That's one thing I would have liked more info on in the review, is the capabilities of the Passport software versus the DNG Profile Editor, and maybe a comparison of profiles created by each.
I did a quick check of the profiles for the Nikon D3 using Imatest Colorcheck. I compared the Adobe Standard Profile, a profile made from the Adobe Standard using the DNG editor automated method, and the Passport derived profile. Illumination was from a Solux panel and I used the ACR defaults except for a black point of zero.
Adobe Std profile:
[attachment=17893:AdobeStd.png]
DNG Editor profile:
[attachment=17894:DNG_Profile.png]
Passport Profile:
[attachment=17895:Passport.png]
Composite DNG Profile and Passport Profile. The DNG profile is overlain with the Passport profile with reduced opacity.:
[attachment=17896:Composite.png]
All of the profiles demonstrate increased saturation (chroma), but this is not a serious fault, since saturation can easily be reduced with the ACR sliders or in Photoshop. With increased saturation, the a* and b* are increased proportionally so that the vector shown by Imatest points to the white point in the center of the graph. A color error is more serious, since it is much more difficult to adjust and the changes in a* and b* are not proportional and the vector does not point to the white point in the center of the graph.
For the all important skin tones (patch 2), the DNG profile gives the best results. Dark skin is patch 1, blue sky is patch 3, and foliage is patch 4. The differences are not great and are summarized below:
[attachment=17900:Chart.gif]