Spyder X Elite vs. Colormunki Display brightness difference
Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2022 3:32 pm
I've used the Colormunki Display w/ Xrite puck for calibrating my monitor for many years and have been satisfied, but Datacolor was offering a sale on its Spyder X Elite the other day so I sprang for it. I recalibrated my monitor with the Spyder and have noticed there is a large difference in brightness between the two programs.
Before recalibrating, I always do a reset to base factory settings first. I also always set my monitor @ 100 candelas brightness during the recalibration process. Using Colormunki w/ Xrite puck that requires setting my monitor brightness at 23 for it to read 100 candelas. With the Spyder x Elite, I had to set my monitor brightness to 15 to read 100 candelas.
What gives with that?
I turn off all ambient lighting options on both programs and use the identical conditions every time while calibrating. I just recalibrated using both programs once again and the same thing happened - 15 vs. 23.
I checked the actual color calibrations and they were (for all practical purposes) identical. To check the colors, i used an Xrite Colorchecker and set up a profile, then opened the file in ACR, chose that profile and saved the image. I then checked that image using both Spyder and Colormunki calibrations. I checked four miscellaneous colors (the same misc. colors for each) Here are the readings below:
With Spyder calibration With Xrite calibration
Gray 185 185
183 183
186 186
Med. Blue 130 131
126 126
226 226
Red 241 241
99 101
108 110
Green 136 137
212 212
118 118
So, the calibrations from either are excellent, but I still can't figure out why the brightness is so different. I would appreciate any input or suggestions as to why this difference is occurring.
Before recalibrating, I always do a reset to base factory settings first. I also always set my monitor @ 100 candelas brightness during the recalibration process. Using Colormunki w/ Xrite puck that requires setting my monitor brightness at 23 for it to read 100 candelas. With the Spyder x Elite, I had to set my monitor brightness to 15 to read 100 candelas.
What gives with that?
I turn off all ambient lighting options on both programs and use the identical conditions every time while calibrating. I just recalibrated using both programs once again and the same thing happened - 15 vs. 23.
I checked the actual color calibrations and they were (for all practical purposes) identical. To check the colors, i used an Xrite Colorchecker and set up a profile, then opened the file in ACR, chose that profile and saved the image. I then checked that image using both Spyder and Colormunki calibrations. I checked four miscellaneous colors (the same misc. colors for each) Here are the readings below:
With Spyder calibration With Xrite calibration
Gray 185 185
183 183
186 186
Med. Blue 130 131
126 126
226 226
Red 241 241
99 101
108 110
Green 136 137
212 212
118 118
So, the calibrations from either are excellent, but I still can't figure out why the brightness is so different. I would appreciate any input or suggestions as to why this difference is occurring.