Image parameters

The EOS-10D now provides a total of five levels of adjustment (plus or minus two levels) for parameters contrast, sharpness, saturation and color tone. This extra level of adjustment is welcome, and is indeed something we requested in our EOS-D60 review, however we would have liked to have seen even more steps, maybe plus or minus five levels as seen on other prosumer level digital cameras.

Contrast adjustment

Adjusting the contrast setting alters the shape of the 'S curve' used to map the linear image data captured by the sensor into the selected gamma (sRGB / Adobe RGB). A lower contrast setting maintains more of the original data's dynamic range but leads to a flatter looking image. A higher contrast setting stretches the grayscale (dark to light) of the image and could lead to clipping of both shadow detail and highlights. You can see this fairly clearly by comparing this luminosity histogram for each sample below.

Settings: ISO 200, EF 28-70 mm F2.8L @ F10, Small/Fine

	Contrast	Luminosity histogram
-2
-1
0
+1
+2

Sharpness adjustment

The EOS-10D's default sharpening level is very conservative, certainly compared to other digital SLR's. This keeps visible noise down and provides better control for post-processing sharpening. If you prefer your images a little sharper out of the camera the +2 setting would probably be the best choice, +1 makes very little difference. This is a good example of a parameter which needs even more levels of adjustment. It's probably also worth noting that EOS-10D images appear to respond very well to 'unsharp mask' post-processing.

Settings: ISO 200, EF 50 mm F1.4 @ F9, Large/Fine

	Sharpness (100% crop)
-2
-1
0
+1
+2

Color Saturation adjustment

Color saturation can be controlled over five levels, just as with the other parameters. The minus settings could be useful for maintaining bright colors while staying in the sRGB color space. The positive settings leave images looking a little too saturated for my tastes and can lead to color clipping in bright colors.

Settings: ISO 200, EF 28-70 mm F2.8L @ F14, Small/Fine

	Color Saturation	100% crop
-2
-1
0
+1
+2

Color Tone adjustment

Color tone adjusts the output hue of the image, a negative setting pushes reds towards blue, a positive setting pushes reds towards orange. The EOS-10D manual hints that color tone can be used to correct for color cast in skin tones induced by studio flash lights, it could also be used to make subtle corrections to preset white balances.

Settings: ISO 200, EF 28-70 mm F2.8L @ F14, Small/Fine

	Color Tone	100% crop
-2
-1
0
+1
+2