Datacolor Spyder3Studio SR
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Spyder3Studio SR from Datacolor is a toolbox to manage your digital darkroom workflow. The SpyderCube lets you find the perfect balance to apply to your RAW files. Spyder3Elite software lets you calibrate all your studio displays and projectors, while a softproofing feature gives you a sample of images to quickly evaluate and profile-adjust for the whole project.
- Complete Color Management System
- Spdyer3Studio includes all the serious tools for serious photographers at every step of the digital process, from RAW camera calibration to display accuracy and perfect prints.
- New RAW Calibration with SpyderCube
- In just one shot you can customize white balance and other color adjustments using your favorite RAW conversion software.
- Accurate, Predictable Color On Screen
- Spyder3Elite offers cutting edge technology and advanced software for calibrating all your studio displays. Advanced software allows total control with user specified calibration targets as well as ambient light monitoring and matching multiple displays to one target. It even reminds you to recalibrate.
- Consistent Color for the Latest Display Technology
- Sophisticated hardware for optimizing the latest display technology.
- Make Your Presentations Shine
- Spyder3Elite allows you to easily calibrate your front projectors for the best presentations. You can be confident your colors are true when showing your images on screen.
- New Profiling Speed and Accuracy
- A strip-reading Spectrocolorimeter gives you custom profiles in minutes with EZ targets for color or black and white. The SpyderGuide is included for convenience in creating profiles easily and accurately.
- Softproof within the Application
- The SpyderProof function gives you a series of carefully selected images to evaluate detail from a photographer's point of view.
- Total Control for Gallery Quality Prints
- Advanced controls on Color and Black & White Tinting curves in your Image Editor, which allows you to apply adjustments to the profile rather than to each individual image. Extended Grays Target allows you to add precision gray and near gray data to profiles, enhancing quality of Tinted and Black and White prints.
- Extensive Editing Capabilities
- Flexible target options and high patch profiling targets to produce "gallery quality prints" in color or black and white. Easily select prebuilt or custom sets of advanced profiles settings to produce profiles with specific combinations of highlight and shadow tint, and detail and neutrality settings.
| System Requirements |
Windows XP (32- or 64-bit), Vista (32- or 64-bit), Windows 7; Mac OS X (10.4 or higher) USB Port Monitor Resolution 1024x768 or greater 16-bit video card (24-bit recommended) 128MB or available RAM 100MB of available hard disk space |
REVIEW SNAPSHOT®
by PowerReviews(based on 61 reviews)
Ratings Distribution
90%
of respondents would recommend this to a friend.
Pros
- Accurate colors (38)
- Easy to navigate (37)
- Versatile (24)
- Easy to collaborate across programs (19)
- Easy to customize (17)
Cons
Best Uses
- Professional quality (35)
- Presentations (7)
- Educational purposes (5)
- Photography (3)
- Reviewer Profile:
- Quality oriented (42)
- Primary use:
- Personal (35), Business (24)
- Computer Platform:
- PC (10), Mac (7)
Most Liked Positive Review
An Excellent Appliance
This thing is simple and has it all as far as I can tell. It seems to work very well although I haven't had time to fully explore the possibilities. It HAS saved one ...Read complete review
This thing is simple and has it all as far as I can tell. It seems to work very well although I haven't had time to fully explore the possibilities. It HAS saved one project where everything was one stop overexposed and too red- I couldn't get the adjustments right because I couldn't see what I was doing and my printer was producing a red cast as well.
My only criticism is that it was never mentioned that it would not adjust two monitors driven from a 'two output' video card except for a small reference in the literature that came in the box. I don't have room for two video cards in the new PC I bought and I'm still not sure if this limitation is a universal problem or only affects older video cards. I have a PCI-E buss card with dual DVI dual link outputs and it seems that both monitors are calibrated.
