DSLR color?

Cato

I'll preface my question by stating that I am not in any way a sophisticated photographer. "Point, shoot, pray" is my motto.

That said, I've seen comments regarding DSLR color quality that puzzles me. Over on DPReview, there is a post in the Pentax SLR forum where an individual who (says he) is a pro photog needs to abandon his Pentax system in favor of Canon, primarily because of the easy availability of Canon bodies and lenses. This makes a lot of sense to me. However, the person wraps up his statement by commenting that he hopes to return to Pentax in the future, as he really likes "Pentax color".

In the P&S camera world, I've experienced a wide divergence in how different brands handle color, saturation, contrast, etc. I've had Canon, Fuji & Sony and have seen 1st hand the different color renditions each brand produces. However, with a DSLR, I would think that most enthusiasts and certainly pros would shoot RAW. In this case, it is the end user who determines the color rendition through whichever RAW processing software he/she uses. So, if a person who is shooting Pentax likes the color of the output, can't he/she simply adjust the RAW settings in ACR (for instance) to taste?

I'd appreciate some insight into this... thanks!

swintonphoto

There are many who rely on jpgs even though they have DSLRs, hence the color may be important to them. In addition, each manufacturer uses different algorithms and sensors that when combined often yield certain starting points to work on in raw. So, makes sense to me, I love the jpg output of Olympus cameras, and I am happy with where my raw files start.

davidweaver

Bump to swintonphoto. This is an esoteric issue. Now, do I see it in different lenses. Yeah I do. My Sigma 120-300 f/2.8 is a (tiny) bit cooler than my Nikon 70-300VR. Is my 17-50 tamron a bit different than my 12-24 nikon in color? Eeeeehhhh...a tiny bit. Can I correct around it (either way)? you bet! Do I really care in the small differences? Nope.

Since I shoot in 'AUTO' color about 80+ percent of the time the color can change from shot to shot anyway so a tiny difference between lens manufacturers isn't an issue to me. Even then, the ability to post-process color curves allows me to tweek any difference out in favor of 'what I like'.

Cheers,
David

Cato

Jonathan, thanks for the response!

Can't you change "where you start" in your RAW processor? In the ACR profile for my Pentax K100D, I tweaked the default away from what Adobe had - less contrast, green less toward yellow, etc.

I don't know, maybe I'm sort of tilting at windmills here... it just seems to me that there are so many customization options either in software or in the camera jpeg settings that you can get whatever color characteristics you desire. To me, it smacks of a "brand loyalty" thing, and I'm generally brand-agnostic. I say this while being quite pleased with my little Pentax system, but I'd dump it in a second for something better. When I bought into Pentax last year, the features/value ratio was so staggeringly better than every other DSLR brand I simply had to go Pentax.

Cato

David, I quite agree - I'm not going to obsess over the small differences. I, too, notice the differences in color rendition, contrast, etc in different lenses.

I guess what really strikes me is that someone who is so into a particular brand's color characteristics should be able to mimic it with any other brand. And there are probably some who simply parrot the party line. Canon Color! Pentax Color! Fuji Color!

Cato

David, Jonathan, looking at both of your amazing galleries, I'm pretty sure you could get any flavor of color you like.

jogle

It's especially pointless now there is the dng profile editor and you can make anything look like anything else. I've been using the beta profiles in lightroom and they are great. I've also tried making one in the studio and it looks correct.


http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/2008/08/the_dng_profile_editor.html

http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/DNG_Profiles%3AEditor</pre>

billtaichi

And Picture styles
I was just looking at the documentation for the Canon 50D and saw that you can now create your own picture styles and load it into the camera! So you could create a style that mimics the Pentax and load it into the camera and just choose that style. (I don't have a Canon yet , will be ordering a 50D in the next week or two so if I am wrong about this please enlighten me). I don't know if that is a new feature or not but I thought that was pretty cool, seems like it is only important for the jpeg output in the camera but not really sure about that.

Nikolai

billtaichi wrote:

I was just looking at the documentation for the Canon 50D and saw that you can now create your own picture styles and load it into the camera! So you could create a style that mimics the Pentax and load it into the camera and just choose that style. (I don't have a Canon yet , will be ordering a 50D in the next week or two so if I am wrong about this please enlighten me). I don't know if that is a new feature or not but I thought that was pretty cool, seems like it is only important for the jpeg output in the camera but not really sure about that.

You could do that with at least 40D (if not 30D, I don't remember).
At any rate, shooting RAW kinda removes you from these petty issues...:-)

billtaichi

Yeah I spent some of today learning about RAW, it is really awesome how much flexibility it gives you. But I can see why some people might want to set their own style for the in camera jpeg, I was reading on Ken Rockwell's site that he shoots mainly in jpeg which I found suprising. I think I would prefer to have the options of RAW.

I can tell this hobby is gonna be a big money pit....lets see I also need a big boy tripod, nice macro lens, wide angle, of course the 70-200 2.8, oh yeah flash, and since I want to do lots of macro maybe a ring flash and the list goes on and I havent even gotten started, ..... but hey I cant take it with me when I leave this earth so enjoy it now.

MarkR

Cato wrote:

I'll preface my question by stating that I am not in any way a sophisticated photographer. "Point, shoot, pray" is my motto.

That said, I've seen comments regarding DSLR color quality that puzzles me. Over on DPReview, there is a post in the Pentax SLR forum where an individual who (says he) is a pro photog needs to abandon his Pentax system in favor of Canon, primarily because of the easy availability of Canon bodies and lenses. This makes a lot of sense to me. However, the person wraps up his statement by commenting that he hopes to return to Pentax in the future, as he really likes "Pentax color".

In the P&S camera world, I've experienced a wide divergence in how different brands handle color, saturation, contrast, etc. I've had Canon, Fuji & Sony and have seen 1st hand the different color renditions each brand produces. However, with a DSLR, I would think that most enthusiasts and certainly pros would shoot RAW. In this case, it is the end user who determines the color rendition through whichever RAW processing software he/she uses. So, if a person who is shooting Pentax likes the color of the output, can't he/she simply adjust the RAW settings in ACR (for instance) to taste?

I'd appreciate some insight into this... thanks!

Over at www.digitalcamerainfo.com they spend a lot of time measuring "out-of-the-camera" color. What I found interesting is that the Pentax K100D was significantly more color accurate in their tests than the Nikon D40-- and they both use the same Sony 6.1 MP sensor!

jdryan3

billtaichi wrote:

I was reading on Ken Rockwell's site that he shoots mainly in jpeg which I found suprising.

Actually not surprising at all.