Using an iPad as reference monitor for colour grading?

[Antonis]

I am using the Duet app to connect my iPad 2 to my computer and was wondering if it would be a good idea to use it as a reference monitor for when doing the final colour grade.
Most of my work ends up online anyway. (Youtube/Vimeo)
Any pitfalls that I should be aware of?

[Nikkor]

My ipad2 screen is very yellowish.

[Damphousse]

The world's most overpriced monitor?

Any monitor you use needs to be calibrated and profiled.  Can you calibrate an ipad?

Monitors have gotten so cheap nowadays that you might as well pick up a relatively inexpensive IPS monitor and calibrate that.  It won't be perfect but it will be a million times better than an uncalibrated tiny ipad screen.

[jgharding]

I think it's a fine reference, since it's how many people will view your work.

I always check work on my phone as it gives you an idea of how it will be seen.

It shouldn't be your only screen though

[Nick Hughes]

"X-Rite ColorTRUE Color Management for iPads, Tablets, Smartphones"

[Xavier Plagaro Mussard]

 

It shouldn't be your only screen though

+1 

It's nice to check it on a smartphone or tablet, but it can't be your only monitor!

Nick thanks a lot for the link!!!!!!

[Hans Punk]

Remember hearing ipad colour accuracy was pretty darn good - This article is a good read (and a few years old)

https://www.fxphd.com/blog/just-how-good-is-the-ipads-color/

Definitely good enough as a mobile client review method to showcase corrected rushes and temp grades. 

[Antonis]

Thanks for the input guys. And yes, I do have another monitor next to my iPad 2
After some searching I found that the iPad 2 display doesn't cover the full Rec.709 gamut unfortunately.
http://www.displaymate.com/Gamut_6.html

However, the iPad 3 and other "retina" iPads, are actually very accurate and well calibrated from the factory and come close to a professional reference monitor according to: http://www.displaymate.com/iPad_ShootOut_1.htm

"the new iPad’s picture quality, color accuracy, and gray scale are not only much better than any other Tablet or Smartphone, it’s also much better than most HDTVs, laptops, and monitors. In fact with some minor calibration tweaks the new iPad would qualify as a studio reference monitor."
 

So if you have a retina iPad laying around, you could actually put it to good use. 

[Damphousse]

Thanks for the input guys. And yes, I do have another monitor next to my iPad 2
After some searching I found that the iPad 2 display doesn't cover the full Rec.709 gamut unfortunately.
http://www.displaymate.com/Gamut_6.html

However, the iPad 3 and other "retina" iPads, are actually very accurate and well calibrated from the factory and come close to a professional reference monitor according to: http://www.displaymate.com/iPad_ShootOut_1.htm

So if you have a retina iPad laying around, you could actually put it to good use. 

The article you are quoting is from 2012.  It doesn't cover any of the ipads that are currently being sold.  Manufactures can and do change things.  I wouldn't assume anything about current models.

Interesting article though.  There are a lot of mediocre screens out there and there are a ton on poorly calibrated screens.

The reason I go on about that is I edited and graded a short vacation movie on my calibrated IPS monitor at home.  It needed some tweaks when I viewed it on my plasma TV.  But it looked like crap on my friends LED LCD TV.  Well what I eventually discovered is there is a sharpness setting on the TV and it was dialed way up.  I adjusted a bunch of settings on the TV using parameters I found online and the video looked much better.  Some stuff can just be way off on any given TV, phone, or tablet out there.  You really have to know what your are dealing with or you will be chasing your tail.  But I do like to view my videos on various devices just to see what the end product will look like to random users.

Another problem I have is my monitor is set for editing photos.  Photo files need to be brighter than video.  If your monitor is too bright and you print your edited photos then they will come out too dark.  The problem is TVs tend to have their brightness dialed way up.  So my initial video efforts were way too bright on TVs.

[Guest Ebrahim Saadawi]

My top of the line Air shows a clear yellow cast over the left side of the panel but not the right. Apple refused fixing, they said it's how it is, to thousands of Air actually. The resolution of 2.5K squeezed in a 10" monitor is insanely clear and fluid, just not colour accurate.

The Mini retina I have also has the yellow cast but over the entire LCD so it's not a fault, just how apple like to calibrate their monitors for a warm tone. 

Anyone buying an Air, open a white screen (safari, notepad) and see if there's inconsistency between the two halves of the panel. It makes my Air 90% less useful for watching photographs and videos. 

An Ipad Air 2.5K panel with accurate colour calibration would be divine to look at. 

Edit: Ipad panel is a little less than 2.5K, 2048X1536 Squar-ish aspect ratio so high vertical resolution. Downside is we get a latterbox working with out videos (unless we shoot on a dv camera). The aspect ratio while comfortable for web wastes a lot of space for video viewing, it almost turns into a 7''ish monitor viewing 16:9.

[Antonis]

Sorry to hear about that yellow cast Ebrahim, sounds like a fabrication error to me if it only occurs on one side of the screen.
According to this article from the same website, the iPad Air was performing rather well and on par with the first retina screens from the iPad3 series:

http://www.displaymate.com/Tablet_ShootOut_3.htm