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Pantone ColorVision Spyder with OptiCAL for LCD/CRT for PC, Mac (GEUSB103)

Pantone ColorVision Spyder with OptiCAL for LCD/CRT for PC, Mac (GEUSB103)
Overall Rating: Product Rating: 4.0

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Colorvision SpyderPRO: Show me your true colors:

Written: Aug 15 '04 (Updated Sep 13 '04)

Product Rating: Product Rating: 4.0
Pros: quick installation, mostly accurate results, flexible OptiCal software

Cons: primitive documentation, user interface, slow process, limited LCD functionality, rebate issues

The Bottom Line: SpyderPRO is a good choice for DTP and Photo professional and enthusiasts alike - but not perfect.
theuerkorn's Full Review: Pantone ColorVision Spyder with OptiCAL for LCD/CR...
The dawn of digital photography changed the way we look at related technology like printers and monitors. One of the most common issue still may be the most mysterious as well. Color calibration.

WYSIWYG has been a buzz 'word' for decades and even though it simply reflects that data is displayed 'true' to its actual 'shape', the scope and meaning is changing as technology is evolving. In the last 20 years we've come a long way from simply rendering fonts in the approximate shape (on the computer monitor) to eventually color corrected representation of the print image.

Digital photography is the main driver behind the latest attempt to truly WYSIWYG color related data like pictures and graphics. Since the monitor is the window to your computer's data (pictures) it is essential to have it show these as true to the original as possible. Sure, monitors are quite good on their own, but every one is a little different and this is where calibration is required.


1. What's in a name?
2. In the Box
3. Why calibrating?
4. SpyderPro Features
5. Installation & Setup
6. Calibrating LCDs w/ OptiCal
7. Calibrating CRTs w/ OptiCal
8. Support
9. Tips & Tricks
10. Conclusion
11. Online Resources
12. Further Reading
13. What about the $30 Rebate?


WHAT's IN A NAME?

So, who in his right mind would come up with such a long and seemingly meaningless name for a product anyway?: "Pantone Colorvision SpyderPro w/ OptiCal". The answer may be in the co-branding between Pantone and Colorvision, but it sure makes it difficult to look at the different versions without getting confused.

Pantone Inc.: (www.pantone.com)is worldknown for its color standards and a comprehensive matching systems for mainly the print industry. (In case you have not noticed yet, just open any reasonable graphics program and explore the color models and palettes. With high certainty you will find at least one set of Pantone colors.)

Colorvision Inc.: (www.colorvision.com) is a subdivision of Datacolor Inc. which in return belongs to the Swiss Eichelhof Holding AG and is not affiliated with Pantone Inc.. Datavision basically focusses on color calibration of digital media.

Spyder and SpyderPro: are tradenames and represent the same hardware (The disc with the 3 legs). Why they're calling it different names is beyond my comprehension but marketing sure has a good reason for it. Of course, the Pro version is more expensive and the proper name lowers potential resistance of customers. It turns out that this is the manufacturer's designation of the 2 models and already includes the fact that one comes with PhotoCal (Spyder) and the other with OptiCal (SpyderPro).

PhotoCal and OptiCal: are the two available software tools for the spyder. Both are basically automated tools that allow to read the computer screen, analyze it and create a custom correction profile (a.k.a. monitor profile). PhotoCal is included with both the Spyder and the Spyder Pro, but only the latter also includes a copy of OptiCal.

Naming Convention: I will only be using Spyder (w/ PhotoCal) and SpyderPRO (w/ OptiCal) as the names in this review since differences as described above are in the software only and the included version is implied. When refering to the SpyderPRO, most features apply to the Spyder as well.

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IN THE BOX

This review covers mainly the SpyderPro

Spyder w/ PhotoCal
* Spyder Monitor Calibrator for CRT & LCD monitors
* Spyder LCD attachment
* Site License of PhotoCAL Monitor Calibration Software
* Adobe®Photoshop® Album LE
* Installation Guides and User Manuals

SpyderPro w/ OptiCal
* Spyder Monitor Calibrator for CRT & LCD monitors
* Spyder LCD attachment
* Site License of OptiCAL Monitor Calibration Software
* Site License of PhotoCAL Monitor Calibration Software
* Adobe®Photoshop® Album 2.0
* OptiCal Quick Installation Guide
* User Manuals on CD

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WHY CALIBRATING?

