For Those Who Want the Best….

Many people settle for mediocrity, while others demand “the best”. We have always tried to help guide our readers toward unique products or services that help them attain the best things in life.

Doubtless, everyone reading this article has a computer monitor or two, and most likely one or two HDTV sets in their homes. It is a well-known fact that neither monitors, nor televisions, leave the factory properly calibrated--- especially televisions. With so many new flat-panel sets on the market (the average Best Buy store alone now displays approximately 140 sets on the floor on any given day) manufacturers try to do whatever they can to make their particular products attract the eyes of buyers. To do this they often crank up the brightness and color way beyond normal, accurate levels--- because in a brilliantly lit showroom situation, the brightest TV usually catches the customer’s eye first.

Many people take these expensive sets home and never realize that they're missing half the potential picture quality. The picture on a well-adjusted big-screen set (or even computer monitor) after calibration, is strikingly better than when it first comes out of the box.

So what's the solution? Many people who realize this, and don't want to settle for mediocrity, have their sets professionally calibrated by a certified ISF technician. This service costs between $200 and $400. There is another alternative, which is especially attractive for those people who want to get the best picture from more than one TV, in fact, from all of their TVs and their computer monitors. The solution is to do the calibrating yourself. Just a few short years ago, the necessary equipment to accomplish this was very, very expensive. Now some enterprising companies have begun to produce high-quality calibration equipment and software at reasonable prices, along with simple step-by-step guides so that you can easily do it yourself. The upside to this is that you can buy calibration equipment starting at less than the price of just one ISF certified calibration, and then calibrate as many of your TVs and monitors as you want, whenever you want.

With the exponential growth of digital photography, both amateur and professional, the need for accurate color reproduction has become even more relevant. Most serious hobbyists enjoy printing their best pictures at home, yet it's frustrating to waste time, paper, and ink, only to discover that the image you printed does not match the reference image on your screen.

Here is the good part: The most recent addition to this growing crop of image calibration tools comes from Datacolor, a global leader in digital color management technology, with the introduction of Spyder3™, a new generation of display calibration solutions, to accompany their superb Datacolor SpyderTV products. This new family of products is designed for serious photographers, both professional and amateur, who want perfect color results from the time the picture is taken through the printing process. If the image on your monitor is wrong, then your print will be wrong as well.

The initial products in the new Spyder3 line are Spyder3Elite™ and Spyder3Studio™. Each Spyder3 product is specifically designed to address the color management needs of photographers and creative professionals that require the most accurate color for digital editing and printing. The Spyder3 line includes the only colorimeter available on the market offering a seven detector color engine, with an aperture several times larger than other devices for increased accuracy and performance.

The Spyder3 high-precision sensors and enlarged optical path increase its light sensitivity by 400 percent, making it the most accurate colorimeter in its class. This ensures consistent color on all Plasma, LCD, CRT, laptop and front projector displays and includes the ability to match multiple displays to a single target.

The suggested MSRP for Spyder3TV is only $199, the new Spyder3Elite is only $279, and the Spyder3Studio, $599. All are compatible with Mac OSX (10.3 or higher) and Windows 2000, XP 32/64 and Vista.

For more information on picture calibration using Spyder products--- for both TVs and computer monitors--- check out: www.colorvision.com.