Fuji S2 - Nikon D2X: a color comparison

At the risk of being shot to the moon I've put up a hidden website with shots taken today with both cameras on tripod and with the same lens. It was tricky to get the same exposures. I had to make one or two a bit darker and with the second from the bottom the sun disappeared behind the clouds for the Nikon image. Save them somewhere and open them up in Photoshop. I hope I didn't screw up the color profile. Should have been sRGB. If it's not anymore, tell me and I try again tomorrow or so. I'm a bit short on time because I'm soon leaving for Iceland. That's also the reason for the "hidden" website:

http://www.utopia-photography.ch/cameras/colors.html

Have a look. I'm interested in comments from color experts. To me, the Nikon images look a bit more like it really was but I sort of dislike the Nikon green. A matter of taste.

Best wishes and please be kind,

Moonwalker

Moonwalker,

Thanks for posting these....

On this uncalibrated monitor at work, it's a no-brainer. The Nikon colors are much nicer. Your S2 ( like mine before I had it adjusted) seems to have a cyan / greenish hue that degrades the color balance.

In this comparison I would definitely choose the Nikon.

-evan

--
Fuji S2 etc.

http://www.pbase.com/eheffa

Thanks for doing this.

I think if your going to talk about another camera here (fuji fourm) then I say lets see some side by sides and or comments on what you like/don't like compared to your fuji S2/S3 so we have something to base your findings on. Using other cameras is a good thing.. how else will you learn?

Its amazing how well the S2 held up being 3 years old and 1/3 the cost but these are just jpegs so no real pixel peeping :-\ not that that matters your asking about color.. IMHO the Nikon is more real (spot on)> Your sitting there looking at the full size files no? correct me if I'm wrong but the D2x clearly out shines the aging S2 files by a huge margin in both color and clarity does it not?

I'd take the D2x to iceland and just use a different lens.

have fun

Fotomat

....the blasted green channel, giving all the pics a green cast.

This is not a "characteristic" of the S2, it is a DEFECT of the S2 (otherwise a very capable performer in its own right).

looks to me a bit like the difference between the S2 and D70. The Fuji is a little too green, usually I need to boost the magenta a little. The Nikon on the other hand is little heavy on the magenta and usually needs a little more green and yellow

cheers

Vin

vin 13 said:

looks to me a bit like the difference between the S2 and D70. The
Fuji is a little too green, usually I need to boost the magenta a
little. The Nikon on the other hand is little heavy on the magenta
and usually needs a little more green and yellow

cheers

Vin

Click to expand...

I agree. I'd boost the magenta a bit and then go to hue/sat and do -15 to -20 yellow. The greens will look much more natural.

Tim

I found the F2 images more pleasing on my monitor, the cast on nikon was red rather than magenta.
Carl

Moonwalker said:

At the risk of being shot to the moon I've put up a hidden website
with shots taken today with both cameras on tripod and with the
same lens. It was tricky to get the same exposures. I had to make
one or two a bit darker and with the second from the bottom the sun
disappeared behind the clouds for the Nikon image. Save them
somewhere and open them up in Photoshop. I hope I didn't screw up
the color profile. Should have been sRGB. If it's not anymore, tell
me and I try again tomorrow or so. I'm a bit short on time because
I'm soon leaving for Iceland. That's also the reason for the
"hidden" website:

Click to expand...

That's exactly what I have usually seen. the S2 is classically more Cyan, which is easily seen in the sky shots. That tends to mute the greens which I have always found a bit maddening. In the last few months I have been doing a lot of color balancing in PS to make it look right which requires a keen eye and well calibrated monitor.

The D2x's colors do seem more balanced; perhaps cooler toned. The wierd part about that is with the dam* encrypted WB, PS CS2 opens the NEF (RAW) file with a crazy-low color temperature, which is way too cool toned and may be what we are seeing. The difficult part about all this is that the "As-Shot" WB can't be read by PS, so one is left to use other software for conversion or eyeball the WB color temp. Nikon should be publically tarred and feathered for this proprietary WB encrytion BS.

