Sony WB/colors?

[DGHawkes]

FWIW, my tuppence worth. As far as colour goes I'm with Alain Briot. I fiddle (LR, Photoshop and DXO) until I like something, natural or not (though I often go back and change my mind!) as I do this for me, not clients any longer. I came to digital via a Canon 450DSLR after many years of film, but mainly for pictures of my boys. Once I moved to digital for other things I went to Sony. An A7ii then A7Rii.

Swapped that for a large frame lens then added a Canon 5DSr. I found that slower to use and missed using legacy lenses and IBIS so bought another A7Rii. But I could only rarely get colours I liked however much I played in software, especially the greens. So moved to Fuji (found that way better), Olympus 4/3 (usually ok) and now back to a Canon 5DSr.

If I'd have persisted with that I would have saved a lot of money, time and angst. The Canon produces colours I like off the bat and any fiddling is just seasoning. Though, to be fair, haven't tried a later Sony than the Rii...

[Wheathin21]

If you're a successful professional, I'd invest in a xrite color checker and my your own profiles for given lighting conditions and lenses. Color in digital comes down to camera input profiles, not camera brands. This will give you a jumping off point, and may require some tweaking from there.

[Eric Brody]

I don't get it. Maybe my standards are low but it seems to me that with Lightroom or ACR that one can get ANY color you wish by manipulating the sliders and color balance, regardless of the brand of the digital camera. I made a custom Color Checker profile in a few minutes for my A7RIV that seems to work just fine in most situations. I've used Nikon digital, Fuji digital and Sony digital and all seemed to give me the colors I want with a few clicks or movement of the sliders. The only time I struggled with color was when I printed color in the chemical darkroom. Then I'd get skin tones that were too yellow, then too magenta, then too green, then too blue. I eventually gave up color in the darkroom, just too crazy. Digital is so effortless. We can do so much with today's tools.

[digitaldog]

I don't get it. Maybe my standards are low but it seems to me that with Lightroom or ACR that one can get ANY color you wish by manipulating the sliders and color balance, regardless of the brand of the digital camera.

Yes, and with all raw converters.
If you consider what raw data really looks like before rendering and that rendering is the role of manipulating the sliders and color balance to get what you want:

This excellent article explains it all (and more):
http://www.lumita.com/site_media/work/whitepapers/files/pscs3_rendering_image.pdf

[BernardLanguillier]

So are you saying that the color filter in front of the sensor plays no role at all? That’s very surprising since even Sony themselves admitted to better colors on the a7s III and a1 and friends shooting Sony with very elaborate looks had to tune them going from a9 to a1.

Are you also saying that the color profiles of all raw converters are of equal quality and behavior in terms of sturation/contrast when applying curve changes to images? This is again surprising for those having used C1 Pro prostandard profiles.

[digitaldog]

Who are you asking?
Color filters and profiles do play a role in the differing rendering of course. As do the sliders/controls in different converters.

[BernardLanguillier]

Who are you asking?
Color filters and profiles do play a role in the differing rendering of course. As do the sliders/controls in different converters.

You and Eric who seemed to agree that an a7rIV and LR is all anyone would ever need for best possible colors.

Apologies if I misunderstood.

Cheers,
Bernard

[digitaldog]

Best possible color? I'm not suggesting that, that's so subjective. Like saying Velvia is the best possible color rendering of any transparency film. Subjective.