Lab Colorimeter, 0.5s Fast Measurement, 8mm Aperture (Model AMT599)

I like the fact that the company has the experience of creating products like these and hence, more reliable for use. I contacted them several times with questions about the SW, etc., and they were very responsive. This will be useful in testing paint for matching older faded paint, colors for fabrics for furniture, etc. For example, you take a old sample to a paint store, they match, put a spot on a stick to visually compare the end mix. Some people's eyes may have minor color blindness and hence, the in-store comparison might appear ok in their light. But way off in the light at home. In building new houses, you get to pick the color. However, the painter they use might have a special deal with an alternate store brand. Hence they make the best match which may be slightly off from the one you selected. If you're lucky they might tell you the brand they used. Most time that info is lost. Then I needed to repaint an area and I can't tell you how many trial quarts I had to buy, from various paint brands, and various grades within each brands to find the 'best match'. (Trust me they always use the cheapest, thinnest crap so try those first.). This unit sure would have made that process easier. I used the unit to test the paint the contractor used against the color we chose -- WAY OFF. The new mixed paint I was able to match -- close but off -- but at least it blended. And now I am seeing the differences between sunlight exposed areas vs dark areas like closets. I can use this to know when to use a different paint sample to buy matching paint -- and test at the store. And if we ever build a house again, I will make it a requirement to test the contractor's paint! The SW they provide can find best matches from some suppliers and/or simply get a trial and test right there. You can also get the sample swatches or color cards and use for comparisons. No eye-balling the results any more! And no more having to repaint a large section rather than a touchup because the paint faded and just doesn't match. The only criticism is they not all paint brands are represented in their their programs. However, most paint companies post their L*a*b* or RGB values for their brands and with a little work you can cross compare. (For the advanced, you might have to look up how to convert between LAB-RGB. There are on-line calculators that can help) It's easy to use, quick, and very repeatable. Also, I can detect small variations from sunlight exposed areas versus darker areas. I can use it for matching fabric colors for couches/chairs, etc. when having to change suppliers. This will be a good investment and I wish I had had this years ago!

For some reason (maybe Amazon storage charges) AMTAST strips the factory air packaging off and ships the $500 unit to you bare in the shelf box. It's a pretty good unit for a non-grating spectrocolorimeter, it is much more stable than the less expensive one and the inter-unit agreement is excellent. I doubt you'd find a comperable unit for under $700 elsewhere.

I think the product probably has some useful applications but there is absolutely no documentation available so it is trial and error at best. Doesn't work on glossy surfaces, doesn't work on natural surfaces like wood. So if you only want to detect non-glossy paint then it might work, but I had a different application in mind. It may have ways to tune the detection, but again no manual or even instructions. Too bad as it seems like it has possibilities way beyond this very limited application. I would NOT recommend this product.

We use this meter to test for color deviations for plastics under weathering. The sensor is acceptable for our needs. I don't use the software, but rather input the deviation and the readout from the control sample. I log these values in Excel. I really like the sample averaging. It allows you to average the color of a large sample by taking readings in consistent places for each sample. You are also able to set pass fail criteria to help quality control. (The average deiviation will indicate at the bottom of the sample passed the predetermined threashold compared to the control.) Making sure the sensor is flat on the sample very important. As ambient light can affect the results. I have not tried to use this for color matching but rather for color deviation. (Seeing the deiviation between a control and production parts.) The white and black sample disks help ensure we have a consistent level between battey changes and such. It automatically prompts you to run color calibration and logs the last date and time it was completed. It is important to have conisistsnt testing procedures with this tool as it is handheld.

This is a great product. Worked better for me than the others. It supposedly does both 2 and 10 degree incidence angles for the lighting source. The best feature of this device is that one can use it without the app. The app is very powerful, and offers a lot of nice features.

Considering the price, this is a good equipment. Readings are precise but may not be accurate.

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I bought this to use on a Linux workstation. Unfortunately, it doesn't really work on Linux. It comes up as a Serial device, but it only outputs the "a*" and "b*" measurements, not the full set of measurements. I tried to use their provided Windows software, but that didn't even work since it wouldn't recognize my device. All in all, I wouldn't recommend this unless you're only going to use it on-the-go.