Mini test: Datacolor Spyder Photo/Video Kit
Posted on Nov 20, 2024 by Pro Moviemaker
We put Datacolor’s Spyder Photo/Video Kit to the test to see if it’s the key to colour and exposure accuracy from shoot to edit
The Datacolor Spyder Photo/Video Kit contains everything a filmmaker or hybrid photo shooter needs to get accurate exposure and colours right the way through their process, from filming to post-production. This simple set-up will ensure you achieve the right white-balance and exposure at the taking stage. By shooting the included colour chart here, you will reach the post-production stage sure that everything matches.
It’s essential that your monitor is colour-accurate too. For that, the kit comes with the latest Spyder Pro calibration device. Buy the lot for just £349/$349, and you’ll have a sure-fire way to ensure your colours and exposure are spot on, even when combining footage from different cameras or lenses. If you’re planning to grade your work anyway, you might as well start with matched, accurate colour for a solid base.
Compared to flexing your artistic muscles while shooting, it’s not the sexiest method, but all pros should do it to guarantee perfect colours every time. Even if you are a slave to waveforms and vectorscopes, the creative judgement of grading is all down to what your eyes can see, so your screen’s colour accuracy and the ambient light in your editing room need to be just right.
Screen colours change over time and ambient light varies throughout the day, so it’s good practice to check your monitor regularly. For this, you need a calibration device – and Datacolor’s new Spyder Pro does it all. It’s designed to calibrate all the latest displays, including OLED, mini LED and Apple Liquid Retina XDR.
Just download the software, rest the Spyder Pro on the screen and follow the instructions. It’s quick and simple, giving a fully accurate colour screen in just a few minutes. If you know what you’re doing, you can also tweak lots of the settings.
The kit also comes with the Spyder Cube Raw calibration tool, a compact 3.8cm/1.5in cube used at the taking stage. Placing it in the light that’s hitting the subject, turn the Cube so that the lower black face – containing the black trap – is at the bottom front, and the two split white/grey faces are both visible. Take a shot that includes the Cube and the small chrome ball. This ball provides a catchlight for analysing specular highlights; white faces define highlights, grey faces measure colour temperature and midtone response and black faces define shadows relative to the trap.
The real magic is in the Spyder Checkr Video colour chart, a pocket-sized system of five interchangeable high-gloss video targets developed for Rec. 709 colour space. This works with all waveform monitors, standard vectorscopes, editing software and plug-ins. There’s a greyscale card with reference points for exposure and contrast: two 11-step greyscale bars and glossy white, 50% grey and black box patterns. When isolated using a mask, the three large bars provide a quick exposure reference, while the stair-step pattern prevents clipping issues. These can be replaced with the included Spyder Checkr Photo cards for stills. This is everything you need – and it’s portable and affordable.
£349/$349
Specifications
- Input: USB-A, USB-C
- Power: USB-C
- Operating systems: Windows and MacOS
- Backlight types: Wide LED, standard LED, general (wide and standard CCFL), GB LED, high, brightness, OLED, mini LED
- Minimum display resolution: 1280×768
- GPU: 16-bit minimum
- RAM: 1GB minimum
- Max brightness: 2000 nits
Pro Moviemaker rating: 9/10
All you need for accurate colours, every time
- Pros: Small, light, simple to use
- Cons: Watch out for fingerprints on the targets
This review was first published in the November/December 2024 issue of Pro Moviemaker
