I bought a Spyder 3 Pro today to calibrate my laptop screen and my God the difference is incredible. Previously I had just used the calibrate by eye functions built into Mac OS-X and the results varied so much from one calibration to another that I felt I couldn’t depend on the results.
The Spyder was easy to set up. The only problem I had was installing the software which started with a Chinese or Japanese screen but when I clicked on the right hand button (which I guessed was cancel or continue) the installer continued and the rest of the panels were in English. I cleaned the screen with the included sample of cleaning tissues. Finally I ran the application and followed the instructions on screen. The calibrator did fall off during the first run so I just cancelled the task and stuck it back on the screen with no problems. The first complete calibration took around five minutes. An hour later I ran it again and the next time it only took a minute or two.
I feel might be a little warm compared to what I am used to but when I compare it to my old settings now I realize they look very blue and cold. I’ve looked at other peoples photos on sites like flickr and they look pretty good so I’m really happy. Now the next thing is to start working on some photos and see what they come out like.