Problems with Pantone ColorVision Spyder2Pro

But it may not be as good to everyone as you might expect. Here are a few problems I had with it.

Confirmation Required

After I set it up, it would load every time I booted up my computer, but a Pantone dialog box would come up requiring me to approve the functioning of the profile every single time I used the computer! Not a big deal for some (it didn't bother me, personally, and I never tried to fix it); but others might find it annoying.

Later, though, after I went to recalibrate my monitor using Spyder2Pro, the problem disappeared. I have no idea exactly why. I don't know what I did. I had pinned the Spyder2Pro to the Windows Start Menu before starting it, but can't be sure if that's why it "fixed itself." Now when I boot up, the screen first shows the colors without calibration, and then just before all the booting is finished, the profile is applied automatically.

Erratic Behavior

The monitor I calibrated with the ColorVision Spyder2Pro is an old VE910b from ViewSonic. It uses RGB sliders to change colors. So the process of calibration is very simple.

You run the software, and it tells you to put the "spider" over the center of the monitor. Then it shows you a bar graph with three bars--one for Red, Green, and Blue--and you need to get each bar to line up in the middle.

So when the red was very low, I just adjusted the monitor by pressing the ViewSonic color settings buttons, "adding" red by moving its slider to the right. Then I clicked on the "Update" button inside Spyder2Pro. It takes about 15 seconds to test the new settings, and says how close you are to correct color.

It's very straightforward. You keep making small adjustments until you get the bars pretty much lined up. Sometimes you have to increase another color other than the one that seems too high or too low. You just try different adjustments and see the effect.

When you get close to the exactly right color settings for R, G, and B, a thin rectangle appears in the middle of the bar. But you can adjust even more, aiming for perfection, with each bar exactly the same height.

So, finally, I get the colors to line up perfectly. I was going to hit the button to confirm and move to the next step. But instead I wanted to check the settings, so I hit Update.

I hadn't changed the setting, but I hit Update anyway, just to see if the device was reliable. Guess what happened?

Instead of absolutely no change, the blue dropped half way down, and the Red and Green shot up!

WTF?!

All this happened without any other changes. The spider was still in the same place in the middle of the screen. It hadn't come off the screen, so there was absolutely no justification for a new interpretation of its color settings.

I clicked the Update again, and it didn't move the settings. What a short time beforehand it had said was perfect, it still said on the second attempt was far from correct.

I clicked a third time, and it still said it was way off. No change.

Then I faked a change by clicking the Red setting on the monitor +1 and then -1.

Clicked Update.

Bingo! Perfect alignment again.

WTF?!

There is no explanation for why Spyder2Pro did that.

Anyway, after confirming the three primary colors were equal in the bar graph, I proceeded to the end of the calibration process, and the color calibration produced a new profile, which seemed pretty good. Good whites, solid blacks, and clean grays. Nothing was obviously bad about any major colors.

The thing, though, is it now makes you wonder if the device is actually working. If it can't read an "update" of No Change correctly, how can you be sure other aspects of the hardware/software are functioning properly?

I still don't know if it's a hardware or software bug. It's also not clear if the problem is unique to my hardware and/or software, or if it's a potential problem for everyone.