Overall this thing is somewhat pricey but it IS a complete "reference card (or cube in this case) to print output" calibration system that seems to work well. If you are serious about consistantly producing photos with the color balance and tonal range you wanted to see this is the best!
VS
Most Liked Negative Review
Didn't quite live up to expectations.
I'll start with the pro's: The monitor calibration seems to work fine and is well made. I've used spyder monitor calibration equipment before and it does help. Because of reasonable success in that area...Read complete review
I'll start with the pro's: The monitor calibration seems to work fine and is well made. I've used spyder monitor calibration equipment before and it does help. Because of reasonable success in that area, i decided to purchase the whole system, camera to printer (primarily as a solution to Epson's FAILURE to support 5yr old printers with current profiles). I will revise this review if anything changes but my initial experience with the printer calibration is that it is both tedious and USELESS. I have profiled 3 papers (epson, hahnemuehle and moab - all fine art papers) and have not acheived accurate color using the profiles created. I just finished a comparison test with the moab (and will do so with the others) and the generic profile on their site gives MUCH better color accuracy than the profile I created which is theoretically customized to my printer. I mentioned also that the process is tedious; you have to read each color square (in some cases over 700 of them) manually and then go back and check for mis-read squares-- which i did diligently. (It would be much easier and possibly more accurate if there was an option to read the colors on a similarly calibrated scanner. My conclusion is that the monitor calibrator works well and is worth having for serious printing but that the printer profiles simply don't do the job.... after spending an extra [$] for it, that's a disappointment.(I am using a new iMac and an Epson 2200.)
REVIEWS
Reviewed by 61 customers
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Displaying reviews 1-20
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Pros
- Accurate Colors and Controls
- Easy To Customize
- Easy To Navigate
Cons
Best Uses
- Professional Quality
Comments about Datacolor Spyder3Studio SR:
Profiled my HP L2245w monitor and a couple of my photo papers. Hardware and software were easy to use and produced excellent results. I haven't used the Spyder Cube as yet. I would definitely recommend this product.
- Primary use:
- Personal
- Computer Platform:
- PC
Pros
- Accurate Colors and Controls
- Easy To Navigate
Cons
Best Uses
- Professional Quality
Comments about Datacolor Spyder3Studio SR:
I use the product in my small Fine Art Photography business. I like the fact that this product includes the entire solution, from camera to screen to printer. Thus far, I have gotten good screen calibrations and a good paper profile built up for my Epson 3800 printer. I do notice somewhat better shadow detail than the default epson profile for the paper that I use.
The profiling of the paper does take some time (and 9 sheets of paper if you do the full calibration)....but it is worth it.
Recommended product.
- Primary use:
- Business
- Computer Platform:
- Mac
Pros
- Accurate Colors and Controls
- End to end set
- Versatile
Cons
- Ease of Installation
Best Uses
Comments about Datacolor Spyder3Studio SR:
Very good set overall - has all the tools you need for end to end colour management (monitor, printer, cube for camera). Has plenty of useful features like monitor matching, etc.
The only reason I didn't give if full 5 stars is the installation process. It comes with universal install for windows and Mac and on my Mac OS Lion it was quite a struggle to figure out that the version on the disk was not compatible with the latest Mac OS. Install App didn't give any indication of this problem - I had to figure it out myself. One more stumbling block is the activation code - it doesn't work with the latest version of Spyder Elite.
- Primary use:
- Personal
- Computer Platform:
- Mac
Pros
- Spyder3 Elite easy to use
Cons
- Printer Profiler BAD
Best Uses
- Calibrate monitor
Comments about Datacolor Spyder3Studio SR:
The Monitor calibration is very good. But the printer profiler is basically impossible to achieve. The profile that comes with our Epson Stylus 3800 works great but when I create a printer profile with Spyder3, the blacks are solid black. It doesn't show the shadow details like our I tried many times to make adjustments but still Epson Stylus 3800 profile shows the shadow details. When I called their support team, they said it's very hard to get a good printer profile. And that I'm lucky to get a profiel that's as good as my Epson Stylus 3800 profile. Why do they even sell a printer profiler if it's like pulling teeth without anasthesia? Don't waste your money buying Studio. Stick with the Spyder3 Elite for your monitor and use the profile that comes with your printer.