So, you just got a brand-new monitor. Why is it necessary to calibrate. Wouldn't it be enough to pick a brand name monitor and assume it's alright? After all, couldn't the factory just make sure that it's correct when you buy it?

Yes and no! A good monitor may come very close and calibration may not achieve much, but it's for the peace of mind if nothing else. However, as monitors vary due to tolerances and change characteristics over time due to aging, it's not that easy in the real world.

In theory one could just tweak the gamma curves that most display drivers offer and compensate for those discrepancies. However, attempting to do it completely manual sure requires a lot of guess work and experience to match colors.

This is where third-party calibration comes to the rescue and basically records the true output of the monitor (profile), compares that to the theoretical value and determines how to modify the signal in order to match the ideal (calibration).

This would be easier if all manufacturers provided color profiles for download and expensive hardware would not be needed. However, in most cases and surely in the case of my Planar PX171M Monitor no such information is available (even upon request). So do it yourself with the ColorVision SpyderPRO ...

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FEATURES

The disc shaped Spyder holds a 7-filter emissive colorimeter, which divides emitted light into 7 wavelength bands filters (rather than 3 for Red Green and Blue). Per ColorVision, this "... enables it to more effectively describe the industry standard tristimulus matching curves - the end result - a more accurate calibration." The Spyder is optimized for both CRT and LCD usagedue to a honey-comb baffle for LCD calibration, which essentially provides two light paths - one optimized for CRT's and the other for LCD's.

Note: Despite the different names, the hardware is identical between the Spyder and the SpyderPRO!

OptiCAL (included with SpyderPro) allows a wide choice of gamma and color temperature targets and does not lock you into arbitrary gamma or color temperature settings. While this is "... enabling you to adjust your monitor output to your personal creative preference or a third party standard", it sure is more of an essential and should be available in PhotoCAL (included with Spyder) as well.

For CRTs only: The OptiCAL pre-calibration function balances the RGB guns of your monitor allowing you to achieve the widest color gamut your monitor can produce resulting in better flesh tones, more even grays, and more open shadows.

For Experts only: OptiCAL allows you to adjust individual RGB response curves giving you the ability to adjust shadow detail, flesh tones, and other preferences to your own creative vision or third party standards. Note: Too much creativity sure can backfire!

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INSTALLATION / SETUP

The package includes a little quickstart guide on how to setup the computer for using OptiCal. (Despite the included PhotoCal disc, there are no printed instructions.)

Installation is a breeze, once you've figured out that only the OptiCAL disc is required and the Spyder should not be plugged in before installing the spftware and rebooting.

Installation requirements read a little scary as ColorVision insists on a PCI USB interface card and even discourages the use of on-board USB ports and extensions as they're found in some monitors etc.. Ignoring this advice I plugged the hardware into my on-board USB port (Gigabyte SINXP motherboard) and encountered no problems either.

I will not cover the included Adobe Album here as it is a quite common value-added option for graphics related hardware and does not really have any impact on the main function of the Spyder anyway. (Calibrating your system.) It is, however, a quite capable photo album and certainly worth a try.

With the installation complete, it's now time to reboot the system and plug in the hardware. The Spyder comes pre-configured for LCD screens and only the hanging bracket needs to be attached. (For CRTs one piece needs to be replaced with the included suction cup.) Do not use the suction cup on LCDs as that may damage the monitor (upon removal).

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CALIBRATING LCDs w/ OPTICAL

The colorful quick-guide stops where the actual use starts and one will quickly crave more information about the calibration process and some background for the parameters. There is precious little in the electronic documentation that can fill in the gaps and I strongly suggest to peruse some of the reading material that's listed at the end of this review.

Before calibrating make sure the screen is as clean as it can be.

