d70 v. d2h - help me understand color

DoctorIt

For the first time, I have two DSLR bodies and I finally ran a controlled comparison of them. Mounted my Sigma 70-200/2.8 on the tripod (my only lens big enough to have its own collar) and took an image with each body, same exposure setting, in RAW. Did no processing except I did in fact push each one up 1/2 stop, and made sure the color temperature was the same in each conversion (4450K).

So why do the images still look rather different? I think they both look good, I prefer the d2h for color, although I have to admit the d70 is a higher quality image in terms of native sharpness, contrast and dynamic range (I could process the d2h to look as good).

Take a look and maybe someone can teach me something about how sensors interpret color even when the RAW file parameters are the same.

d2h > d70

nrChris

I dunno. Like I said to you offline, I don't think the differences are that great. Until you normalize the WB across both cameras, it is almost not worth discussing. Once you nail the WB, I'd recommend setting up profiles in Photoshop that get your images to a common baseline (in Camera Raw).

-CF

gus

How many differences doc ? Im up to 3 but cant find any more.

Harryb

Most reviewers found that the colors from the D2h were very saturated.
Thom Hogan wrote about the D2H's color handling in his review:

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]"Color integrity is usually excellent, just as it has been with previous Nikon DSLRs, but with one caveat, which I'll get to in a moment. Some other reviewers have remarked about getting more saturation out of their D2h shots, but once I make my usual post-processing adjustments I don't see any significant difference from older Nikon DSLRs. You have a choice of three color spaces, and the sRGB and AdobeRGB spaces seem accurate in my early testing, again with some caveats (see end of paragraph and next paragraph). Since white balance is easier to master on this camera than previous Nikon DSLRs, it all adds up to getting solid color results for those paying attention. But there's a wrinkle in the ointment: things that emit near IR appear to bamboozle the camera in a couple of ways. I first noticed this when I was trying to photograph some of my mom's paintings for her. The center area in one of her paintings just wouldn't get the color right, and it had a bit of strange noise in it (the rest of the painting was color accurate, as expected). Others on the net have noted that use of a hot mirror filter (filters out near IR) changes the camera's noise and color tendencies with certain fabrics and objects. Well, they're right. It appears that any object that reflects near IR has a tendency to run up the blue channel response in the D2h, which in turn makes for slight color shifts and increased noise. Note that flash emits a great deal of near IR and IR light, and I've indeed run into the problem more often indoors using flash than elsewhere. A hot mirror filter does seem to eradicate the problem, at the expense of small light loss overall. Ironically, Canon is one of the few makers of a 77mm hot mirror filter, and Nikon doesn't make one.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]A second color problem took me longer to recognize: in some situations the camera has a green bias that can be ugly (see the software section in my eBook for a full example of this). More often than not the green bias shows up in shaded areas--if a subject is well and evenly lit and you've set the white balance correctly, this problem isn't present. But when you've got neutrals in a shaded area and a well lit other area, you can easily see it. It's easy enough to deal with, but annoying. "[/FONT]

DoctorIt

Humungus wrote:

How many differences doc ? Im up to 3 but cant find any more.

You need 5 to win the cherry ripe. Keep looking!



Harry, thanks for reminding me about Thom's review - I had read that a while back before buying the camera.


Chris and I talked about this for a while yesterday and he reminded me that unless I'm shooting exactly the same WB in the camera - as in K set exactly, they'll never look the same. I was in fact lazy in this test and simply set them to "shady" which I now of course realize is a range, and each camera interprets it differently. In light of that, I'm actually surprised how similar the colors are. D2h is definitely warmer, Thom's right.