- Primary use:
- Business
- Computer Platform:
- PC
Pros
- Accurate Colors and Controls
- Easy to use
- Value for money
Cons
- Spyderprint Line scan
Best Uses
Comments about Datacolor Spyder3Studio SR:
I bought this product as I was having difficulty in exactly matching the colors photographed ( Canon 7D) to my final prints (Epson R2400). By following the easy instructions and incorporating each of the steps into my workflow, it has provided the minor tweeks needed to achieve my desired results.
The cube and spyder are straightforward and fast to use. The spyder print is a little more complicated. I was unable to scan the lines of the color patches at a consistent speed but it does allow individual patch scanning which is slower but proved to be effective. While the quality of ICC's provided by paper manufacturers is excellent, the ICC produced by the SpyderPrint worked exceptionally well producing more accurate saturated and vibrant colors on my printer. This has allowed me to achieve consistent and impressive results on high quality papers costing less than the printer manufacturer media.
I would highly recommend this product to anyone looking for color accuracy and value for mmoney. While only a few extreme colors noticeably change out of camera after using the cube, the subtle improvemnets in tone will please any discerning photographer.
- Primary use:
- Personal
- Computer Platform:
- PC
Pros
- Easy to use
- Good software out the box
Cons
- Bad guide-ruler
Best Uses
Comments about Datacolor Spyder3Studio SR:
I use Spyder3Studio to see on my monitors (I have 2) what I will get on printer (simple A4 format).
I make profiles for all my papers and with softproofing I can match colors on monitor to colors on paper.
I also make profile for my local photoprinting lab, which I use to print large formats (they don't provide icm profile) and also can see on my monitor how they will print my photos.
I also liked that Spyder3Studio can make my monitors to show same colors, so now I work with photos on all of them: original photo - on N1, softproof and editing on N2, etc.
I like it, with the exception of guide-ruler which is hard to use, so I don't use it.
- Primary use:
- Personal
- Computer Platform:
- PC
Pros
- Easy To Navigate
Cons
- Usage is not well defined
Best Uses
Comments about Datacolor Spyder3Studio SR:
I was disatisfied with the over quality of the product. To begin with, the case, which looks like a sturdy aluminum case is not such at all. It is a box made out MDF thin board wraped in Aluminun foil. It broked after a couple of days.
Second, the support material at the WEB is very choppy and mostly irrelevant. Nothing to do with X-rite which bombars me with web seminars addressing many aspects of the product usage and its results.
The reason why I bought this equipment is in that 10 years ago I bought the original spyder. My display got profiled but the system failed to profile the printer. After receiving the equipment one of the tech support told me that that the original system never actually worked, but this version would. That does not give me any reassurance at all.
I have requested B&H an RMA. I still need the profiler but I will switch to x-rite. They seem to have a better way to show me their products by teaching and demonstrating exhaustively its benefits and its usage.
- Primary use:
- Business
- Computer Platform:
- PC
Pros
- Accurate Colors and Controls
- Easy To Collaborate Across Programs
- Easy To Customize
- Easy To Navigate
- Versatile
Cons
Best Uses
- Educational Purposes
- Professional Quality
Comments about Datacolor Spyder3Studio SR:
Installation and configuration is simple and easy. I was calibrating a new iMac with a 5 year old Mac Monitor and attempted to do it using the built in Mac software which worked ok. I was amazed how close the two monitors were after using the Spyder3studio. To color calibrate the projectors I had to purchase a mic stand to camera adapter mount which B&H also sells for a few dollars but other than that works great.