Installing the hardware is simple, but one little problem is design inherent and reflects its origin as a CRT calibration device. Under circunstances, the stiff USB cable can cause the Spyder to not sit flat against the LCD monitor and distort readings a little bit. It takes a little bit of finess to put it in the right orientation and keep it there. The sucktion cups used for CRTs do not have this issue.

Anyway, it is important to understand that for LCD monitors, like the Planar PX171M, it doesn't make sense to adjust RGB guns since a common (white) backlighting doesn't allow for adjusting individual primary comonents (RGB). (Nor is it required.) Less obvious is another restriction. The Precision calibration mode is not recommended for LCD screens and in fact may create inferior results (like washed-out color profiles). With these restrictions, a big chunk of the OptiCal advantage over PhotoCal is not available for LCDs. The main issue with the software is that despite settings in the preferences, the program does not prevent the user from making the improper selection.

Anyway, two unusable profiles later (30 min for precision, 10 min. for standard), I finally got a clean profile that seemed to work (Standard, Windows Gamma 2.2, LCD). Upon completion, the profile is saved in the proper Windows directory and made default.

This is all fairly easy to digest, but it's not obvious that the "Enable Calibration" button is for preview purposes in order to compare before and after, especially since the calibrated profile is not active after closing OptiCal if this option is not enabled. (Reboot required.)

Since a calibration takes between 10 and 30 minutes, one might use the cancel option in case environment light has been turned on by accident (Spyder works best in a dim environment) or the screensaver kicked in (don't forget to disable it for the calibration process). However, in a few instances hitting ESC (cancel) would crash OptiCal without any further damage.

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CALIBRATING CRTs w/ OPTICAL

To evaluate the true power of the SpyderPRO, I also ran the calibration on a 20" CRT monitor (In this case a Gateway VX-1120). This is especially important as this allows to use both the PreCal and Precision Mode of OptiCal. So I removed the LCD specific attachments (tether and front piece) and installed the rubber baffle (looks like a suction cup).

The (3) suction cups on the Spyder are used to support the hardware and keep it aligned correctly. This solution is vastly superior to the tether and shaky front piece used for LCDs. However, it becomes clear why the suction cups cannot be used on LCDs when removing the Spyder from the monitor. It requires significant force and that may crack the thin glas of LCDs.

Given that this is a CRT, PreCal is the first recommended step and doing so allows to adjust each individual gun for Red, Green and Blue to a maximum delta of 0.5. The spyder reads the color values and adjustments are made with the monitor controls. My Green was off a little bit (1.2) and a slight adjustment brought the overall difference to 0.26.

With this PreCal procedure contrast, brightness, and primary color intensity are basically correct and you're ready to go. The precision mode cannot be used the first time you're running a calibration and the 'forced' standard calibration caused a significant color cast towards the green.

Running the precision mode on the second attempt revealed that contrast and brightness of the PreCal process were quite accurate and all I had to do is to advance the program when adjustments were possible. At the end of this calibration, I let the software write the profile to the system and activate it. This time with much more pleasing results. Furthermore, the calibration took much less time than the LCD - maybe because of the unrestricted window in the CRT baffle which allows more light to reach the colorimeter.

Activating and de-activating the color profile (within OptiCal) showed a slight blue cast of the uncalibrated screen and the result to be more natural. So I guess it's true that the impact on CRTs is greater than LCDs.

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SUPPORT

Both Pantone and ColorVision provide support for the Spyder series. However, the spyder-specific information on www.Pantone.com is a little outdated (i.e. OptiCal 3.7.7) and only accessible after registering with pantone (for free). Beyond this product, one can find a wealth of color-related information and a few tutorials (most of them somewhat applicable to the Spyder tool).

The manufacturer's site www.ColorVision.com provides more up-to-date information (i.e. OptiCal 3.7.8) and doesn't require to sign up for an account either. However, there is precious little information beyond the minimalistic manuals that are included in the retail package. Need a useful tutorial on how to use the Spyder? Not here!

