lacie's displays also had one (blue? blue something) that contained the probe.
I take my calibration equipment and process seriously
They shipped to me in Norway in about a week, so France shouldn't be a problem.
The purchase decision was based on purduephotog's post above. I haven't got experience with other calibrators, but will say that the DTP-94 CEDP combination seems to work! The colours from my Epson 3800 match my ACD display to my satisfaction.
I personally would stay away from ColorVision's Spyder. Might be a good product but they offer horrible support. I went round and round with them before finally sending whole package back for a refund. There tech support is basically sitting on hold to talk to a guy who types what you say and then tells you to wait for a call back in 48 hours from a tech who can actually answer your question. Not my idea of helpful. I bought EyeOne Display 2 and it has done a great job. I get ok profiles with the included software and it did even better with ColorEyes software.
