Apple users: which displays out of these two is most accurate for editing?

Which is more color accurate/better for editing with Final Cut Pro? Built in display of 2019 MacBook Pro? Or iPad Pro 2018(Face ID) I will be using the iPad as external second display so I’m wondering which should be my main display when I’m editing and viewing? I know they both are said to have excellent color profiles but which one is better?

MBP

X2 on the MBP. You may also want to use a color monitor calibration device like the Spyder by Datacolor or a similar device to dial in the colors on the display.

macOS's ColorSync takes care of calibration pretty well. You won't get a computer monitor calibrated like a real broadcast monitor anyway.

Also, if you do find yourself at any point using your iPad to do colour correction, be sure to turn off the True Tone feature so you're looking at a consistent image.

FCPX.guru wrote: macOS's ColorSync takes care of calibration pretty well. You won't get a computer monitor calibrated like a real broadcast monitor anyway.

whats color sync? is that built in part of MAC os?

Yes, built-in to the OS and FCPX takes advantage of it.

I have a background in still photography where color management is required to get what you see on screen out of the printer. As I moved to Video I brought the use of a calibrated monitor with me. ColorSync does an ok job of calibration but depends on your eyes to make the adjustment. A calibration device reads the colors on the screen and compares them to what they should be for the color space you are using. I find the device gives me a larger gamut than I can get with ColorSync.

As stated above, the monitor on the MBP will never be as good as a broadcast monitor. The calibrated screen just gets me closer.

Video does not get printed, which is not the same color as video, which is projected. One reflects light, one generates light. You need an actual calibrated broadcast monitor for video. For video, calibrating a computer monitor is always second best, but not that accurate. Broadcast and film simply function very differently from print or computer monitors.

What is your final output to? Online, theaters, television?

Totally agree with you that calibrating the monitor is no where near as good as a broadcast monitor. Most of my work is published to the web and who knows what type of device it will be seen on. By calibrating my three monitors to look the same I feel I have a fighting chance that the image will look good on someone eleven device.

Larrie wrote:

As stated above, the monitor on the MBP will never be as good as a broadcast monitor. The calibrated screen just gets me closer.

Closer to what?
You mean broadcast standard?

Slowly but surely the limitations of broadcast standards cease to be the reference, and every backlit reference monitor doesn't cut it anymore. People more and more own OLED and QLED TVs, and they prefer to watch Netflix and take that as their reference of what a quality image should look like.


@kofman
Advice for a beginner (you said you were?):
All modern Apple displays are darn good references because they are top notch consumer hardware. That's where most audiences will watch Youtube content. And do you plan to do more?

Don't start with monitor calibration problems at this stage, this is the road to despair and financial disaster. Use the native profile of your Apple monitor, and let Colorsync do the magic (= change nothing). Later on, when you find that you have become a skilled and passionate colorist, you will know how to advance.

Generally speaking, the awareness of a problem is more valuable than any expensive measure to solve it. If you had the best colorgrading room money could buy but placed your bright red coffee mug on the desk before the monitor, you no longer were able to judge colors unbiased. A black mug and Colorsync could actually be better

I'd let the monitors be, let them show their native images unchanged. Your audience will be watching online, on more different monitors than you can shake a few million sticks at. So you want to see it on different monitors. That way you get to color grade to the best general looking images.

In music, we use very expensive monitors to mix and master with. But we also go out and listen to the mix in our car, in our homes, in our friends' cars, etc, to see how it will hold up over a variety of speaker types and qualities.