The Great Antlered One wrote:
> I find this an uneven comparison. The E-1 shot is better focused and
> properly exposed. The XE-1 is soft, which does affect subtle color
> variations, and seriously overexposed.
True. The shots are different. But the pictures do illustrate the
trending difference between the cameras. What I think Jim is saying is
"I see the E-1 typically do ______ when shooting ______, as compared
to ______ when shooting the same thing. These photos are examples of
it, but are not scientific comparisons."
On any given picture, you can look and see either flaws or
contributors as to why the pictures are different, and look at those
in isolation. Yet, it's these flaws and contributors that are what
define the character of the various imaging systems.
As I zip through my Lightroom libraries looking for various pictures,
I can usually identify the camera used without looking at the EXIF
data. The E-1 raw files almost always have the +20 saturation look to
them and a harmony between the greens and the reds. In The L1 is
similar, but is better in that it balances the blues better without
stair-stepping. The E-3's raw files can be cranked up to be similar to
the L1, but the shadow colors go wonky. The Minolta A1 files all have
a greenish cast. The 6D raw files are dull and lifeless in native
color, but can be bent with heroics better than the others. But the
problem I'm having with the 6D files seems to be pretty universal.
While you can crank the various saturations and contrasts up, the
Canon files never seem to reach that peak harmony between the reds and
greens that the E-1 does. This has been relatively true with all Kodak
sensor cameras in that they have something unique going on that
creates a native color/saturation balance between the three primary
channels.
> And the clipping of the Red channel is the real problem.
Agreed. A technical flaw, but one that probably is what contributes to
my above comments.
> I tried this a bit in PS. I can restore a lot of the tonal detail in the
> bright areas. But all the slightly orangish/light rust areas in the E-1
> image, having lost much of the red component, have moved more to yellow.
An example where the channels did get blown out. With the E-1, you
CANNOT do ETTR, but you have to expose for the midtones. It's
important, especially with the reds, that you give the top end a wide
berth. If you are within a half stop of clipping in the raw files, the
way the algorithm works, you'll end up clipping in the converted file.
> AG has gone on and on for years about the magic E-1 colors. But the only
> true, comparable comparison, that looked significantly different to me, that
> I can recall, is of images of a deep purple African Violet. The E-1
> definitely beat out whatever CMOS sensor it was compared to.
The Nikon wasn't even on the same planet.
Skintones are the big winner when the green/red channels are balanced
correctly. This is one reason why the E-1 rocks skintones so much.
AG
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