Reddit reviews Datacolor Spyder5EXPRESS – Designed for Hobbyist Photographers (S5X100)
We found 20 Reddit comments about Datacolor Spyder5EXPRESS – Designed for Hobbyist Photographers (S5X100). Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Advanced color accuracy solution for all of your laptop and desktop displays - See, share and print your images just as you intended with confidence. Fast and easy, full calibration takes only about five minutes to ensure color accuracy.Room light monitoring determines optimal monitor brightness so you see fine shadow detail and highlights in your photos, ensuring your edited images match your prints.“Before and After” evaluation of your calibration results using your own photographs, to focus on details that are important to you.Display Analysis feature lets you evaluate and compare the performance of all of your laptop and desktop monitors.In less than five minutes, Spyder5PRO calibrates your monitor to ensure color accuracy and consistency. Not only will photo editing be easier, you will spend less time in the “print-edit-print” cycle and waste less ink and paper.
Most people do it just by personal preference/eye-balling or they use a custom ICC profile made from someone with the same monitor. This won't ever get the colors perfect, but it's plenty fine for the significant majority of users.
If you are a professional photographer/graphics-designer or just a high-end user and want as close to perfect as you can get, you will need to buy a monitor colorimeter or hire someone with one to calibrate it for you. This is sometimes offered for free with expensive television purchases from places like Best Buy.
You need to calibrate your monitor and make sure you're exporting your image files according to the lab's specifications. Make sure to also tell them you don't want any additional corrections applied to your images before printing.
You'll need a tool like this one to calibrate your display and the calibration needs to be redone every few months.
It's actually fairly simple. You need a calibration device (i've heard good things about this or this , I personally use one of a firm that no longer exists on monitors which probably don't even deserve calibration) and software which can talk to it. Most software is pretty self-explanatory and generates a color profile for your monitor, usually in an .icc file. You can then hand this .icc file to your operating system configuration. If your postprocess stack is color managed, you should then get reproducable colors. There are a lot more subtilities like colorimeter ($) vs spectrometer ($$$) and such.
> do you guys think the AW will go any lower than 849.99 (price on microcenter)?
Watch /r/buildapcsales. This monitor gets posted almost weekly. $849.99 is fairly common, but we've seen a few posts in the last month or so where it's gone a little lower. Here's a few recent but expired examples:
I personally think that Black Friday through Cyber Monday will see this thing hit $799 again, possibly $779 for a new record low. Here's hoping!
Dell online will also price match most national retailers and etailers. I got Dell to price match Microcenter since there is no MC near me (I think they sold it online too, but Dell's online returns are as easy as Amazon).
> , but wondering if colorimeters usually go on sale— especially with Black friday coming up
Prices fluctuate, but I haven't noticed any big sales recently. As per my other post, here's the 3 to watch out for and their current Amazon prices.
Checking CCC for the price history on those, here's what I'm seeing.
If you have to buy today, the ColorMunki is the best value when compared to the other options, and compared to historical prices. If you can wait until the holidays, they all should hit some fairly low prices. I'd still recommend the ColorMunki as I feel it's the best consumer home-use colorimeter, but some like to splurge for the i1DisplayPro as it's a better long term option for multi-device calibration due to the better build quality, durability, and faster sensor.
I'm not colorblind but I can't really do it by eye myself.
I use a Spyder 5 Express, which is pretty easy to use.
amazon link
He's using this https://www.amazon.com/Datacolor-Spyder5EXPRESS-Designed-Hobbyist-Photographers/dp/B00UBSL2TO
Basically a camera that connects to your laptop and, with software 'calibrates' your monitor.
https://www.amazon.com/Datacolor-Spyder5EXPRESS-Designed-Hobbyist-Photographers/dp/B00UBSL2TO/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1524412936&sr=8-2&keywords=monitor+calibrator
Although older the X-Rite ColorMunki Smile (CMUNSML) is an inexpensive option depending on your region:
If you're in the UK/Europe, the Datacolor Spyder5EXPRESS (S5X100) might be cheaper though:
Note some of those are/might be sale prices due to Cyber Monday!
