Image parameters

The EOS 300D provides five levels (-2 to +2) of adjustment for each image parameter. Contrast and Saturation adjustment have the same strength as on the EOS 10D, however Sharpness is twice as strong on the EOS 300D. Thus a sharpness setting of +1 on the EOS 300D is the same as +2 on the EOS 10D.

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 (pure black on left side of histogram, pure white on right side). The EOS 300D's default 'Parameter 1' has a contrast setting of +1.

Settings: ISO 100, EF-S 18-55 mm @ F13 (Studio Strobe), Medium/Fine

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

Sharpness adjustment

The EOS 300D's default sharpening is set to +1, this delivers slightly sharper images but also more visible sharpening artifacts such as halos and higher noise. It's probably worth noting that EOS 300D images appear to respond very well to 'unsharp mask' post-processing, thus if you post-process all of your images you would probably be better off using a sharpness setting of -2 or -1 (post-process sharpening is almost always better than in-camera).

Settings: ISO 100, EF-S 18-55 mm @ F13 (Studio Strobe), Large/Fine

	Sharpness (200% 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. You have to be careful with the saturation setting, my experience is that even a +1 setting can lead to individual color channels clipping with highly saturated subjects (such as a red rose or reflective jacket). You can always increase saturation in post-processing, you can never recover clipped data. The EOS 300D's default 'Parameter 1' has a saturation setting of +1.

Settings: ISO 100, EF-S 18-55 mm @ F13 (Studio Strobe), Medium/Fine

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

Color Tone adjustment

Color tone adjusts the hue of the image, a negative setting pushes reds towards blue, a positive setting pushes reds towards orange. The EOS 300D 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. The EOS 300D's default 'Parameter 1' has a color tone setting of 0 (Normal).

Settings: ISO 100, EF-S 18-55 mm @ F13 (Studio Strobe), Medium/Fine

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