Datacolor SpyderX Capture Pro
Calibrate colours on-screen and on camera
The SpyderX Elite is fitted with a fresh lens-based colour engine
£355 FROM Datacolor, datacolor.com FeatuRes Camera, lens and DSLR calibration, white balance and raw conversion tool, next-level camera colour calibration, professional monitor calibration
The Datacolor SpyderX Capture Pro bundle consolidates four popular products and delivers them in a smart carry case, providing photographers with everything they need to ensure accuracy across exposure, colour and cameras/lens performance.
This package contains the Spyder LensCal, Spyder Cube, Spyder Checkr and SpyderX Elite. Spyder LensCal allows you to check whether your lenses are focusing at the correct point, so that you can make minor adjustments to compensate for any bias. This is particularly important if you frequently use wide-aperture lenses, as these can sometime miss the mark – and with a shallow depth of field this can cause subjects to be rendered out of focus.
The Spyder Cube, meanwhile, is placed in a scene at the start of a shoot to provide you with a reference point for raw adjustments. Its faces give you targets for black, white and 18% neutral grey, which can be used to determine correct contrast, white balance and exposure. There’s also a black ‘trap’ within the black side for absolute black, and a chrome ball at its top to provide a reference for specular highlights. The third element is Spyder Checkr, a collection of coloured and neutral targets, which can be used to correct white balance, but also provide additional reference points for known colours. It does what’s expected of it, and it’s a useful way to check and balance colour between two different cameras.
Finally, we come to the SpyderX Elite, the company’s latest colour calibration tool. This looks to be a redesigned version of previous models, but Datacolor has fitted it with a fresh lens-based colour engine that allows for calibration in less than two minutes, also claiming that it’s more accurate than before.
Specifically, the model is said to have higher light sensitivity and more advanced sensors than the previous Spyder5 Elite unit, and like that model is able to monitor ambient light. This is the more senior of two SpyderX models, the other being the SpyderX Pro. The Elite boasts more advanced display mapping and analysis tools, together with unlimited calibration settings choices and the option to calibrate projectors plus a handful of other perks.
The combined cost of these components bought individually is around £100 more than the price of the bundle, so it’s quite a saving. If you’re on a budget, however, you can still get the previous Datacolor Spyder5 Capture Pro package for around £100 less, which contains the same LensCal, Cube and Checkr, together with the older Spyder5 Elite.
Quick calibration
The SpyderX Elite has a glossy white casing and a smart design that sees it clip into a protective cover when not in use. This shields the lens from dirt and damage, and functions as a counterweight during calibration.
It’s swung over the top of the display to keep the calibrator flat against the screen and in place – at least that’s the idea; it’s very light,
so you may find yourself angling your display to make sure the unit actually stays right up against it. And the USB-A connection means it’s not immediately compatible with newer MacBooks fitted with Type-C ports.
If you’re new to calibration you can opt for the step-by-step wizard, or you can choose the full-fat process to give more immediate control over certain settings. The Interactive Help guide explains what’s going on, and the built-in manual is an excellent reference. Used with a 2016 13-inch MacBook Pro, the calibration process was impressively brief, with it taking around 74 seconds on average for the calibrator to measure the targets being displayed.
You then have the option to check before and after views of the sample images (or your own) so that you can appreciate the degree of change (if any). With auto brightness settings disabled, we did notice very small shifts in brightness between repeated calibrations, although colour output stayed consistent.
There’s no issue with the Spyder Cube and Spyder Checkr, which both do what they ought to do well, although they’re probably best suited to users capturing in very controlled environments. Spyder LensCal is also useful, particularly if you use a DSLR with a fast glass; it’s a simple device, but then it doesn’t really need to be any more complicated.
If you regularly calibrate your display and like the idea of being able to do the whole thing in under 90 seconds, and if you feel that the other three components would serve your shooting well, then the SpyderX Capture Pro makes a lot of sense, as it saves you cash on buying everything separately. Otherwise, the older Spyder5 Capture Pro package would make more sense, as we found the Spyder5 Elite calibrator to be a sound performer, and the remainder of the package is identical.