Datacolor Spyder5STUDIO - S5SSR100

Installing the software - Spyder5Elite and SpyderPrint have to be activated both with the serial from the case and it was flawless. Perfect calibrated monitors and a printer profiling that really worked. Great product at a superb price

Obviously a very specialist piece of equipment: for the majority of photographers, if the image looks ok on the screen and ok on paper, then it's OK! However, if you want to be sure that the colours are the best they can be or if you want to adjust things working from a known reference point or if it's important that what's on the paper is identical to what's on the screen, then some sort of calibration system is required. Calibrating the screen is fairly straightforward and it's easy to check before and after views. Identifying where to disable ICC profiles for your printer I found a little harder. A very steady hand is required to scan the test sheets and it certainly took me longer than suggested in the instruction book. Identifying where to install the created printer profile was also very confusing. I wonder if it might be possible to print the ICC profiles in play when running the test sheets? I've now used this device to callibrate several printers with varying degrees of success. Now I've watched several youtube videos for advice and my comments are as follows. It isn't as easy as they would like you to believe and they could improve the software to help novices to get to grips with it. It's not cheap and could be better. Had to de-rate to 3*. Too fiddly.

Well made product which appears to work well but I've not used it a great deal yet. Only complains are the manual print scanner is a little difficult and time consuming to use and the complete kit is a bit pricey.

I was expecting great results from this kit, but unfortunately it did not live up to its promise as a "one stop solution" to colour management , and I had to send it back. I bought it mainly for calibrating my printer with various third party papers and inksets, but the results were disappointing. I have since bought an X-Rite i1 Studio, and it works great. Having said that, the Spyder5 monitor calibrator worked well, and the SpyderCube could be a good addition to your kit, if you don't already have an alternative.

I actually have the older version 4 of this item but there is very little changed. The Spyder cube is a great little tool for setting exposure and colour balance. But you need to know how to use it, check the Youtube videos. The monitor calibrator works well and is easy to use and is a fundamental pre-requisite to getting the end to end workflow right. The trickiest bit is the printer calibration and I'll say up-front this is harder to use than the equivalent XRite product - but it is almost half the price when you consider everything in the box. The printer calibration at its "easy" mode takes about 5-10 minutes per paper set up, and its important to realize you need to calibrate for every combination of printer/paper/ink. Change any one of those variables and the calibration needs to be redone. If you stick with it you will get consistent colour and exposure in your prints across printers and papers. I've never found the need to use the higher quality expert modes - 9 sheets of colour swatches to scan! - the basic mode has been fine. Whether all this really matters depends on what kind of photography you do. Commercial work, where logos etc need to be exact, or weddings where the exact shade of ivory of the bride's dress really matters, then this is a godsend. If you take vivid sunsets or concert/events where the lighting will be all over the place, not so much. One area where it helps is with black and white printing. I used to find most of my mono prints had distinct colour casts, depending on which paper/printer combo I used. This fixes that so I now get neutral greys If mine ever broke I'd definitely replace it with the latest version.

It' ok but doesnt give the results i was expecting, I would not recommend this to anyone who wants extra good prints.

Solo he probado el calibrador de monitor y el cubo, están excelentes, aún me falta probar la perfiladora de impresora

Nach einem Systemwechsel und dem Wunsch doch einige Bilder mehr auszudrucken als bisher, habe ich mich entschieden mir den DATACOLOR SPYDER5 Studio zu zulegen. Bislang hat mir ein SPYDER 4 Elite über all die Jahre gute Dienste bei der Monitorkalibrierung geleistet und die Bilder habe ich meist ausdrucken lassen. Nach der ersten, etwas aufwändigen Kalibrierung beider Geräte, kam doch schnell der AHA-Effekt beim ersten Ausdruck eines Bildes. Die Erstellung eines ICC Profile's erfordert doch einen nicht unerheblichen Zeitaufwand. Dieser wird jedoch durch sehr gute Ausdrucke im Nachhinein belohnt. Durch Erstellung mehrerer ICC Profile für verschiedene Papier- und Tintenkombinationen gehören Fehldrucke der Vergangenheit an. Wenn man schon für einen Fotodrucker eine nicht unerhebliche Summe in die Hand nimmt, sollte man auch über die Anschaffung dieses Produktes nachdenken. Es erspart Fehldrucke, Papier,Tinte und schont im Endeffekt die Nerven. An der Doku für SPYDER Print sollte noch ein wenig gearbeitet werden. Eine deutschsprachige Anleitung zB. wäre wünschenswert.

fantastic end to end balancing I use in conjunction with Datacolor SCK200 SpyderCHECKR 24 Camera Color Correction for a consistent output speeding my process dramatically and getting consistent print output

This is a great deal for a capture to print workflow. I was a color specialist for years teaching people color workflow before I was a photographer. I have worked with every aspect of color management, so it is very important to me. This is a perfect solution for a great price. You get a densitometer for screens and colorimeter (reads more than a spectrophotometer) and even love the cube for color balance.

J'ai acheté ce pack Datacolor car je voulais pouvoir effectuer mes sorties sur une imprimante calibrée. Très jolie matos, bien pensé, sauf pour moi dont le spectrocolorimètre ne fonctionne toujours pas malgré toute l'énergie passée dessus. Je tenais à remercier la hotline Datacolor pour la rapidité de prise en mains des dossiers SAV, le professionnalisme et la gentillesse des interlocuteurs, merci à vous. Je vais certainement devoir renvoyer la sonde qui sera changée. Malgré ce petit incident, de ce que j'ai pu voir avec l'étalonnage écran, j'ai la nette impression que les résultats son meilleurs qu'avec ma sonde colormounky de Xrite, à voir surtout quand la sonde posant problèmes sera résolu, je lâcherai un complément de post, sinon, vous pouvez y aller, surtout pour le prix, la très très bonne affaire du moment.. J'ai depuis trouvé avec le support Datacolor la solution à mon problème sans avoir à échanger le spectrocolorimètre (datacolor assumant parfaitement la situation en étant près sans discussions à le changer). Il m'a suffit de rentrer un nouveau code utilisateur fourni pas le support qui a shunté l'ancien, tout fonctionne à merveille. La calibration d'une chaîne graphique complète demande un certain savoir faire mais la hotline sera a même de vous guider en cas de soucis. Je recommande fortement pour une utilisation pro ou tout simplement pour les amoureux du travail bien fait qui désire des sorties d'un haut niveau se rapprochant le plus possible du rendu écran.