Time for a new hardware calibration tool

I have my ColorSpyder 2 in storage across the globe and since the software is PowerPC, and a software update costs close to the same that a new cheap hardware calibration tool costs, I've decided to get a new one. Now, about 5 years ago, the forum has suggested a few solutions, but most of these are no longer on the market.

So what are the best hardware calibration solutions on the market? The new ColorSpyder 4 Pro/Elite seems interesting since apparently I can calibrate different corners of the screen separately. But other than that, the breadth of choice is a bit confusing and things like reliability are difficult to measure. What do you use?

Unfortunately, we seem to have abandoned calibrating. :/

Since I can't afford a hardware solution, I've been relying on software tools like SuperCal. You can get a pretty acceptable result with it, if you take your time.

Yep, not happened here in at least 5 years.

Edit: Moderator c-c-c-combo breaker!

Really? At least to me, it made a world of difference back then, especially with skin tones. Back in the thread, Veltiner strongly recommended the X-Rite Eye-One Display 2, but that was a few years ago.

Calibration is still critical for anyone working professionally, especially if they're doing any print work. The web is a crap-shoot color-wise, of course, since you don't have any control over the viewer's monitor. But, imho, it's still important that everything is correct on your end, as a reference point.

I ran into this problem at my last job where I'd put something together for either print or web, and have to send it around to executives for approval. Of course, they're looking at things on their cheap-ass uncalibrated monitors, with the brightness cranked to 11 and colors set to Oompa Loompa. It was literally a weekly tradition that I had to explain to one suit or the other all about color management and why, despite what she looks like on his screensaver, Ariel Rebel isn't really bright orange.

I think the print team makes do with maintaining the same calibration/prepress settings with our prepress team (and thus are really slow to update software or anything that could require changing it, thinking about changing it, etc.

The web team just tries to aim for using the same settings... unless we have to work on something from the outside, or with the print department... so yeah, one of my pet peeves is not being consistent in the settings. CS6 also seems to do things a little differently.

We use a lot of light subtle tints in our designs. I really hate having to check color "on the PC" because I know there are 40 billion different monitors/PCs out there and it will not look the same everywhere. The tints fade to nothing on my crappy Dell monitor. As an added plus, we show our work on projectors in conference rooms where the color is incredibly blown out/wrong. We have to bring a MacBook in with us so the clients can really see what it looks like.

<grumble>

Good lord, andi...Don't they ever re-compensate their monitors individually? Everyone using the same general settings is great, but even LCD screens will vary greatly and change over time.

It's really surprising to me that the attitude towards calibration has changed that dramatically. A cheap hardware calibration tool costs not even $100, a tiny investment if you have several computers and it'll work for several years.

I can recommend that too, but it costs about a grand.

I still use my ColorSpyder2 since I'm still on my G5. Anyone with dual (or higher) monitors needs to calibrate. Or the color change when windows are dragged between monitors will bug me.

That's a bit steep, I was thinking of staying below $250 or so.

Regarding the Spyder2, Datacolor has modified a version of their sypder3 software so it handles Spyder2express on OS X 10.7 and above.

Datacolor OSX Lion Support - Datacolor Imaging Solutions