Your current GAS list?

Looking forward to your report.

 

Well, I ended up going with the BenQ. Partially because when I finally had the funds available the Dell had become unavailable on Amazon and then jumped in price.

 

My Spyder Elite+ arrived yesterday, so I gave it a spin last night and again this morning. The device itself is a little different than my old Spyder 3 Express. Instead of a counter weight for draping the meter over the display, there is a protective cap which serves a dual purpose as the counter weight. Also, there is no software included -- you must download everything from the Datacolor website.

I first calibrated my Dell U2715H display using the Datacolor software, after uninstalling the old software version from my old Spyder 3. The results were not that impressive. The display seemed to have a slight teal tint that wasn't there with my previous calibration, nor with the pre-calibration done by Dell which was actually quite close to what I got with my Spyder 3. I had read reviews which indicated that Datacolor's software was not as good as in the past, and that's what I experienced, too.

I then tried the DisplayCAL software, after first de-activating the calibration from Datacolor's software. At first the software wouldn't recognize the Spyder 5 meter, but a quick online search revealed I needed to download a driver via the application's tools menu. After doing that, the meter was recognized. DisplayCAL performs an initial quick calibration, and then instructs you to adjust the RGB and brightness settings on your display to match an initial baseline. I had to slightly adjust my RGB channels, and increase the brightness from 50 to 63 to get everything centered on the software's measurement lines. At that point, I selected "start calibration" and the software began doing its thing. The calibration took about an hour, and according to the app it made 175 separate measurements. It did pop up a much larger number of color variants on the screen than the Datacolor software as it ran through the calibration process.

The results were much better with the DisplaCAL software. The teal tint was gone, and the display looked excellent. I'm not sure how much different the results were than with the old Spyder 3 software, as I could not do a direct comparison -- having uninstalled that software when I installed Datacolor's software for the Spyder 5. The only evidence that DisplayCAL may have done a better job was that I now noticed a small spot from sensor dust on the photo I've used for my desktop background for several years, and I had never noticed it before. I subsequently fixed that spot in Lightroom (I didn't want to start editing the old photo from scratch using DxO PhotoLab -- shhh, don't tell Sam Posten ).

Anyway, if anyone's using Datacolor's newer software, I would suggest giving DisplayCAL a try. It will not cost you anything other than time, and you may get better results.

 

Thanks for the feedback Scott. I take it you're not using a Mac, because on Mac you can switch between the profile from the Spyder 3 and the one from DisplayCal to see what the difference is.

 

John,

No, I am using a Windows 10 PC. I could switch the calibration on/off for the Spyder 3 calibration when I had the software installed and I can do the same for DisplayCAL, but I uninstalled the Spyder 3 software as part of the process of installing the newer software for the Spyder 5. That wiped out the profile for the older Spyder 3.

BTW, here's that desktop background I mentioned, with the spot removed (I didn't keep the old version). It's of Swiftcurrent Lake in Glacier National Park from our 2013 visit.

 

Awesome. I love Glacier NP.

 

Yes, we love Glacier, too. We've been there twice, and need to schedule another trip out there soon. The place has some of the most stunning mountain scenery I've ever seen. My wife has a cousin who now lives in Whitefish, MT not far from the west entrance to the park. We visited her and her husband during our last trip in 2013, when they had just moved there from Mississippi, having spent their entire lives in the South. Talk about a change! They love it, though.

 

Holy smokes. From Mississippi to Whitefish. A little shock there.

BTW, to explain my question about seeing the calibrations with Windows, with the Mac OS, any calibration you do is made into a profile for the monitor which is available to the system software. So, it is always available for comparison.

 

Yes, it was quite a move for them. Their son-in-law got a job in the region, and they decided to move closer to their daughter upon retirement. We were not sure how they would handle the winters, but they seem to really love Whitefish.

I just checked, and did find something in Windows 10 called a "color profile" under display settings. Interestingly, the old profile from my Spyder 3 calibration was there, along with the two DisplayCAL calibrations I performed. However, there was no profile for the Spyder 5 calibration I performed last night. I did uninstall the Spyder 5 software today, so it appears that may have removed that profile, even though the uninstall of the Spyder 3 software did not remove its profile.

Comparing the DisplayCAL and Spyder 3 profiles, the latter is a little too dark now. However, that can probably be attributed to the DisplayCAL calibration being run after I increased the Dell monitor's brightness and adjusted the RGB settings per the software's recommendations, while the Spyder 3 was run with the base settings the monitor was shipped with. Colors seem very close between the two, though.

 

Just finally picked up a full-frame widezoom off eBay for my Nikon D800: a used 16-35mm f/4 VR in excellent working condition for ~$620. This should probably supplant my 17-55mm f/2.8 DX as primary walkaround lens. Had been using the 17-55 f/2.8 DX as 22-55mm in 1.2x crop most of the time, and will probably use the 16-35 f/4 VR in 1.2x crop most of the time as well.

Too bad it wasn't in time for my week-long trip to San Francisco. Can't wait to get my hands on it when I get home... and then, down to Orlando in a couple weeks...

_Man_

 

I have a 16-35mm f/4 IS lens for my full frame Canon body. It's a terrific lens, although it doesn't get used as much as I'd like -- I'm not an avid ultra wide angle shooter. There are times, though, when it's the only tool for getting the shot I want.

 

I'm surprised you don't have one, Sam. I have a few in different sizes.

 

I find several uses for a circular polarizing filter, and occasionally use neutral density and grad ND filters for effects. I am firmly in the "no protective filters" camp, though.

 

The Sony a7 III is getting more and more tempting. I don't foresee wanting to change out my Canon glass in a hurry, but getting the a7 body and the 35mm 1.8 OSS seems like a reasonable way to start.