- Primary use:
- Business
- Computer Platform:
- Mac
Pros
- Accurate Colors and Controls
- Easy To Customize
- Easy To Navigate
- Versatile
Cons
Best Uses
- Professional Quality
Comments about Datacolor Spyder3Studio SR:
I bought this to support my Photo hobby, for calibrating my Dell 17" Laptop; my HP Desktop HPw2408h monitor; a HP Photosmart 7960 and a new Epson Stylus Photo R 3000 Printer. All are used with CS5, LR3.4.1, and Corel Painter X, in Windows 7 (64bit). I was previously having a problem with dark photos (which most will tell you is because your monitor is too bright). But where should the monitor and the printers be ajusted to (hunting and pecking to tweak adjustments gets old and wastes ink and paper)? This product nails it when answering that question. I highly recommend this product to anyone serious about their photos.
- Primary use:
- Personal
- Computer Platform:
- PC
Pros
Cons
Best Uses
Comments about Datacolor Spyder3Studio SR:
I've used various versions of the Spyder and what used to be called "Print Fix" since they first came out. Each version gets better. This one is the best. Monitor calibration is less tedious -- doesn't require manual RGB balancing -- and seems very accurate. Printer/ink/medium calibration requires about the same amount of work as it did in version 2, but I think the results are more accurate.
This is a great product.
- Primary use:
- Personal
- Computer Platform:
- PC
Pros
- Easy To Collaborate Across Programs
- Easy to Customize
- Easy to Navigate
- Versatile
Cons
- Requires prior knowhow
Best Uses
- Professional Services
- Repair Services
Comments about Datacolor Spyder3Studio SR:
This is my first print calibration tool but not my first monitor calibration tool. I would recommend this system to a friend and have begun using it professionally to calibrate client's systems. It produces excellent results so long as you have a basic understanding of the fundamentals and technique for calibrating any piece of equipment. I would recommend taking a look at the company's support page before spending your money and being disappointed with the results.
- Primary use:
- Business
- Computer Platform:
- Mac
Pros
Cons
Best Uses
Comments about Datacolor Spyder3Studio SR:
Spyder3Studio SR has only time-consuming, detailed online help and no quick start guide. Just bought it and already have two upgrades. Not yet using it as still figuring it out, but have hope for the future since it was expensive.
- Primary use:
- Personal
- Computer Platform:
- Mac
Pros
- Easy to Navigate
- Versatile
Cons
Best Uses
- Multimedia
Comments about Datacolor Spyder3Studio SR:
Improved the display and prints of my photos. Best color prints I have had since printing.
- Primary use:
- Personal
- Computer Platform:
- PC
Pros
- Easy to Navigate
- Straight forward design
- Versatile
Cons
Best Uses
Comments about Datacolor Spyder3Studio SR:
I can't have color variations from my output devices. What I see on my monitor has to be close to my prints. Spyder3Studio SR helps me achive that without jumping through hoops. Much improved from the previous version, Spyder2. I would reccommend to anyone who needs accurate color calibration of monitors & printers.
- Primary use:
- Business
- Computer Platform:
- PC
Pros
- Easy to Navigate
Cons
Best Uses
Comments about Datacolor Spyder3Studio SR:
Ease to setup, except for the previous change of serial number, that you have to upgrade the version and the serial number, but after going through this, it works perfect and simple.
the spyder printer reads fast and accurate.
- Primary use:
- Personal
- Computer Platform:
- Mac
Pros
- Easy to Navigate
- Versatile
Cons
- Needs better design
Best Uses
- Multimedia
Comments about Datacolor Spyder3Studio SR:
I use the product for calibrating my Apple screen and to profile papers used in my photography business.
The things I consider great about the spyder is the software. This is the heart of any device in my opinion used for calibrating your equipment. It's very detailed and specific, giving you awesome control over your work flow. They did a great job with the software.
