Datacolor SpyderX Elite: Monitor Calibration designed for expert and professional Photographers, Videographers and motion imagemakers

Product Information

All in all a solid calibration product that can help photographers wanting to improve the quality and consistency of their workflows. Both are not mutually exclusive. A factory calibrated display still requires a colorimeter to create a color profile characterizing that particular unit response. This color profile is required by the operating system and color managed apps so they can understand how the hardware, the monitor itself, reproduces color.

The iDisplay Pro is over twice the price, first of all, and second of all the SpyderX is a completely redesigned colorimeter that does NOT use the same filter system or filter type that any of its predecessors did. This all brings me to a bigger and ultimate point: folks who don’t calibrate their displays (and that’s probably most) will probably never see or care enough about a difference. But the truth is that the difference is indeed there. When I look at the edited images of some of my staffers, I can tell that their displays are calibrated differently than mine. One other reason to calibrate your screen – having a screen set too bright is one of the commonest causes of prints coming out too dark. See my Top ten reasons your prints look wrong for more The latest Spyder The most remarkable quality about this product is that, unlike earlier versions, the new SpyderX has no dealbreakers. It's an easy recommendation for most users and the price is right.

If you've used previous Datacolor calibration sensors, the SpyderX calibration process will seem to fly by. If you’ve a large distance between computer and screen there are obvious problems. I’ve not tested the device, but it’s low speed and might work with a USB extender of some sort – very much one to experiment with though. Datacolor focused their product development on fixing the most important shortcomings of their previous Spyder5 colorimeter.

The SpyderX Pro and Elite models both offer advanced color accuracy and calibration technology. However, the Elite model offers more advanced options and customization capabilities, including multi-device calibration, projector calibration, and unlimited gamma presets. It also offers a higher level of technical support. The table below provides greater detail as to the differences between the SpyderX Pro and Elite models. The software continues Datacolor’s tradition of having clear, well written help guides that take time to explain why you do things, not just how. I’ve long held them up as a positive example of how software ‘help’ should be approached. It's also a more complicated and less user friendly software for less technical users, while the Datacolor bundled software uses a step-by-step wizard that hides complex decisions in the name of ease of use. I’m a strong believer in using a test image like this as part of your evaluation of any new printer or paper. Once you can get a good print of a test image, you know that any faults left showing are not printing related.In my own tests, the SpyderX produced color profiles that were virtually indistinguishable from the X-Rite products, either using their respective bundled software or the free DisplayCAL software, which supports most devices on the market and offers more advanced calibration capabilities.

Note that in addition to the monitor warm-up requirement, you should reset your monitor to its factory default state and then disable the hibernate feature (if available) and any other features that influence the monitor's color such as NightShift, TrueTone, Night Light, etc. Note that the position of this weight on the wire can be adjusted for proper balance for the setup being calibrated. The new lens design helps the unit to focus more light on the color sensor, improving accuracy on low light readings like dark tones. That was my #1 complaint with the Spyder5.The software also feels faster than earlier versions, but I’m going to say that for most people, a modest reduction on profiling time is something that really shouldn’t matter, for a process you might do every month (or 1-2 months for myself). Of course, if you drew the short straw and are tasked with calibrating a whole room full of screens, then yes, that time does matter.