TRUE REDS!!

From what I read about non-professional Canon bodies, the red's are richer than the other colors, because market research has shown that the average consumer likes richer reds. However, I'd say that most of the people on here are not the average consumer, so the red channel looks too strong to us. I just fix mine in post, if it appears too strong.

Like BBD said, that's the way to handle it in-camera for jpgs. Make a custom Picture Style and upload it to the camera. If you are shooting RAW and using DPP the same P.S. can be used there.

Meanwhile, according to this test of the Picture Styles, Faithful has the least deviation fron red:
http://www.imaging-resource.com …40D/E40DPICTURE​STYLES.HTM

I used to have a problem with very deep dark reds getting too orange when I was using Adobe Camera Raw to convert the raws. The saturating reds I would handle by reducing exposure but the hue was always off. Canon's Raw Image Task would get the reds right and DPP pretty good although not quite the same. In camera JPGs were also good if the exposure wasn't too high.

The problem was the calibration in Adobe Camera Raw. The calibration tab allows for correcting the red hue but using it at default settings made orangy reds. I finally bought a gretag-macbeth chart and ran a calibration script and made my own profile. This fixed the reds but skin tones didn't look as good.

Now I've quite using ACR and have switched to DxO Optics pro and am getting the colours how I like them.

You *can* have really good reds, but you need to shoot RAW, underexpose a bit, and calibrate your RAW conversion software:
http://home.earthlink.​net/~ladlueck8/redred.​jpg

Not the camera is responsible for the incorrect - or unexpected - color reproduction. Rather, it is the color space and the presentation medium, which limits the colors. sRGB is simply too small, but the vast majority of monitors can reproduce only sRGB, and most printers are not much better either.

This can be tested by converting the raw image in ProPhoto RGB and turning on the gamut warning in Photoshop.

Panopeeper wrote in post #7850612
Not the camera is responsible for the incorrect - or unexpected - color reproduction. Rather, it is the color space and the presentation medium, which limits the colors. sRGB is simply too small, but the vast majority of monitors can reproduce only sRGB, and most printers are not much better either.

This can be tested by converting the raw image in ProPhoto RGB and turning on the gamut warning in Photoshop.

Not entirely true mind you. Take a look at the epson digital rangefinder, and you'll see that the camera can be responsible for it as well. With reds, greens, and blacks especially, infrared and ultraviolet radiation can affect colors, though the effect is minimal with nikon and canon cameras

Yeah, the 1Ds II handles reds quite well, generally. I've been very pleased with how it reacts to them. Better than my 30D and such, so there is a way to do it, but I'm not sure if it's sensor dependent or just processing.

Reds can be challenging, but I've never found Canon to be worse than any other brand. I shoot in RAW and adjust in DPP, which allows for alot of latitude....

Depends on the red, but my 40D does have a problem with them, especially the red on a cardinal in the sun. Red blows out like white does in the sun. I shoot in RAW, and have not got it to do a decent red yet.

Here's something else that may help. I have not tried this, but just read about it in Charolotte Lowrie's 40D Field Guide, and she addresses just this issue.

She modified the Neutral Picture Style (versus using the Standard Picture Style) settings as follows:

Sharpness: +3
Contrast: +1
Saturation : +1
Color Tone: 0

For what it's worth, I found the 5D Mk II produces a "shade" better (more accurate) reds than the 40D - standard picture style, JPEG, any ISO, auto white balance, natural light or flash.

canonloader wrote in post #7850892
Red blows out like white does in the sun

Red practically never blows out before green in daylight; this occurs seldom even under incandescent.

What appears "blown" is color space problem. Change the color space in ACR to ProPhoto and the "blowing" vanishes (DPP does not support ProPhoto).

However, don't be fooled by the result: your monitor still does not show the "true color": converting the image data in ProPhoto mode does not make the monitor any better.

Thus the ultimate solution is in reducing the saturation or the intensity (the intensity is changed by many adjustments); alternatively, one can accept the result of color space conversion, when ProPhoto gets converted in sRGB or Adobe RGB (if the printer supports AdobeRGB), or CMYK.