Spyder4 PRO Advanced Colour Calibration (PC/Mac)

I ve purchased this product to calibrate my dell inspiron 5721 (tn panel 1920x1080)laptop and my dell 23'' 2311 ips screen.i ve tried 1st with my desktop's monitor.i ve started with the recommended settings(6500k /2.2 gamma/ 120brightness/ ambient light on) The 1st calibration turned everything red , the 2d everything yellow.Then i ve tried with ambient light option off and the result was a perfect calibrated screen.I think this option is totally useless, if the results you get is not what you expect turn this setting offTip:If you have a monitor with RGB sliders enable this option through preferences menu (top left corner of the software) and calibrate the screen with this option on.It takes longer but the results will be much more accurate and very close to perfection.After my desktop's monitor i ve calibrated my laptop.My laptop's screen has a blue tint -classic Tn panel-I ve chosen similar settings(6500k /2.2gamma/120 brightness)and the final result was outstanding,the blue tint has gone and white color is finally white.Installation of the datacolor software has been made without issues on both systems running win 7 64bit/Win 8 64bitConclusion:If you have a good ips monitor, this product will boost your screen's image, but you can also live without if you are not using your monitor for professional reason.Ips screens have good colour accuracy anyway .But if you have a tn monitor, or worse a laptop with a tn screen this product is really a must.Most laptops don't let you make any adjustments other than the brightness level so it is very difficult to calibrate them

Spyder4Pro makes monitor calibration very much easier. Whilst it is perfectly possible for a professional photographer or an accomplished amateur enthusiast to adjust a monitor by inspection and to produce quality work in-house; without ever owning such device; by tweeking the settings in photoshop and in your inkjet printer software, the Spyder really comes into its own when you want to send your work to an outside lab. Calibration with the Spyder 4 (PC/Mac) ensures that you and your outside lab are more likely to be singing from the same song sheet. In house it helps to reduce wasting time and materials.The Spyder 4Pro is easy to install, use and quick after the first initial calibration. It is best to ensure your operating system is up-dated and you graphics card drivers are up to date. When you install the Datacolor Spyder software you are taken to the Datacolor website to register and to check for updates.If you are still a Windows XP user; and use Photoshop you may have to disable Adobe Gamma and rename a folder or remove it from the windows start up. Apart from the few niggles, the Spyder device is to be recommended, giving the serious photographer more consistent, more true colours. Especially when sending work out of house and need to talk to the real world outside.

As many others have said, the Spyder 4 Pro is not cheap and, on the face of it, it's not going to change your life but it is very good and it works very well indeed.I'm a web designer and I've always been pretty sure that both of my desktop monitors are set up well colour-wise but my Dell laptop over-saturates colour and no matter what I've tried, it's always annoyed me when I've spent hours creating a graphic for a client on the desktop, only to show them my labours on the laptop and it looks awful! That's why I decided to invest the money in this gadget.It arrived about 90 minutes ago and so far I've calibrated two LG monitors, two Dell laptops and my iPad, all with no problems whatsoever and a status-quo now where no matter which device I'm using to display an image, they all look the same and spot-on. Very pleased I spent the money and the only regret is that I've got to put it away in its box now until the system reminds me to recalibrate in a month (you get to set the reminder period).If I can give but one tip when calibrating a monitor (and it does tell you this) reset all of your display controls to "factory settings" before calibration. I also checked my display driver settings (NVidia) to make sure everything in that department was as neutral as possible, although I'm not certain this is necessary. Also when calibrating a monitor, it checks ambient light (although it doesn't seem to do this on a laptop?) and tells you if you're working in too much ambient light. I drew my blinds slightly until it gave me a reading of "medium" before calibrating and I have to say, working at this light level is a lot more comfortable on the eyes.