However the equipment itself although elegantly designed, could be better designed with tougher material in my opinion. It's plastic for the most part but I'm sure would break if accidentally dropped or possibly crack. The cord is built into the screen calibrator, which I find small and could easily over time I'm sure become crimped. Not something I would like to happen. It would cause me to buy a new one all together if something did happen to the cord.
Unlike the screen calibrater the paper profiler is better built although made from all plastic material as well, it has a detachable plug. A better design all in all over the screen calibrator. I do believe if the company could invest a little more time into the design shell of the devices it would be worth what they are selling it for. For this reason I gave it four stars as opposed to five. Despite this I do believe for the money it does the job it is built for.
- Primary use:
- Business
- Computer Platform:
- Mac
Pros
- Essential
Cons
- None
Best Uses
- Colour prints
Comments about Datacolor Spyder3Studio SR:
With easy to follow instructions, my monitor was soon closer to reality than I had achieved with Adobe Gamma, and after calibration of the printer I was soon producing perfect prints without rejects requiring readjustment and reprinting. I imagine before long the Spyder will pay for itself in paper saved.
- Primary use:
- Personal
- Computer Platform:
- PC
Pros
- Highly Compatible
- Improves Performance
- Professional Quality
Cons
- Time to set up
Best Uses
- In The Studio
Comments about Datacolor Spyder3Studio SR:
Using Photo Shop CS4/Lightroom 5 we could never get the color on the screen to match the printout on a Epson r800 or the Epson R2880. Before we were using Huey Pro to calibrate the monitor. Setting up the custom ICC profiles is time consuming but after it is done the colors match the screen perfect. This is all on a Mac Pro w the Mac 27" monitor. Now just have to create a profile for each paper we use and our troubles are gone.
- Was this a gift?:
- No
Pros
- Compact Design
- Easy To Use
Cons
- Lacks Functionality
- Poor Performance
- Pricey / Poor Value
Best Uses
- In The Studio
Comments about Datacolor Spyder3Studio SR:
The calibrator works great.
I used the strip reader to read the expert target patches plus the grays which is the max that this system gives you to create a profile and in reviewing the gamut it created, I discovered that it was subpar to something that would be appropriate to printing on large-format printers such as the Epson Stylus Pro 3800 that I own. The Strip Reader is in early fazes of its development so I imagine they are holding out on us. I got brutal prints.
- Was this a gift?:
- No
Pros
- Accurate results
Cons
- Very complicated
Best Uses
- Getting accurate prints
Comments about Datacolor Spyder3Studio SR:
As an amateur photographer I was frustrated not being able to print what I was seeing on the screen. Despite studying how to use PS CS5 and the Epson Pro 3880 printer in great detail, I still had varied print results even with good quality Ilford paper. The downloaded ICC profiles were never really quite right...despite what Scott Kelby says! (Don't get me wrong...I am a great fan of Scott's!). The Spyder3 Studio has virtually solved this problem and now, as long as I am careful with all the correct settings, I get what I see.
I had initial problems installing the updates but the support section was pretty good at assisting me and now all is working well. It is worth reading all the instructions carefully as the printer calibration part especially is fairly complicated. Put aside a whole week-end to install and use this stuff. It's worth it though!
If you spend all that money on a good quality DSLR and lens, Photoshop, a $1,000 monitor, a good printer and expensive paper, you're mad not to invest in this calibration system so it all actually works!
- Primary use:
- Personal
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Hardware Expansion
- Price: $6.99
- Instant Savings: -$0.50 Offer ends FEB 11 '12
- You Pay: $6.49
Care & Cleaning
- Price: $4.99
What's in the Box
- Spyder3Print SR Spectrocolorimeter & Base
- SpyderGuide
- USB Cable
- CD w/ Software
- Quick Start Guides
- Spyder3Elite Colorimeter
- Desktop Cradle/Tri-pod Mount
- SpyderCube with Protective Pouch
- Screen Cleaning Cloth
- 2-Year Limited Warranty
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