Datacolor Spyder5STUDIO - S5SSR100

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.

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.

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.

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

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 greysIf mine ever broke I'd definitely replace it with the latest version.

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