--
Zane
http://www.pbase.com/devonshire

Nikon D2x & Fuji S2

carl english said:

I found the F2 images more pleasing on my monitor, the cast on
nikon was red rather than magenta.

Click to expand...

Carl, have you color calibrated your monitor?

All this color management aggravations across the web and with so many different computer setups is way too crazy.

--
Zane
http://www.pbase.com/devonshire

Nikon D2x & Fuji S2

I happily own both the S3 and the D2X, so I hope I can be objective...

I was surprised by numbers 2, 6, and 7. In a blind test, I would have (incorrectly) guessed these to be Fuji, because of the delightful greens and overall luminance -- but these were the Nikon -- huh. Could be more of a white balance interpretation by each camera, than inherent differences in color interpretation -- just a thought. #2 especially appears to be taken late in the day (or early AM), and perhaps the Nikon guessed a too-low color temperature (or the Fuji guessed too high). (Hey, maybe MOST of our color problems -- from any camera -- are WB problems -- hmmm.....) This WB issue is one reason I shoot ALL of my landscape photos RAW (yes, even the S3). If you want the best color for nature photos, this is the only way, IMO. Or shoot "Daylight" and use predictable filtering/correcting measures later in PP.

Now, in #1 and 4, I definitely see what sometimes shows as the "sickly, yellowish" greenery I see in some Nikon shots -- just a touch, mind you, and this can be corrected by nudging the green and/or yellow channels on the "plus" side in the Hue control -- but you don't want to do that to the Nikon skies! I admit that sometimes nature's greens aren't that healthy-looking (and their hue changes with the seasons), so I sometimes look for a result which is NOT really accurate -- I even doctor some of my nature shots to achieve this look (hey, nobody's complained yet).

Skies -- skies -- they are usually what I'm least happy about in my digital captures. The Fuji tends to be too green, the Nikon too red. Scanned 4x5 tranny film rules the skies.... oh well... these can be fixed....

All in all, both sets of images look competent and workable. I appreciate you doing this, but we may be left "making much ado about nothing." It appears that both systems are capable of capturing good color (gee, maybe even the "dark side" cameras -- NOOO!!! -- can do this ;-!

I am anxious to do some landscape photography myself with the D2X. I have a collection from the S3 that I'm very pleased with, and a touch more resolution for the big prints sure won't hurt. In a couple of weeks I'll be visiting some family in VA, and will definitely take time to do this.

Thanks again for sharing these.

Robert

Zane

The WB issue has been well discussed. I for one want to use ACR. I don't want to pay extra for Capture. The 4.1 trial version from the D70 wouldn't run on my Mac and when I got it working on my PC I just didn't like the interface. I've been mindful recently of how important the as shot WB is to me. I have found I use it a lot with just a bit of tweeking.

So I have trouble shelling out 5300 euro on the D2X because of this too. However there's no fast high-resolution alternative in the the f-mount camp. You were right, a switch to the big Canon is just too expensive. I don't think it's worth switching to a 20D, but I expect the next offering from Canon (30D? 1D3?) may have the right performance at the right price. I also expect it long before the D200.

However, I still look forward to more of your D2X feedback, I may yet be convinced!

cheers

Vin

I preffered the Nikon colors over the S2 colors!

I would love to see this test with the S3 as I feel the color of the S3 is vastly different than the S2.

Interestingly, these pictures greatly represent what I saw with my own S2's, a sickly green color cast.

This was a good post and comparison.

--
Thanks!
Mark
http://www.radphotos.net
http://www.eyesalive.com

Fuji S2 does have a color bias towards green, but I wouldn't call it sickly green. In nature shots where green dominates, the color is just brilliant (I can see that in the comparison shots). But in landscape shots with a lot of blue sky or in warm sunset/sunrise shots, I tend to bring down the green bias in post-processing for a warmer look.

