Canon R3 Color Accuracy

I'm a tweak.

I read the manuals - mostly cover to cover. Sometimes more than once. I experiment, I learn, I discover.

I have used several R3's. My current and only performs differently than the other two in terms of color. In a previous thread, I attributed this to AWB and/or Picture Style. I also misdefined the issue slightly thinking it was only an issue in JPG's and while that is still true (but different than previously understood), it was also the settings for the LCD Screen which was a recent revelation!

So...

1. Previously I said that AWB on THIS R3 was too warm while it was previously all I could ask for in other R3's and even 1D X, etc. Well, turns out that is true, but only on the LCD screen. The jpg's have a different issue.

I had always set my screen and viewfinder color settings to STANDARD, this R3 requires (demands) Color 3 for better accuracy (to my eye!). NOW the image on chimping looks MUCH closer to what I see. This has helped, though it surprises me it would be noticeably different from camera to camera. And I no longer feel there is any AWB issue. I WAS setting the AWB adjustment to B2;G1 to get the LCD Screen to appear as what I felt accurate BUT now not needed. And the jpg's do not have what I feel is an AWB issue.

Have you played with this? What setting do you find best or most accurate? Do you find standard to be a bit too warm on the LCD screen?


THEN: Picture Style - a bigger variable.

2. The color rendition of THIS camera is less saturated and less accurate than previous R3's. As a matter of fact, in this regard my iPhone appears to be closer to accurate to my naked eye. it is most noticeable on blues and greens.

I have always used AUTO Picture Style with a dash more sharpening. Never an issue. Now, I feel it might be. So I took 10 shots of the same scene with Auto, Standard, Fine Detail, Neutral, Faithful, USER 1 Auto sharpened, User 2 Standard Sharpened, User 3 Fine Detail, Auto with Contrast +1 and Standard with contrast +1.

NONE of these seems to be color accurate in the jpg's. Not just a contrast or saturation issue, but something undefined for me. The closest are Auto and Standard. I tried both increasing Contrast and Saturation a tick for 8 more shots to compare. Settled on - Auto, no contrast, no saturation. Standard was very close. Still colors are off on my monitor (calibrated) and better on R3 LCD Screen now. If the JPG out of the camera now matched the LCD screen I would be pretty happy. Odd I never had to play this hard for satisfying jpgs when needed on previous R3's or any other Canon DSLR for that matter.

So, how do you feel about color accuracy, playing with picture styles and viewing JPG on a calibrated monitor as opposed to LCD Screen? Have some settings that feel accurate to you? Any issues?

Thoughts?

After posting this I sought out articles and discussions on DSLR and Mirrorless color accuracy. Most attribute lack of accuracy to incorrect white balance and might be right. I do have a color checker so one day with nothing else to do may try to see how close I can get to what my eye sees.

I find it interesting that after extensive experimentation with LCD Screen color, AWB, Picture Styles, etc, I can get what is close enough to satisfy me on the LCD Screen, but the jpg on calibrated monitor lacks. If I could get them to better match, I'd put this to bed.

Thae change in Screen nd Viewfinder Color Settings made a significant difference and I am much closer than I have been previously. I also believe, but cannot be sure, the color of the LCD screen differs a noticeable amount between some copies of a camera. I had two I though near identical and the current has been a "too warm"outlier.

Just chimped today's shots again and the LCD Screen is virtually identical to what my eye sees. If any suggestions for getting the JPG to closer match the screen would be appreciated. Last part of the puzzle.

Interesting I couldn't stir any discussion.

Did buy a RF 14-35 yesterday and note the color from that lens is closer than others I have been using. So there is some lens dependency as well it seems.

Still would like to improve the jpg accuracy.

OK, WOW! Finally got everything working as expected and working as it should. IMHO, of course

First, I am using AWB. Previous perception that it was too warm was due to picture style choices and LCD brightness. I think Picture Styles have changed a bit somewhere along the line and so Auto Picture Style (my previous default) does not work as well as before and I am now set on a Standard Picture Style with a bit of added sharpening.

But still, images on the camera screen matched what I was seeing but the on computer jpgs did not.

I sent pics to my iPad to test and they looked great. Maybe a little off or embellished by the iPdad , but much better than computer. So I set off in another direction and researched Wide Gamut monitors for color space profiles and ICC.

I had a mismatch...

I was using the sRGB color space on the monitor but the Dell D6500 ICC profile which I learned is apporpriate for the STANDARD color space which is color corrected. Changing to STANDARD over saturated everything including the operating system colors. When I changed to sRGB Color Space AND to sRGB ICC profile, the jpgs looked as expected for color ad saturation as did the operating system.

BUT....now the browser (Firefox) had a huge red push and a general over saturation.

Had to change the gfx.color. xxxxx settings in about:config as FF color manages color differently in recent versions and setting gfx.color_management.m​ode to 2 got the browser back to normal and I verified color management for the browser using these tools:

http://www.gballard.ne​t/psd/srgbforwww.html

http://regex.info …o-tech/color-spaces-page2

Now all is good. But drove me a bit crazy trying to get the LCD screen to match closely to my naked eye and then have the jpg on computer closely match the LCD screen.