Your opinion on Nikon / Canon colour

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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Your opinion on Nikon / Canon colour


I don't want to beat on a dead horse but this is something that I've been trying to work around for a while and I'd like to get your input on it.

I've always had Nikon, since the D70s, the most recent one being the D610. I choose them because they felt better in my hand, had a great flash system, better controls and menus. I even ended up working as a rep for a while so I could use D810's, D4s's, D750's and lots of pro lens.

I was able to use a 5D MkII quite a bit in school back when it was new in 2010 or so. Obviously the image quality was far better than the D90 I had at the time but I attributed it to being far more expensive, full frame and the fact that I had access to better lens for it. I still preferred the handling of the Nikon though.

Since then I shot with a D90 and then a D610 and even though it was better than the D90 I still had to mess around with colour in skin tones.

In my current job I have access to a large selection of lens for both systems and D800, D810, 5DMkII, 5DMkIII, 5Ds, 1Dx and 1DsMkIII.

As it isn't really in demand anymore I often borrow the 1DsMkIII and the raw's coming out of it in Lightroom with the standard profile and AWB are just so much better than the ones from the D610 and D800/810. Same thing for the MkII and III.

Although it shows its age in usage ( worse ergonomics than any Nikon, even D800's with grip, focus in low light, max iso 1600, lower sync speed, fuzzy screen, much grainier at high iso ), with decent light the colours are just so much more pleasing.

Yes, the files are fragile if you're coming from a D800, much less latitude for exposure, noisier, lower resolution, but the colours are much better. Especially with the "faithful" profile.

I've done side by side comparisons and it's visible, even when using a colour checker to match white balance.

Both Lr and Capture One show the Nikons consistently more saturated and with an orange cast that is not fixed with white balance alone. Even with HSL I'm having a really hard time matching the skin tones.

Am I imagining this or has anyone else had the same experience ? Were you able to match the colours ? I prefer everything about the Nikons in use but when you load the raw files up it's such a difference.

I owned the 1DsMIII before switching over to Nikon and I tend to think the exact opposite, especially regrading skin tones. Of course I loaded a custom profile from a member over at the Fredmiranda forums and it is definitely better than the default ones that come with the D800.

I did really like the 1DsMIII while I owned it though, it was a joy to use with its focusing system.

Nikon is strong in the "blacks", Canon is strong in the "whites"
Comment: I believe this could be due to the DR (Dynamic Range) of the sensors used. For portraiture related photography, Canon has a better rendering of the skin tones. However, Nikon has a better rendering of the hair tones.

D4

I think it depends on the Model NIKON your talking about because they do use different brand sensors in different models.I have a friend that shoots a Nikon D3s and I see alot of yellow in his j-pegs-especcially at high ISO's. My Nikon D5500 leans towards pink,yellow skin tones (frustrating!) on the other hand my Canon's have always been consistant in the skin tones (good thing) probably because they've always made their own sensors.Other opinions may vary here.

Paul

Fuji is better, IMO.

kf095 wrote in post #18086584
Fuji is better, IMO.

Better in what regards...more accurate, more vibrant, less vibrant, which colours, all of them or a subset.

I prefer Leica M over both and fuji to.

airfrogusmc wrote in post #18089283
I prefer Leica M over both and fuji to.

I find the colours out of my fuji are a bit flat and really muted.
The M240 seems overly red (so much so that i have a preset on import to tone it down)

My 1DX seems to have the most accurate colours out of all the cameras i have used.

I prefer shooting with the M though

I read that the M 262 and M-D are not as red. I don't have a 240 and haven't shot much with one so I can't comment on that but I by far prefer the color from the 262 over Canon, Nikon or Fuji.

I was a Nikon d90/700/Df shooter, but changed to Canon - love their skin tone and purples. Never looked back. Definitely a difference in color, and Canon beats hands down

That's funny because I talked to a lady who is well known in her profession and she told me that she sold her Canons and invested in Nikon cameras particularly for studio shots where she shoots a lot of mixed couples black and white and according to her Canon messed up the skin tones in mixed couples but her Nikons don't.

Hogloff wrote in post #18089248
Better in what regards...more accurate, more vibrant, less vibrant, which colours, all of them or a subset.

Fuji is pretty good at landing the auto white balance.

However when I test my fuji gear in my home studio I found that I landed better skin tones with my canon gear using the Xrite passport vs using the same calibration methods with my Fuji. I didn't invest too much time though........