Late 2015 iMac, 27" calibration/profile with Spyder Elite 3

[hsmeets]

Hi,

I recently got this new iMac with the retina screen that has P3 gamut and 3x10bit hardware. I installed the spyder3 software (latest 3.4 version) and used the spyder3 sensor to calibrate/profile the screen. I had a somewhat unexpected outcome.

The target I set was a gamma of 2.2, 6500K whitepoint and 120cd brightness. I switched off the automatic brigtness to set it manually to 120cd and kept the factory installed iMac profile active (as I did with my previous iMac too). After profiling my printer+paper I obtained a good screen-print match with my previous iMac.

With the new iMac the outcome was somewhat surprising and different from previous experience:
- loss of contrast, much flatter display as shadow areas became brighter.
- and when comparing the measured/calculated gamut against the factory iMac/P3 gamut the measured colorspace was much smaller in the green/yellow area versus the factory supplied one.

Can this be the result of:

a) older Spyder3 hardware that cannot measure the larger P3 space?
b) Software incompatibility as spyder software might be layed out for 8b versus 10b iMac hardware?

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Huib

[Czornyj]

Spyder3 is a sensor of very poor quality and repeatability, so it was even problematic to calibrate and profile normal LCD displays with this device. It's very likely it will have huge measuremet errors on iMac with Super W-LED backlight, as it wasn't designed to such backlight spectra, and even if it would it's a lottery, as each unit measures in a different way (very poor inter instrumental agreement).

My advice is to not even touch any iMac with that sensor (especially late 2015), it's way better factory calibrated by Apple, so all you can achieve is to make things much, much worse.

[digitaldog]

a) older Spyder3 hardware that cannot measure the larger P3 space?
b) Software incompatibility as spyder software might be layed out for 8b versus 10b iMac hardware?

Probably a combo of A and the fact this isn't a very good device. Time for an i1Display Pro.

[Dr Tone]

I guess there is no point pulling out my Spyder 4 then?  Has there been any reports of results with the i1Display Pro and the iMac display?

[BobShaw]

My experience with the Spyder 3 was that it didn't do the Late 2013 iMac very well. Would not adjust brightness at all. Spyder 4 was much better. However I think it is the software more than the device. Unfortunately the two are tied together. See if you can use a different calibration software.

[hsmeets]

Yes, well, it confirms my idea that the Spyder3 hard and software has become dated, time to consider replacing it. Will investigate my options.

Thanks for responding,

Huib

[Czornyj]

Yes, well, it confirms my idea that the Spyder3 hard and software has become dated, time to consider replacing it. Will investigate my options.

Thanks for responding,

Huib

Be warned that newer Spyder versions are not much better:
http://forum.luminous-landscape.com/index.php?topic=103094.msg845726#msg845726

[pili]

I did some testing of my own with the Spyder5 and it's a competent device, certainly better than the previous versions and much better than the Spyder3.

I think your problem is mainly related to the GB-r LED backlight required for the wider color gamut on the updated panel. The Spyder3 doesn't have the calibration matrices necessary to handle it correctly.

Your best bet is to invest in a i1 Display Pro or Colormunki Display. If you buy the latter, I'd recommend you to try it with the free and open source dispcalGUI and Argyll CMS package. It works great. I still think the Spyder5 is a reasonably good device, but both of X-Rite's offerings are better.