Failing that, just search your local Amazon and check out reviews of the cheaper options. They all work about the same for non-pro users.
Edit: I just purchased the X-Rite ColorMunki Smile (CMUNSML) as I couldn't pass up the Canadian sale price today. If you want to use newer, open source software with more options look into DisplayCAL, but check the Supported Instruments for colorimeter support.
My current go-to with that set of requirements would probably be the LG Neo Blade III. I personally really like LG monitors, they've got a great price/performance and really good colour reproduction. Currently I'm seeing the Neo Blade III for $189, which is a bargain.
My other recommendation would be to invest in a colourimeter like the Spyder 5 Express. Most monitors these days can do a decent job at reproducing colours so long as they are accurately calibrated. Unfortunately, most monitors these days also come out of the box suffering from what I call "Best Buy Syndrome"- all the contrast and saturation dialed up to 11 like those shiny demo models in your local Best Buy. Spyder 5 with the free software DisplayCal will do you great. Slap it on your monitor, follow the instructions, and in about 30 minutes you'll have accurate colours for editing.
what's "every other regard" then, if we're not talking about picture quality?
A big part of the problem is that people don't calibrate their monitors, and this is totally irrespective of price point generally. I was having horrible IPS glow with my BenQ monitor until I looked up some custom RGB settings and a recommended brightness level and it improved image quality so much.
For my next build I might actually downgrade a component or two to fund a proper monitor calibrator like this
I'd go with a proper computer be it mac or pc as it can just handle more and needs and skills usually grow with time.
Aside from this something you may want to do is buy a couple of external hard drives for backups. It's really important if something goes really wrong mechanically or there's a flood or whatever else. If they're precious family pictures 2 backups is the way to do it. One at home and keep the other off site at your work or a friends house or something and keep them regularly updated.
As for colour reproduction you'll need something like [this] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Datacolor-Spyder5EXPRESS-Colorimeter-USB-Connector/dp/B00UBSL2TO/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1468087478&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=spyder+4) and get them done at a decent lab. That way the profile from your monitor and their calibrated printers will match up give more accurate colour reproduction in the final prints. Monitors are fairly easy to calibrate but calibrating printers isn't really a thing without it costing an arm and a leg for the home user. Find a good lab and they'll do you just fine.
You'll need one of these if you want it to be fully colour accurate: https://www.amazon.co.uk/datacolor-S5X100-Datacolor-Spyder5EXPRESS/dp/B00UBSL2TO/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=spyder+5&qid=1555092064&s=gateway&sr=8-2
It will likely need to be an IPS panel that can reach 100% of sRGB and a for photo work a decent amount of AdobeRGB.
You might be able to get around using the Spyder if you've got some PMS solid uncoated swatches to compare against.
I'm lucky and already had a Spyder 5 Express that I use to calibrate my theater projector. It's more important for that because as the bulb ages, the calibration needs to be done again so it's a matter of keeping it looking its best. The bonus is that I can calibrate every monitor in my house too (which there are a shitload including the AW34 haha).
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Another thought, if you have a few friends who game with high end monitors, is to see if they want to go in on it. Split 3 or 4 ways, the cost is low and you can keep passing it around as necessary. Just realize that many monitors come out of the box with a halfway decent calibration so don't expect a miracle but it's nice to know that you have a perfectly accurate display for every movie u watch, game u play, or photo u edit. Oh, there's a nice before/after switch you can toggle when the calibration is done which is pretty cool.
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Otherwise, I would use the link that _blackwatch listed below and do it by eye. That works pretty well too.
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Cheers!
The best way is to use a piece of hardware made for color calibration. They can be a bit pricey but really changed my post processing. If you decide to get serious you'll probably want to upgrade your monitor to one that has an IPS panel which are typically more color accurate. Ironically, the most color accurate screens these days are sometimes the smallest.
