Tuesday, May 07, 2013

Sanity checking the i1Pro2 vs iSIS


I own this very nice 18th century antique card-table, and on the green baize sit the little i1Pro2 and an iSIS XL. The iSIS XL is Xrite's top of the line desktop scanner which can read 5000 patch single-page A3 charts. The i1Pro2 is the recognized swiss army knife of instruments, a universal handheld spectrophotometer which can calibrate screens and projectors, profile printers, and take ambient light measurements. The two instruments have been getting friendly and comparing measurements.

Checking instruments against each other is something ever color geek does occasionally to detect hardware issues. I also wanted a sanity check so as to know whether profiles which I make in the field or which others make with the i1Pro2 will match those I make myself at home with the larger spectro. I will be running some more rudimentary checks with the DTP70 and the Barbieri LFP within the next few weeks. 





By using the compare feature in the i1Profiler software we can read in data from two charts and compute some comparative statistics. Here, on the i1Profiler 400 patch RGB chart, we have a max deltaE of 2 and an average of 0.56, which is quite good, considering that the two charts didn't have a full dry-down, and that my Isis is an old warhorse which has seen better days, and should probably be recalibrated.

  


As you can see the iPro2 handheld device does not have any tendency to operator-induced read errors, which were sometimes an issue with the old i1Pro. Also, using the new reading ruler to measure a chart is lengthy but it is not at all stressful. This is big progress compared to the old i1 which required quite a bit more patience, practice and elbow-grease. I've had some very pleasant experiences of late with the i1Pro when calibrating screens and am starting to appreciate this upgraded instrument and the new software. 

Edmund Ronald

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