I contacted ColorVision in order to help me fill in some of the gaps and the answer was very short and only partially helpful. (I continue bugging them and will update once I received more info.)

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TIPS & TRICKS

Here a few things that I found useful when working with the SpyderPRO. This should be normally in the documentation but since it's not ...

- Clean monitor thoroughly before calibrating
- Warm up monitor thoroughly (30 min.) before calibrating
- Set monitor to resolution and frequency used for color apps
- Disable any screensaver during calibration
- For photo applications set white point of the monitor to 6500K
- Avoid changes in environment lighting (Light on/off)
- Avoid bright color in front of the monitor that may reflect (i.e. yellow shirt)
- Uninstall any color management tools (like Adobe Gamma)
- Do not use the display driver's color correction (reset if needed)
- Do not move Spyder hardware at all during calibration
- Run Standard calibration first (to set a baseline)
- Always run a 2nd calibration for better results
--> Precision mode for CRTs
--> Standard mode for LCDs

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CONCLUSION

If color accuracy is important to you, ColorVision's SpyderPro is worth a look. Most effective and powerful for CRTs, however, there is currently little gain for today's LCD screens. Some of it is technology inherent, other limitations are not so obvious.

This is not a new product. Given it's development state of 2002 and the professional focus as well as the complexity of color calibration, both documentation and user interface leave much to be desired.

Especially disappointing is the 'award-winning' OptiCal software, with a ridiculous manual, little user guidance and frankly I am not sure what warrants the $199 for OptiCal as a stand-alone product (in case you want to upgrade the standard 'Spyder'). However, it's more useful than PhotoCal.

On the positive side, once you got beyond the hurdle of virtually absent documentation, SpyderPro allows to verify your monitor's color profile and make sure that what you see is really what everybody else gets (provided their system is calibrated too).

Whether you need to spend this kind of money to see correct colors depends on your focus. If you don't print your own photos or supply material to professional services, consider the $180 as non-essential. For others it's an investment in the knowledge that pictures are displayed correctly - essential for some professionals and a nice perk for enthusiasts.

Unless the monitor is very old or settings completely off, don't expect a huge difference between the uncalibrated image and corrected result - especially for LCD screens. If there is a significant color cast at standard settings, your monitor may have crossed the finish line (of its product life time).

Nevertheless, the SpyderPro finally fixed a slight issue the Planar PX171M Monitor has. Dark color shades are now easier to distinguish and the overall picture looks more pleasing. (But I could just imagine that.) And that's a good justification of this expense - besides the $30 rebate for the SpyderPRO that ColorVision currently offers.

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ONLINE RESOURCES

Pantone Inc.
- http://www.pantone.com

ColorVision Inc.
- http://www.colorvision.com

Spyder vs. SpyderPro
- http://www.colorvision.com/store_spec_spyder-vs-pro.shtml

SpyderPro
- http://www.colorvision.com/profis/profis_view.jsp?id=241


FURTHER READING

Norman Koren's Website:
- http://www.normankoren.com/color_management.html
- http://www.normankoren.com/makingfineprints1A.html

Books:
- "Real World Color Management", Peachpit Press (ISBN 0201773406) *****
- "Color Confidence", Sybex Inc (ISBN 0782143164) ****-
- "Understanding Color Management", Delmar Learning (ISBN 1401814476) ****-

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WHAT's WITH THE REBATE?

The rebate of $30 was one of the reasons I picked this product (http://images.pricegrabber.com/rebates/10416.pdf), however, it turned out to be not that easy (see log below).

20-Aug-2004: submitted paperwork for rebate to ColorVision

10-Sep-2004: received e-mail from www.wheresmyrebate.com requesting more info (store receipt missing?), I provided another copy via fax the same day

11-Sep-2004: status changed to "Rebate Submission is Denied" despite the remark "APPROVED ON REVIEW 09-10-04" on the same page.

13-Sep-2004: website is down, decided to call again (make sure you have ample time to spend on hold) and it turns out that the approval is now complete. (1 month until check will be sent out) I will update if and when the check arrives.

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Recommended:
Yes

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theuerkorn

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