One of these https://www.amazon.co.uk/Datacolor-Spyder5EXPRESS-Colorimeter-USB-Connector-x/dp/B00UBSL2TO/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1493248268&sr=8-3&keywords=monitor+calibration or similar. Measures the light your monitor is putting out while showing a bunch of test colours and uses software to generate calibration tables and profiling data to match colours accurately.
Do you have a color calibration tool like a Spyder? If not, consider investing in a calibration tool, as that's the best way to get consistent and accurate colors. I'd also recommend using DisplayCAL over the Datacolor OEM software.
Their color accuracy is not great out of the box because they don't use color profiles made by the big manufacturers. However, if you have a color calibration tool, like this, you can use that and enjoy the same (if it is an IPS, not TN like this one) color. After all, it is still the same IPS panel that Samsung, LG, or Apple use (depending on what version of K monitor you have)
Even a basic software based color calibration can get you good results if you take your time.
I have a QNIX2710 AMA
Yeah, calibrating by eye is really no calibration at all even with a good panel like yours.
However, I do have a scenario for you to consider. Say, you purchase a Datacolor Spyder 5. The model is irrelevant as you will not use their useless software (don't register it!). Instead, you would use the excellent, free and open source DisplayCal which can very accurately calibrate your monitor. You could then calibrate all displays at your disposal in the time span of a week or two. Then, theoretically speaking, you could be compelled to return the device to Amazon and be entitled to a full refund! Thus, you would have calibrated monitors for very close to $0.
Interesting thought experiment, no?
I calibrated mine using the spyder5 pro. It looks much better compared to being not calibrated.
I shared my two .icm files here https://www.reddit.com/r/Alienware/comments/5lf8c2/anyone_tried_the_fhd_1080p_120hz_display_on_r3_15/dbvc6al/
Each panel is different though so you should calibrate it yourself to get the best possible result.
EDIT: Just realised you posted there as well haha.
I can only recommend you getting a spyder5, go with the express, it's 23% off on amazon at the moment https://www.amazon.com/Datacolor-Spyder5EXPRESS-Designed-Hobbyist-Photographers/dp/B00UBSL2TO/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1483894706&sr=8-2&keywords=spyder+5
You would be best served by using software that is specifically designed for accurately outputting digital files to print. The clear leader in this area is of course the Adobe Creative Suite, which contains Photoshop and Illustrator. Your specific inputs (scanner, camera, etc.), as well as monitor and printer would have to be carefully configured in the software so that colors are represented on the screen and in print as accurately as possible:
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/creativesuite/cs/using/WSBB0A8512-8151-408c-9F79-4A9E9E3BA84C.html
https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/printing-color-management-photoshop1.html
Once you have the appropriate software, and you have properly configured all the devices in your work environment in the software, you can further increase the color fidelity of your output by purchasing a color calibrator. This hardware device allows your computer to directly sample the accuracy of the output which allows it to perform fine-tuning to achieve the most precise result possible. This type of device used to be expensive, however, in recent years the cost of such equipment has drastically fallen. It is now possible to purchase a decent color calibrator on Amazon for under $100:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00UBSL2TO
Regarding Adobe Creative Suite, Adobe no longer sells this software in standalone format (they now require a subscription and recurring monthly payment). However, there are some reputable sellers here on Reddit which still offer the software at a discount, in standalone format, which does NOT require the recurring monthly payments. Adobe Design Standard CS6 is currently available for only $100 and includes: Photoshop CS6, Illustrator CS6, InDesign CS6, Acrobat X Pro, Bridge CS6, and Media Encoder CS6. For an additional $50 you can get the Adobe Master Collection CS6 which includes pretty much everything else they make:
https://www.reddit.com/r/microsoftsoftwareswap/comments/5oqz5s/h_windows_10_7_8_81_server_office_visio_project/