DSC707/CP5000 Shoot out - Help please

Digiman81864 · Mar 10, 2002

I am currently testing out the 707 and the 5000, with a limited period of time to make a decision on which to keep. There is no doubt that the 707 images are crisper, with fantastic definition, but I cannot get to grips with the colour saturation.

The CP 5000 has far more natural colours, but the images are much softer and not so clearly defined. I have taken the same portrait photographs side by side, and if I could blend the benefits of both cameras together that would be perfection. I want a camera for portrait/people photography, but not in studio conditions.

Help please, how can I image the 707 shots to get a more realistic skin tone. I have photoshop and have tried changing the settings in Hue/Saturation, to -10 Master, -10 Red, still no good. I have used curves and used auto setting, and still on print out, and on the screen of the monitor the tones are pink and not natural. Am I doing soimething wrong here?

Could you brilliant photographers out there let me know what settings you use in photoshop to achieve correct skin tones. I would love to keep the 707, but I need to get this right first.

Thanks, Ray

Digiman81864 · Mar 11, 2002

Digiman said:
I am currently testing out the 707 and the 5000, with a limited
period of time to make a decision on which to keep. There is no
doubt that the 707 images are crisper, with fantastic definition,
but I cannot get to grips with the colour saturation.

I have had not response to my request for assistance here, please help. Thanks

Digiman81864 said:
The CP 5000 has far more natural colours, but the images are much
softer and not so clearly defined. I have taken the same portrait
photographs side by side, and if I could blend the benefits of both
cameras together that would be perfection. I want a camera for
portrait/people photography, but not in studio conditions.

Help please, how can I image the 707 shots to get a more realistic
skin tone. I have photoshop and have tried changing the settings
in Hue/Saturation, to -10 Master, -10 Red, still no good. I have
used curves and used auto setting, and still on print out, and on
the screen of the monitor the tones are pink and not natural. Am I
doing soimething wrong here?

Could you brilliant photographers out there let me know what
settings you use in photoshop to achieve correct skin tones. I
would love to keep the 707, but I need to get this right first.

Thanks, Ray

Ulysses · Mar 11, 2002

Likely, the reason you have not received help is because we can't see what you see. Try posting up a number of comparison images (a dozen or so) between the cameras. Then you'll be more likely to get input on editing, which images seem closer to preferability, etc.

-- Ulysses

james rapp · Mar 11, 2002

You need to use a color management system on ANY digital camera. No digital camera has a very sophisticated color management system. Monaco systems has the best assortment I have seen. There are other good ones out there. Think of the standard onboard color management system that comes with your camera as being the chevrolet and the after-market versions being the cadillacs. A better camera will not resolve your complaints about colors in most cases whereas a color management system will usually adress the problem squarely. No competent pro uses digital images without running them through a color management software system. Even after you calibrate your colors you'll get system drift and you'll get changes based on a different paper.

As we move past 5 megapixels with great lenses, etc, adding pixels has diminishing returns. The real gains are to be made in the color management software, whether onboard or after-market. Also great gains will result from increasing the bit size in the analog conversion to digital. Minolta Dimage 7 moved the bar up to 12 bits, Sony 707 moved the bar up to 14 bits and Olympus E20 moved the bar to 16 bits.

Having said this, none of the above strides helps without using the most recent version of PhotoShop, Version 6. Older versions of Photoshop simply cannot handle the extra bit information and truncate the data back to a more primitive 8 bit format.

A color management software system is not cheap. Including the meters, you will spend from $500 to $5,000. If you don't attend to this issue you will either have to live with your current results or become a digicam gypsy, always hoping the next camera will resolve your color problems.

Steve has adressed these issues and he is the real expert.

Digiman81864 · Mar 11, 2002

James, a really interesting reply, which has got me thinking. I am not a professional photographer and therefore have never considered colour managment systems, however I do love my passion for photography and want the best out of my camera. Please explain how a colour management system fits between the camera and the pc, and how this can manage the colour between the camera, the monitor and the output to the Epson 1270 printer? I am also running Photoshop 5.5, perhaps this is not helping.

I do keep reading about Sony using the sRGB colour space which is not helping the situation, how would colour management improve this?

Do you think a step up to Photoshop 6 would help resolve some of the issues without the outlay for a colour management system.

Sorry for all the questions, but you really do have me thinking. Cheers Ray.

james rapp said:
You need to use a color management system on ANY digital camera.
No digital camera has a very sophisticated color management system.
Monaco systems has the best assortment I have seen. There are
other good ones out there. Think of the standard onboard color
management system that comes with your camera as being the
chevrolet and the after-market versions being the cadillacs. A
better camera will not resolve your complaints about colors in most
cases whereas a color management system will usually adress the
problem squarely. No competent pro uses digital images without
running them through a color management software system. Even
after you calibrate your colors you'll get system drift and you'll
get changes based on a different paper.

As we move past 5 megapixels with great lenses, etc, adding pixels
has diminishing returns. The real gains are to be made in the
color management software, whether onboard or after-market.
Also great gains will result from increasing the bit size in the
analog conversion to digital. Minolta Dimage 7 moved the bar up
to 12 bits, Sony 707 moved the bar up to 14 bits and Olympus E20
moved the bar to 16 bits.

Having said this, none of the above strides helps without using the
most recent version of PhotoShop, Version 6. Older versions of
Photoshop simply cannot handle the extra bit information and
truncate the data back to a more primitive 8 bit format.

A color management software system is not cheap. Including the
meters, you will spend from $500 to $5,000. If you don't
attend to this issue you will either have to live with your current
results or become a digicam gypsy, always hoping the next camera
will resolve your color problems.

Steve has adressed these issues and he is the real expert.

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DSC707/CP5000 Shoot out - Help please

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