Hi Everyone, I am looking to buy a calibration device and have been looking at the Spyder 3 Elite. I will be calibrating LCD monitors as well as a DLP projector. I have used Pantone products before so I have some sense as to what I am getting into with calibration. The questions I have are: Do people like the Spyder 3 Elite? It seems to get bashed on reviews, but ultimately people say it works. Does it work ok with Windows 64bit? Is it gonna work ok with Win7? Now the big question. What else would you recommend? I wouldn't mind the Colormunki, but it is twice the price... Thanks for any and all advice. -R
The Spyder3 Elite is actually quite good. The software and support occasionally leaves something to be desired, but it works, it's accurate, and it's consistent. datacolor's also been working hard on improving their support. For monitor profiling there's rarely reason to buy the Elite over the Pro, but since you need projector profiling that doesn't apply here.
Works fine with 64-bit Vista (verified firsthand), and works with Windows 7 as well (per others and datacolor). 7 systems may need a workaround to install; it's documented on datacolor's site.
Really, it's the only option right now at that price point. To get projector profiling from X-Rite, it's either the ColorMunki (which is more expensive because it also does print profiling) or the even higher-end i1 Pro.
I own both the ColorMunki and the Spyder3 Elite. The Spyder gives me more accurate (to my eye) screen color than the ColorMunki but the printer profiling for the ColorMunki is quite good IMO. (once you understand the process of properly profiling and printing using said profiles)
I'd go for the Spyder3 also for the wider aftermarket software support. I have a number of profiling programs that support it while nothing supports the ColorMunki outside of it's own software.
I just bought an Epson R2880 printer and can't seem to get it to print correctly. How do I get a Spyder 3 to communicate with the printer ICC profile? I'm not to shabby with this printing thing yet.
