how important is color accuracy?

I'm looking for a new compact and reading dozens of reviews (and also good comments in these threads). I've realized that i rarely see any comments about color accuracy. DCI (digitalcamerainfo) doesn't get around to current compacts very quickly, sadly, because this is a rare site which actually tests color accuracy - and does so at cameras selected exposure, best exposure, and in low light situations.

Most reviewers, even the better ones, say inane things like "the color is flat" or "the color is rather punchy, its a matter of taste". Heck, this is one thing we can test objectively, and it is not easy to see from test shots of subjects in various lighting.

From the tests at DCI it would appear that panasonic TZ3 is brilliant in color accuracy, Canons are very good, and some of the most famous Fuji cams ... not so much. The f50fd is slightly below average, the f40 is well below and gets worse in low light.

I recently bought an f40fd for the spouse, and i'm delighted with it. I like the usability changing modes and settings, build quality, the screen, and super quality in higher ISO's. For interior shots it is excellent, far better than most for snaps at parties IMHO.

I'm shopping for a travel camera, a very different need. Now i'm wondering - when it comes to picture "quality", would I rather have more accurate color (and good white balance) or better low light performance?

thx,
brikah

Overall color accuracy is important because you want your violet flowers to look violet and not blueish

I like the Panasonic colours too, and the many ways you can tweak the white balance on their cameras. On the other hand I don't care for the Canon colours; I find the greens in particular just look wrong to me somehow, ( pretty yes, but wrong ). With the Fuji, getting the white balance right is everything. If the white balance on my f20 is correct the colours will look absolutely accurate to me. I frequently get requests for gardening advice, ( long story ). Anyway, being able to send someone a picture and say this is exactly what the plant in question looks like is extremely useful.
Marian

Marian, this is a very useful comment. I don't know what those lab tests do to set color balance before running tests. Do you routinely set custom WB?

thx, brikah

myar said:

I like the Panasonic colours too, and the many ways you can tweak the
white balance on their cameras. On the other hand I don't care for
the Canon colours; I find the greens in particular just look wrong
to me somehow, ( pretty yes, but wrong ). With the Fuji, getting the
white balance right is everything. If the white balance on my f20 is
correct the colours will look absolutely accurate to me. I
frequently get requests for gardening advice, ( long story ).
Anyway, being able to send someone a picture and say this is exactly
what the plant in question looks like is extremely useful.
Marian

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you are trying to convey information using color like bird or plant identification or are an artist who wants the reproduced color match the original colors of the art.

Otherwise, it's what pleasing, etc. Who knows if Van Gogh's sunflowers really matched the real ones. But they are pleasing; that's what matters.

--mamallama

... It is extremely important.

In my experience, if you have a well composed image that has an 'off' colour it will be less acceptable to 'Joe Average' than one which exhibits what we understand as natural colour.

Some of my images are 'post processed' such as they exhibit colour as I perceived it when I pushed the shutter but, my images which sell well are those which exhibit a natural tone to them which most folk can equate/relate to..
--
Rgds, Dave.
Have fun - take lotsa pix.
http://www.redbubble.com/people/pixplanet

brikah said:

Marian, this is a very useful comment. I don't know what those lab
tests do to set color balance before running tests. Do you routinely
set custom WB?

thx, brikah

Click to expand...

Yes, especially when shooting outdoors. Indoors I try the Auto WB first, sometimes it's okay, then set a custom WB if I'm not satisfied. I don't know what the labs do, probably just use Auto because they figure that's all Joe Average is ever going to use, for any brand. Which I suppose is fair enough in a way. But it does occasionally lead to a good camera, like the f20, being underrated because its full Auto mode isn't that good.

Case in point from last winter: (Sorry I don't have anything more recent illustrating this on my host right now )
Auto white balance



Second - custom white balance ( using the snow itself )



You can see how the custom white balance not only corrects the white but improves all the other colours as well. The second picture is exactly what it looked like.
Marian

it is important, of course, you want the right hues, right amount of saturation.

