The GetDPI Photography Forum

Great to see you here. Join our insightful photographic forum today and start tapping into a huge wealth of photographic knowledge. Completing our simple registration process will allow you to gain access to exclusive content, add your own topics and posts, share your work and connect with other members through your own private inbox! And don’t forget to say hi!

iPad 2 Screen poor colour calibration?

Braeside

New member
I recently purchased an iPad 2, but have been rather surprised by the poor rendering of some tones and colours on the screen. I get a sort of posterisation effect on some skin tones which makes them look really quite bad. The same photos shown on my iMac or my MacBook Pro look fine.

Today I took a sunset photo with the iPhone. Looks great on the phone and Macs, but on my iPad 2 it has pink and green posterisation around the highlights.

Do I have a particularly bad sample of the iPad 2 or is this as good as the uncalibrated screen gets?

Some photos do look superb on the iPad2, but quite often I come across shots that look really awful.

Here is a link to the full size iPhone JPG of the sunset.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/507217/Forumphotos/getdpi/sunset.jpg

Anyone with an iPad or iPad 2 care to try it and see what the colours around the reflection of the sun on the water look like? Mine shows yellow to pink to green.
 

Knorp

Well-known member
David,

sorry to say, but it looks better on my iPad2 than on my iMac ... :confused:

Kind regards.
 

Braeside

New member
There you go! -Thanks for that. I'll try and see if any of my friends who have iPads locally can let me see what it looks like on their screens as a direct comparison.

So you don't see any green tones around the highlights on you iPad 2?
 

Knorp

Well-known member
Unless I'm colour blind, can't see any unnatural colour patterns.
The picture is however rather 'blotchy', if that's the correct term, which shows very clearly on the iMac screen.

Kind regards.
 

Godfrey

Well-known member
Photos on my iPad 2 look pretty darn similar to what shows up on my Apple Cinema Display 27" LED.

I calibrate the ACD27LED with an ancient Xrite Eye One Display 2 using iMatch or the new "i1Profiler D2LionEdition" software (I have to boot the system on my Snow Leopard startup to use the older software, only just re-calibrated using the latest version the other day). My calibration targets are 110 Luminance, 1.8 gamma, and 5500 K white point. These targets have worked best with my color-managed printing workflow, they preserve what I see on the screen to a very high fidelity match to what lays out on paper in the typical exhibition lighting I've been involved with.

When I output photos for transfer to the web or to the iPad 2, the photos are exported from Lightroom to JPEGs including sRGB and Perceptual intent settings. The difference from what I see on the ACD27LED is typically a very minor rise in contrast and ever so slightly higher saturation.
 

Knorp

Well-known member
Hi David,

here is a screen copy of my iPad2 showing an enlarged section of your picture.
Hope this helps.

Kind regards.
 
Last edited:

Braeside

New member
Thanks kindly:

@Knorp, I'm not sure that the screen copy shows me anything (unless you photographed the screen).

Its not the blotchiness that I'm complaining about (I see that in the photo too). In my case on the iPad 2 the tones which should be yellow are not changing from light to darker without shifting in colour tint from yellow to pink to green.

@Godfrey I clearly have a duff iPad2 display, it was a refurb, so I am going to try and get it replaced. I'll make an appointment with the Apple Store after the New Year.
 

Knorp

Well-known member
Thanks kindly:
@Knorp, I'm not sure that the screen copy shows me anything (unless you photographed the screen).

Its not the blotchiness that I'm complaining about (I see that in the photo too). In my case on the iPad 2 the tones which should be yellow are not changing from light to darker without shifting in colour tint from yellow to pink to green.
Good morning David,

the screen copy shows you exactly the way my iPad2 is displaying your picture.
And as you can see there are no colour artifacts. That's why I'd made the screen copy.

Perhaps you can do the same of your iPad2 ?

Kind regards.
 

Braeside

New member
Hi Knorp, I returned the refurbished unit to the shop (PC World) this morning and they exchanged it for a new one (I paid the difference in price).

As the unit was outside the 21 days return period I would have had to return it to Apple for repair otherwise and I didn't want to risk getting it back again with the same subtle fault.


I was able to demonstrate the problem by loading the same photo on one of their in store demo iPads and comparing it with my refurb iPad.

I am now restoring the iPad from my backup and will then hopefully be OK.

Thanks again for your comments and help.
 

Braeside

New member
Update, new iPad is showing the colours correctly. So it looks like there was a fault on the old one. Much happier now :)
 

Diane B

New member
Great, because I find my Ipad 1, like the others, has a very accurate color view very similar to my calibrated monitor. Its one of the things I remarked on when I first got my Ipad in May 2010 and I'm looking forward to the display on Ipad 3 LOL.
 

Godfrey

Well-known member
Update, new iPad is showing the colours correctly. So it looks like there was a fault on the old one. Much happier now :)
Great to hear that. It's an unusual occurrence, but machinery is always machinery and prone to random acts of failure. :)
 

Braeside

New member
Hi folks, I suspect that what happened with that refurb was that it maybe had been returned with a broken screen and it had then been replaced and not calibrated by the service place. It definitely had not been done by Apple because when I first plugged it in it was already showing someone else's photos before I wiped it clean. Lesson learnt, a PC World refurbished unit is not an Apple refurbished unit.
 

Knorp

Well-known member
Excellent David, well I'm happy you've got a iPad2 now that's working correctly.

A PC-World refurbished unit, you say ? Mmm, you are Scottish, right? :angel:
:D ;)

All the very best.
 
Top