Spyders sell for $127.99 on Amazon, but they are getting a bit long in the tooth.

Get an Pantone Huey instead.

Only $69.00 (and even with free 2-day shipping for Amazon Prime members), quicker and easier to use, and in some ways actually better than the more expensive alternatives.

Most people leave it hooked up and let it adjust color dynamically based on changes in your workspace lighting, which the more expensive units can't do.

One of the few products in any area that can be categorized as "wonderful."

The Spyder we had, belonged to a graphics artist we shared space with. We don't share space with that company any longer.
I tried the Pantone Huey, it definitely wasn't as good as the Spyder. I'm hoping to try the Eye One, but it may be there is something better for less, or equal cost.
The Eye One website suggests it too, can be left on for either ambient or screen compensation.

Eye One Display 2 can be set to adjust for ambient, the LT model can't.

The Display 2 version is the one to get anyway if you need full capability (variable gamma, more color temps, multiple monitors, ambient compensation, etc.), but it is $194.26 on Amazon (via a Marketplace vendor).

It also helps if you understand sentences like this one:

"If you have a chromaticity of a selective radiator that is not equal to any of the chromaticities of the blackbody radiator, then the CCT is defined as the temperature of the blackbody radiator whose perceived color most closely resembles the perceived color of the selective radiator.

:O)

What’s wrong with the Spyder2Pro? (MSRP $279 + $60 rebate) Shouldn’t that be at least as good as the original Spyder?

I found a site that has reviews of the Spyder2Pro, Eye One Display 2, and Pantone Huey and they didn’t care for the Huey either.

~jr

The Huey even got 4 1/2 eyes out of 5 in Layers Magazine for professional graphics artists.

It is not everything for everybody, but it gives very good results for people who don't want to get into the NY phonebook heavy science of color management.

At the price it can't be beat, but it will even beat out the more complex models for non-geeks.

More advanced doesn't always mean better results, just look at all the people using the $699 Photoshop who would get better results with Photoshop Elements (because some things are easier in Elements, even though many features are missing).

Spot might like that the Spyder 2 Pro can also calibrate front projectors, but he did indicate that he didn't want to spend too much money on the color calibrator.

Spyder2PRO is available for $199AR on Amazon, but check out the gotchas in the user review.

Martin Evening, author of Photoshop CS2 for Photographers (highly recommended book) prefers the Eye-One Display 2 though, see this excerpt from his book.

I ordered the Eye One Display 2 this morning, I'd found Martin Evening's book as well, so went on that recommendation. Their online manuals sure make it appear to be faster/easier than most, and they get into some areas I know nothing about, so hoping to learn as well as have accurate. :-)

A bit late on this reply (sorry). If you ever have a need to setup a colorimeter for a 64-bit system, the Monaco Systems OptixXR + EzColor 2.6 bundle has a 64-bit beta driver that works like a champ (I use it and can email the driver to anyone who wants it). Also this system does printers and scanner profiles (not only a monitor). When you build a profile, it has an option to look at ambient room light in order to adjust white point. And according to reviews the XR Pro has some improvements (like profiles that have knowledge of the phosphor properties on particular monitors).

A nice complement to Martin Evening's book is "Photoshop CS2 Workflow" by Tim Grey.

It's been a real eye opener for me, I learned a lot, even after using Photoshop since version 4.

It is very practical and has great example photos to illustrate.

In fact, for anybody buying only one book about Photoshop, I would recommend this be the one.

Coursedesign - how would you compare these two books? Also, I recently obtained Richard Harrington's training discs about PS for video and am really looking forward to going through it.

Yep, I bought an EyeOne Display 2 some time ago, and can recommend it.
In use, it's a bit tricky at first to pick a calibration spot on the monitor which doesn't obscure either the on-screen instructions or the pop-up window from my Dell's display (I found just to the left of centre works for me) but once done it's easy to use.
There's a nag screen which reminds you on boot-up that your profile is 'too old' after a maximum of only 4 weeks, which can get a bit irritating, but I guess you should calibrate regularly anyway.
One tip I can offer... on a Dell LCD monitor (I use 2001FPW and 2005FPW) rather than spend ages trying to balance the RGB percentages to to get just the right colour temp in the early stages of calibration, set all 3 to the same value (say 50%) and let the profile sort out any slight variation - it'll be pretty close anyway, and sometimes trying to do it 'by hand' seems to make a right mess of it ;-)

Cheers,

Andy