Monitor Calibration: Huey Pro vs Spyder2Express

Luis Caffesse

Luis Caffesse

Admin
I've been looking at both of these products, the Huey Pro and the Spyder2Express, in hopes of getting my LCDs a bit closer to being calibrated properly.

My wife does alot of photography work, and its become clear that our monitors are not giving her a good indication of what her photos are going to look like when printed. I'm also wondering if these things will help me with my work in FCP at all (though I have my suspicions that FCP will ignore any setting created by these devices - is that the case?).

So - anyone have any experience with both of these? Is one "better" than the other?
I've read a few reviews of each, and from what I've gathered they seem to be on par with eachother.
So why would the Huey Pro be worth nearly twice the price of the Spyder2Express?

Any thoughts? Experiences? Opinions?

Thanks in advance.
 
I have a Spyder2Express, and I'm really pleased with it.
Never used the Huey, so I can't comment on it - apart from saying the spyder was half the price, so I went for that.

I've calibrated both my CRT and laptop so far, and it's made quite a difference.
I'm intending to buy a 24" LCD in the near future, so it should prove interesting to try it out on that.

Whatever you get, expect to hate the new picture to start with - you'll likely think it's far too warm and low contrast, but check it with a grey card, and you'll see it is actually damn close to neutral, and you'll get used to it pretty quickly.

The software comes with an extended site license, as in all machines on one site, plus 5 laptops / other portable machines.

Be warned that the spyder2express will only work in a single monitor setup. If you have multiple monitors on one machine, you will need to buy the next version up the series.
AFAIK, it's the same calibrator unit, but the software is different.
I don't know what the situation is with the Huey in this regard.
Also on the topic of multiple monitors, if you run windows, you will need one graphics card per monitor - for some reason, windows only supports one colour profile per card.
I'm reliably informed that this isn't a problem on the mac.

Edit:
You might also want to consider a printer and scanner calibrator for your wife's stills work - Assuming she's using an inkjet under your control - although this isn't (shouldn't be) an issue if you send files out for printing. The owners of the lab should calibrate their printers. I mean, even Asda (Wal-Mart) calibrate their Fuji frontier machines!

Hope this helps
 
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Thanks Ben - that helps alot.
:thumbsup:

I've got 2 monitors running off my G5, so looks like I'd have to look at either the Huey Pro or the Spyder2 Suite (I think that's the next one up the chain).

Damn, and I was just starting to really lean towards the Spyder.
 
Quick Question - can you get at the colour profile files and assign them manually like you can on the PC?

It just occurred to me that you could calibrate both monitors individually, saving the files in a safe location, and then assign them manually.
Thus you could calibrate both monitors with the basic software.
A bit of a faff, but I think it would work.

In theory, if both monitors are the same type, you could calibrate one and apply the profile to both...

Random thoughts... Dangerous thing at this time of night - I might start playing and never actually get to bed ;)
 
Hey I'm using a huey pro with a 23" Apple Cinema HD Display and a 17" Hanns-G display. The color is now much more accurate on both displays, and huey pro has removed a subtle banding problem on my 23" Cinema. The banding was not fully correctable using the Mac OS calibration routines, but is totally gone after using the huey pro.Right now it is in a lower price for $98 instead of $130:
http://www.dealstudio.com/viewtopic.php?t=29398
I think it is worthy while . I had no experience with the Spyder2Express so don't know which is better , I can just tell you I am satisfied with the Huey Pro ,anyway hope this helps.
 
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Thanks for the comments.
I'm starting to think I'm leaning towards the Huey, if for no other reason than it seems to be the least expensive dual monitor option.


ben-s said:
Quick Question - can you get at the colour profile files and assign them manually like you can on the PC?
Click to expand...

Honestly, I have no idea.
I'm going to look into that before getting anything though.
 
Hi Luis,

Just wondering if you purchased either the Huey Pro or Spyder2Express and if so, which one? also was it good?

Thank you
 
Hey guys,

I purchased the spyder Pro2 then returned it and got the spyder tv so I could calibrate my tv's & monitors. So far is ok. After calibrating my LCDs with the spyder pro 2 I was satisfied with the results. I believe they have a spyder 3 now.

But a few months after my purchase (of course) I watched a dvd of a Photographer "Dean Collins" who talks about calibrating your monitor. He makes a reference that the Spyder is no good. I wouldn't know the difference, but that's what this guy suggested. Maybe by now the Spyder has become better but who knows.

Food for thought.
 
I have a MacBook and purchased the Spyder2Express. Here is the scoop with multiple monitors. The Spyder2Express has the same colorimeter puck as the Pro versions but the software is different and does not support multiple monitors directly. When you calibrate with the Spyder2Express software it creates a profile called Spyder2Express and if you calibrate again it simply overwrites this profile. Here is the work around:

1- Calibrate your monitor with the Spyder2Express
2- Open the ColorSync utility and highlight the Spyder2Express profile, click Open
3- Change the ASCII field of the 'desc' tag to a name that identifies your monitor
4- Click file 'Save As' and save it as the same name as your 'desc' tag
5- Repeat steps 1-4 with your other monitors

Don't use the Spyder2Express profile, always use your custom saved profiles so that you know
which monitor is which. Hope this helps.

Also, I am very disturbed by the warmth of the image after calibration. Is this really "correct" color? When I look now at the color of standard Mac OSX menus and controls I think that this can't be what Apple designed this to look like. Is it possible that they chose colors assuming that most monitors are overly cool?

Thanks,
flashkube
 
withuk said:
Hi Luis,

Just wondering if you purchased either the Huey Pro or Spyder2Express and if so, which one? also was it good?

Thank you
Click to expand...

Just saw this post.
I actually wound up not buying either one...
I was able to borrow a Spyder2Pro (not Express) and calibrated my monitors with it.
I have to say, I was impressed with the result (though I didn't realize how tedious the calibration process can be).

Seeing as it's not something that needs to be done everyday, I haven't gotten around to buying one yet - but I have to say if and when I do buy one it will probably be the Spyder.
The results have been great.

I'd love to get my hands on a Huey Pro just to see the results - but as of right now I would definitely lean towards the Spyder, it seems more configurable, user friendly, robust...but of course it's also more expensive.
 
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