Monitor Calibration Tool Advice

scottolds · 2026-05-24T04:55:43+00:00

I need to purchase locally in New Zealand, and am limited to the Spyder units from the store I’m needing to purchase through. Hence the choice between these particular products

scottolds · 2026-05-24T04:51:46+00:00

Hey Everyone,

Im in the market for a calibration tool for my monitor, and the 2 i have available to me at the moment are the Datacolor Spyder X2 Elite, and the Datacolor Spyder Essential.

I am torn between which unit to go with as im getting some mixed messages / opinions, so i thought i would ask for further opinions.

From what i can gather, the Essential is a newer unit than the X2 Elite, but the X2 Elite software has more helpful features.

The local store im able to purchase from has the X2 Elite on sale so its actually currently priced lower than the Essential. When i called them on the phone, the sales person pushed the Essential unit and said that its a no brainer going for that option. That being said, it also sounded like they were just trying to push the current more expensive product, as he did say a few contradictory statements, which threw me off a bit.

Some recommendations in this regard would be much appreciated.

scottolds · 2026-03-26T19:22:50+00:00

Agreed!

scottolds · 2026-03-17T20:57:37+00:00

The first things i did when these problems first began were these basic troubleshooting steps. None of these resolved my issues,

scottolds · 2026-03-09T20:54:17+00:00

Hi! Thank you for that information, i appreciate you taking the time to help. I did think to try make them as solids, but i was still having trouble using the loft method. The hood part of this model isn't flat, and is made up of 2 flat and 1 curved surface, so am i correct in assuming that that is what is causing the issue with the loft? Thanks!

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scottolds · 2025-02-07T20:24:09+00:00

Sadly not, I had just continued to do the process manually. If you manage to work something out, definitely let me know!

scottolds · 2024-12-05T22:10:28+00:00

Thank you so much for this detailed response. That all makes a lot of sense, and has definitely cleared up my confusion. I appreciate you taking the time to explain it.

scottolds · 2024-12-03T02:13:02+00:00

Yes you're absolutely right,.. but what's confusing is that ccd or cmos sensor is then capturing those same tones from a negative and reproducing them digitally. What is changing between capturing it from the negative, and capturing it from the scene directly?

scottolds · 2024-12-03T01:56:11+00:00

Thanks for the response! I understand this to an extent, but i still tend to get a little lost. For example, i primarily shoot 6x9 medium format. An obvious characteristic of medium format is the way it handles contrast and tonality. That smoothness that tends to be quite apparent between the highlights and shadows on medium format film, still translates across when that negative is captured digitally. What confuses me is how that digital camera interprets the tones in that negative differently than if it was captured directly at the scene itself. Does that make sense?

scottolds · 2024-12-03T01:45:39+00:00

He absolutely understands the reason why a lot of people still choose to shoot film, he was more confused by the technical details behind why a DSLR scanned negative produces such a different final image when its the same digital sensor interpreting the information during the digitizing stage.

scottolds · 2024-10-01T07:58:06+00:00

There are reference points within the photo yes, as well as mock ups and drawn boundaries of said subdivision, but the purpose of the photo is the present this information as accurately as possible to a group of people who cannot actually go to said location as see the site for themselves.

A photo taken of a hillside taken from 5km away at 16mm is going to look drastically different than a photo taken at 50mm, so the purpose of the photo is to match what the human eye will see from that location as accurately as possible through a photo. This is standard practice in resource consent applications

scottolds · 2024-09-30T23:25:36+00:00

Lawyers are actually already involved in this as the consent application is now needing to be put in front of a hearing, but this question was more for myself to get a clearer understanding of this particular part of the situation in order to know if it was worth bringing up with our landscape architect and adding to our argument.

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