But also ask yourself, how are you going to judge you are getting it right? If it's that important to you, I suggest you also research monitors, calibration devices etc. You need to look at the whole chain, not just the camera.

--
gustavo

http://www.pbase.com/gustabod

brikah said:

I'm shopping for a travel camera, a very different need. Now i'm
wondering - when it comes to picture "quality", would I rather have
more accurate color (and good white balance) or better low light
performance?

Click to expand...

Accurate colors is VERY important for outdoor shots. What is also very important is the way the contrast is rendered. In both departments my F31 does a very poor job compared to all of my my 3 Canons. Better look elsewhere if you want to capture the brightness of vibrant outdoor scenes, is my advice.

Bas

This is a great issue to bring up, and as an uninformed camera user, I think it's much bigger than those spot diagrams of 24 or so colors. Color accuracy is also about the transitioning between tonal ranges, and I don't think that any camera review has a useful way to describe this.

In fact, as much as IQ is evaluated in reviews, I think it's all irrelevant because it's the image processing in software that has a greater effect on the image than the lens or sensor. Reviews never seem to acknowledge this outright.

For me, the only way to evaluate a camera's colors is to look at hundreds of images produced by that camera. It's unfortunate too because you can spend hours evaluating the camera you want, but really not "know" if you connect with it until you spend hundreds of hours using it on your own terms.

I can pontificate about this stuff at length, but I'll sum up my feelings about my two fujis:

The fuji colors are overall pretty neutral. Outdoors, red and greens are a little bit over pronounced, but I generally have to stare at the photo for a few moments to realize this. Skin tones are awesome, no one in my shots looks extra "healthy," which I like.

Bas,

Have you tried doing custom white balance with your fuji, compared to the canons? Surely takes time and effort, not for a quck shot grab, but i wonder if you are seeing better auto WB in the canons. Could be that specific a diff, vs the sensor or processing or whatever else.

Bas Hamstra said:

Accurate colors is VERY important for outdoor shots. What is also
very important is the way the contrast is rendered. In both
departments my F31 does a very poor job compared to all of my my 3
Canons. Better look elsewhere if you want to capture the brightness
of vibrant outdoor scenes, is my advice.

Bas

Click to expand...

Hi Brikah,

I tell you, Canon auto WB is something else in daylight situations. Just set it to auto and forget about it. Yes, I've tried custom WB for my F31. But it's not satisfactory overall. Right now I shoot all outdoor shots with sunny/fine and warm it up in PP. Not that you ever willl consistently get Canon WB level IMO, whatever you do. For instance after warming up it still shows too much blue in the shadows and often grass just doesn't look grass-green but blueish. Now and then Fuji fine or custom WB comes close, yes, but not consistently, which makes it mostly a suprise how it will come out. Maybe if you set custom WB with a real grey card on a day to day basis, or even for every shoot, you won't have a problem.

Bas

brikah said:

Bas Hamstra said:

Accurate colors is VERY important for outdoor shots. What is also
very important is the way the contrast is rendered. In both
departments my F31 does a very poor job compared to all of my my 3
Canons. Better look elsewhere if you want to capture the brightness
of vibrant outdoor scenes, is my advice.

Bas

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

I think it is important that a camera is colour accurate, but colour accuracy is not always important, depends on the kind of work you are doing. Art Photography for example, sometimes can depend on the colours not being accurate at all. Just look at cross-processing (including digital cross). Landscape photographers' favourite Velvia film is oversaturated for example. So it is dependant on the kind of work you do.
--
Regards,

Provia_fan

http://www.the-viewfinder.blogspot.com

Extreme Accuracy is not needed nor desired [unless copying art, shooting fabrics and similar situations].

What is needed is a pleasing color relations that are close [as in hand grenades].

At the second Fuji is among the best of the best. With Skin color usually their strong suit.

Jim in AZ said:

Overall color accuracy is important because you want your violet
flowers to look violet and not blueish

Click to expand...

--
Ray
RJNedimyer