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Lens color reproduction
#1
In some forums, people said this lens has better color than others. Is it true? I thought color reproduction is the characteristic of white balance (or maybe sensor) but not the lens.

#2
Glass will absorb some colours of light more than others. The more elements there are, the stronger this effect can be. Some of my earlier budget Tamron and Sigma lenses in particular looked particularly yelow. The lens coatings can also have an effect on this, although now they will try to use it to balance the colour at the possible cost of a little light loss.
<a class="bbc_url" href="http://snowporing.deviantart.com/">dA</a> Canon 7D2, 7D, 5D2, 600D, 450D, 300D IR modified, 1D, EF-S 10-18, 15-85, EF 35/2, 85/1.8, 135/2, 70-300L, 100-400L, MP-E65, Zeiss 2/50, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300/2.8, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Olympus E-P1, Panasonic 20/1.7, Sony HX9V, Fuji X100.
#3
Quote:Glass will absorb some colours of light more than others. The more elements there are, the stronger this effect can be. Some of my earlier budget Tamron and Sigma lenses in particular looked particularly yelow. The lens coatings can also have an effect on this, although now they will try to use it to balance the colour at the possible cost of a little light loss.
Can color balance be adjusted using level in Photoshop? If so, it is correctable. Or people compare lens using out of camera jpeg?
#4
The well known WB and tint settings can be used for this purpose... And I'm sure there exist various other ways in post processing also Smile ...

 

And another point: Not only the jpeg users but also the raw shooters, which do not use auto WB would recognize the different color reproduction of different lenses.

 

Serkan

#5
As Puxavida explained, there are differences in the light lenses let through. Some lenses are therefore warm, some lenses are cold. Some more neutral. 

 

I shot the same scene with 4 35mm lenses (on APS-C, so they look "standard"). 

Top left, Canon EF 35mm f2. On the cold side of neutral.

Top right, Canon EF 28-80mm f3.5-5.6 II. On the warm side of neutral.

Bottom left, Nikkor-S Auto 35mm f2.8. More cold colour cast.

Bottom right, Sigma 18-50mm f2.8 EX DC. More warm colour cast.

[ATTACHMENT NOT FOUND]

"Better colour" can also be due to better contrast.

#6
Quote:As Puxavida explained, there are differences in the light lenses let through. Some lenses are therefore warm, some lenses are cold. Some more neutral. 

 

I shot the same scene with 4 35mm lenses (on APS-C, so they look "standard"). 

Top left, Canon EF 35mm f2. On the cold side of neutral.

Top right, Canon EF 28-80mm f3.5-5.6 II. On the warm side of neutral.

Bottom left, Nikkor-S Auto 35mm f2.8. More cold colour cast.

Bottom right, Sigma 18-50mm f2.8 EX DC. More warm colour cast.

[Image: attachicon.gif]lenscolourcastcast.jpg

"Better colour" can also be due to better contrast.
 

Nice, I presume white balance was fixed for this? Shows the "yellow" cast of Sigma.

If you run this with AWB (unless you did already), how similar would they turn out?
#7
Quote:The well known WB and tint settings can be used for this purpose... And I'm sure there exist various other ways in post processing also Smile ...

 

And another point: Not only the jpeg users but also the raw shooters, which do not use auto WB would recognize the different color reproduction of different lenses.

 

Serkan
With WB and tint settings, can we adjust all lenses to the same color? If it is true, people cannot claim a lens has better color than others as long as it can be adjusted in pp.

#8
Quote:Nice, I presume white balance was fixed for this? Shows the "yellow" cast of Sigma.

If you run this with AWB (unless you did already), how similar would they turn out?
Yes, white balance is always fixed with me. I do not know how similar they would be with AWB, but I presume that AWB will iron out lens colourations, and custom WB will get it right with any lens.
#9
Quote:With WB and tint settings, can we adjust all lenses to the same color? If it is true, people cannot claim a lens has better color than others as long as it can be adjusted in pp.
Why not? If they had good colour you didn't need to adjust anything, right?

When you have to use custom white balance just to have your particular lens behave like other lenses, you know it has a different colour. And as I noted before, often when people say a lens has better colour, what actually is going on is that the lens is more contrasty.
#10
Quote:Why not? If they had good colour you didn't need to adjust anything, right?

When you have to use custom white balance just to have your particular lens behave like other lenses, you know it has a different colour. And as I noted before, often when people say a lens has better colour, what actually is going on is that the lens is more contrasty.
Do you mean microcontrast (sharpness perception) or general contrast? 
  


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