--
http://www.pbase.com/lhlim

the cyan bias of the S2 is evident in the first photo on my calibrated monitor

I think the S2 handled the reds of the second pair better ...the D2X has some purple blue in the fringe of the flowers

I really like the skies from the D2X that you showed, but preferred the greens from the S2 ...I was also surprised by the little difference the increased resolution of the D2X made in these resized shots ...I know this would show better in enlarged versions
--
pbase & dpreview supporter
Fuji SLRT forum member since 5/2001
http://www.pbase.com/artichoke

...now let's see a skintone comparison!

yes Moonwalker, a useful post indeed. I have not shot the D2x in sRGB mode using Color Mode III (Landscape optimization), but anybody who has shot the S2 in its default sRGB JPEG mode knows it's got a few issues/optimization decisions that the color folks at FujiFilm feel people "like".

I think the second shot's reddish-hued flower is a typical case where the D2x's color rendition will almost always look the best in Nikon Capture. THe encrypted WB problem of the D2x raw files shows itself mostly in ACR WB guesstimation on subjects which happen to be fairly close-up florals with reds,pinks,corals,and sometimes yellows; when you open a folder using ACR 3.2 the Adobe "guess" at the WB on red,pink,coral flowers can be wildly off. Even downright bad. Nikon Capture can accurately read the WB,and will usually turn in a better,more-pleasing rendition. White Balance issues/practices/software interpretations vary the color a LOT. Especially on photos which have a lot of one hue, the Adobe WB interpretation can be wildly off the mark. Sometimes.

Plus, there's the web,browsers,individual monitors,the whole lot. One thing about using Photoshop CS-2 and the new ACR 3.2 module is the way 3.2 opens folders and does AUTO-adjustments on the RAW files....this is a huge difference in perusing RAW files under the new ACR version needed for D2x NEF handling.

The S2 has pretty nice color on some of these shots...White Balance is critical on the final results one gets. I think AUTO WB mode. The D2x's AUTO WB system is not as good as I wish it were,particularly in indoor, mixed lighting situations with incandescent and flash mixed together; I think under mixed incandescent + flash, the S2's AUTO WB setting is generally a little bit better,giving a very nice compromise between incandescent and flash.

--
Happy Shooting!
Derrel

yep.

4 about 4 years now I have been copying artwork and I have been using the D2X recently as my main camera. If you shoot it in TIFF mode you will find that you get a perfect rendering of the color that was there. You don't have to worry about the WB and the encryption at all. Now, Tiff is a royal pain in the axx because it takes more than 30 seconds to see your file but the color rendering is perfect. My monitor is callibrated, my printer is callibrated and the little old ladies I copy artwork for insist that the color rendering should be exactly what they painted. I have always had to struggle over one color or another but with the D2x the colors are dead on with absolutely no adjustment other than the necessary exposure .

I did not say that the colors are necessarily good or that I like them for photogra[phs, what I did say is that the colors that come our of the camera are an exact match for what was there when you photographed it.

Sorry about delay in replying. Yes my monitor is calibrated, and I agree there is much confusion over this. I also have my calibration set for my lab who actually supplied equipment to is best customers (those who generate the most $ £) so our color rendition matched his. I answered the posters question truthfully as I saw images on MY monitor, have popped into my neighbours, who uses Dx and the Nikon shots look better on his monitor. I think the reason for this is that we tend to "tweak" our system to whatever camera we are using.
Regards
Carl

you have a nice comparation test shots but I think is not just for fuji ....

I mean I would like to have seen the same test with an S3.

S2 sensor is amazing but old compared with the stuning S3 ....

Thx for sharing
--
S2, S3, 60micro 2.8D , 17-55 DX, 24-120 VR ,
70-300ED ,sb800, Metz 45 cl4, Lexar 4gb , 2gb , 2gb , 1gb

Do nice pictures and tell us how you have done
enjoy making and sharing it