The Datacolor Spyder3Studio SR is an all-in-one colour management and profiling tool designed to help digital photographers and artists to calibrate their entire workflow.

Supplied with a smart silver metal carry case with internal padding, inside you’ll find Spyder3Print SR printer profiler, SpyderCube for light and colour balancing your images and a Spyder3Elite to calibrate all of your LCD, CRT and laptops displays and projectors. The latter offers a number of advanced features, including a seven-channel, seven filter optical engine, with the ability to analyse the ambient light and adjust your monitor accordingly to compensate – ensuring spot-on colour displays no matter what sort of lighting conditions you work under. Attractively designed, the Spyder3 sits on your desk in a cradle when not in use, that can be mounted on a tripod for calibrating projectors. It also comes with a suction cup to hold it in place on CRTs or a counterweight on a cord for LCDs.

Taking about ten minutes to run through the calibration process, the Spyder3Elite software guides through each stage, asking you to alter settings on your monitor (if it allows you to do so) or you can select from a list of presets. Once this process is complete, the software displays a before and after image so you can see just how much of a difference the device has made to your display.

Once your monitor’s calibrated, the Spyder3Print is on hand to help you build custom profiles for your printer, thereby opening up the whole host of new and exciting print media that’s available from third party paper manufacturers like Hahnemühle and Moab for example. The software provides a comprehensive set of presets – you pick the one that’s closest to the paper you want to profile and produce a test print that includes 150-729 rows and columns of colour patches – then you scan it with spectrophotometer. This part requires a bit of finesse (there’s a guide to help keep the device on track) and we occasionally saw error messages when moving over one of the patches too quickly. It’s not as easy to use as the Spyder3Elite, but generates good results.

Final Verdict The SpyerCube is constructed from ABS Cycoloy that’s fade proof and shock-resistant, with a chrome ball for checking specular highlights and black, 18% grey and white surfaces for perfect colour balancing in-camera. A comprehensive set of tools that gen OVERALL

Josie developed a taste for photography while travelling around Ecuador, returning home to specialize in the medium as part of her BA (Hons) degree at university. Now the Reviews Editor for Digital Photographer, Josie handles all of the latest camera launches and boasts an in-depth knowledge of all things camera-related.