Watching some of the discussions over at the blithering pedantic nonsensical mess that is the DPReview forums is enough to make reasonable people’s heads explode regarding camera brands and their respective “color science” and how it affects photographers. Generally, how one brand handles its colors vs another is the last thing you should be thinking about. With few exceptions, camera brand color science doesn’t matter.
First off, “color science” doesn’t mean squat to the average photographer. Color science is a real science and it’s mostly relevant only for engineers that are developing systems to deal with colors (in a nutshell). When the average photographer goes on about “color science” they’re not really talking about color science. They’re probably talking about color theory. They are two different things all together.
Then you get people talking about how brand X’s “color science” is better than brand Y’s. Or how people prefer one brand’s handling of color over another. Looking at the DPReview forums you’ll see people go on and on and on ….. And on about it.
But it’s mostly bullshit.
For a pretty good rundown on camera color science and why camera brand color science doesn’t matter, this video is pretty good:
In fact the only time that it might matter is if you’re shooting JPEG only and you don’t post process your photos. Then you’re going to see different brands produce slightly different looking colors. But even then it’s not really a big deal. However, if you shoot raw and you post process your files it doesn’t matter at all.
Period. End. Of. Story.
The reason it doesn’t matter at all in this circumstance is because people generally post process their images to their personal tastes and what looks most pleasing to them. You can take different photos by different cameras (in raw) and simply setting a white balance will remove almost any perceptible differences. To further add to consistency you could create a profile for each camera with something like an X-Rite ColorChecker and it will remove any perceptible difference. I guarantee that if you have three different brands of cameras and profile them, then post process them to your tastes you will not see any perceptible difference in the colors.
Anyone who claims they can look at processed raw files from profiled cameras and see a difference are simply full of shit.
Period. End. Of. Story.
That’s why when you look at photos by famous photographers who have changed brands of cameras you’re not going to suddenly see that their photos look any different. It’s because they generally post process their images to their taste and what they like.
So, at the end of the day if you shoot raw and post process your images to your taste concerning yourself over a brand’s particular “color science” is the last thing you should worry about.