PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER | DECEMBER 2019 59
Easy white balance and contrast adjustment with the Spyder CubeFast monitor calibration with the SpyderX Elite and even faster recalibrationSpyder Print works better than manufacturer profiles for some papers
The Spyder Cube needs a carrying bag
The software interfaces could use an update
The SpyderX Elite USB A connector requires an adapter for USB C computers
Reading Spyder Print patches leaves much to be desired
PROS & CONS
the specular highlight on the chrome ball
and the black trap in the base.
It’s that simple, and I have carried and
used one since the Spyder Cube was intro-
duced years ago. Unfortunately the Spyder
Cube included with the SpyderX Studio
doesn’t include the carrying bag that the
stand-alone does, so you’ll want to wrap it
in something protective before you toss it
into your camera bag for location work. But
the device itself has never let me down as
long as I remember to make a capture for
each lighting situation.MONITOR CALIBRATION
Accurate white balance ensures a neutral
starting point for your image, but are the
rest of the colors represented accurately
on your monitor? Calibrating your monitor
will make them as accurate as your moni-
tor and ambient lighting conditions allow.
I calibrate my monitors with the X-Rite
i1Photo Pro. The problem is, I don’t check it
often enough because it takes about 20 min-
utes to run a full calibration. There’s a new
i1Photo Pro 2 that I haven’t tried. I’d tested a
Datacolor Spyder 5 but wasn’t satisfied with
the result, so I wanted to see how the SpyderX
Elite monitor calibrator measured up.
Although the Spyder 5 and SpyderX Elite
look similar, the technology is different.
The Spyder 5 had a grid; the Elite’s new lens-
based color engine technology is said to
feature higher light sensitivity and more
advanced sensors.
The SpyderX Elite is controlled by soft-
ware that’s downloaded from Datacolor
and installed with the registration code
in the box. You’ll need a different license
code before proceeding. It seems a little old
school, as does the look of the software in-
terface itself. The software provides sever-
al different calibration options, from one-
click calibration to a step-by-step assistant
to an expert mode with unlimited calibra-
tion options.
I used the step-by-step calibration. The soft-
ware correctly identified each monitor as well
as each monitor’s adjustment controls. After
confirming this and adding some addition-
al information, the calibration began and
was complete in less than two minutes.
After naming and saving the calibration,The first time you calibrate a monitor you must run the full calibration mode. This takes less than
two minutes.You have the option of displaying graphs of how your monitor’s response compares to standard
responses such as sRGB and AdobeRGB.