Safari Downsamples Your Images, No HD
Web-browsing on any iOS-based device is often a less-than-satisfactory experience. Specifically, when it comes to pictures and images, the mobile version of Safari automatically downsamples any image when it hits the 1024-pixel limit. When an image exceeds that threshold, it's downsampled by every nth pixel, such that n is the smallest divisor that yields an image less than or equal to 1024 pixels.
Apple does this to optimize rendering speed and improve overall browsing performance. The behavior is also inherent to older iPhones and iPads. However, the implication on an iPad 3 is more serious, especially if you are a photography enthusiast. It means that you can't view HD-quality online pictures from sites like Flickr, Smugmug, or Zenfolio in their true native glory because the iPad 3 will reduce the viewable resolution. This also happens if you try to view the JPEG file directly using the iPad 3’s Safari Web browser.
Pictures Hosted On Website, From Camera | Actual Resolution | Rendered On iOS' Safari |
---|---|---|
Phase One IQ180 | 80.1 Megapixels(10328 x 7760) | 1.25 Megapixels(1291 x 970) |
Nikon D800 | 36.2 Megapixels(7360 x 4912) | 1.45 Megapixels(1472 x 982) |
Canon 5D Mark III | 22.3 Megapixels(5760 x 3840) | 1.38 Megapixels(1440 x 960) |
Canon 7D / 60D / T3i / T2i | 18.0 Megapixels(5184 x3456) | 1.12 Megapixels (1296 x 864) |
Canon 50D / T1i | 15.1 Megapixels(4752x3168) | 0.94 Megapixels (1188 x 792) |
Canon Rebel T3 / 1100D | 12.2 Megapixels(4272 x 2848) | 0.76 Megapixels(1068 x 712) |
As far as we have been able to determine, photographers have to import photos directly into iPhoto if they want their images displayed at a higher resolution. (Update, Andrew: We'll cover this in part two, but there is an exception that was originally ignored. It is possible to view the native picture on the iPad 3, but you have select the image in Safari and save to iPhoto. Try pictures at Canon's 5D MK3 Sample Gallery.) In theory, Apple should be able to fix this problem by allowing users the option to disable resizing in Safari's settings panel.