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Canon EOS-1D Canon leaps into the professional SLR arena, with the fastest digital SLR on the planet! Select a topic Reference: Datasheet --------------------------------- 1. Overview 2. Specifications 3. Spec Comparison 4. Features: Speed 5. Features: Image Quality 6. Features: General 7. Features: Color 8. Features: Ruggedness 9. Operating Details 10. Summary --------------------------------- Print-Friendly Review Version Additional Resources and Other Links Reader Comments on EOS-1D Review --------------------------------- Digital Camera Comparometer (TM) --------------------------------- <-- Digital Cameras (Home) <-- Digital Camera Reviews Index <<Features: General :(Previous) | (Next): Features: Ruggedness>> Page 7:Features: Color Review First Posted: 09/24/2001

Features: Color

Five color modes
Color management is another area where Canon has devoted unusual attention in the design of the EOS-1D. Color space has always been somewhat of an open issue in the digicam world. For a long while, there was no agreed-upon standard. Then Microsoft and HP imposed the sRGB color space more or less by fiat. Things were standardized, but some would argue that the limitations of sRGB are so bad that we'd be better off without it. Now, manufacturers are beginning to step outside the constraints of sRGB, while at the same time acknowledging its importance for image portability.

Canon has taken the approach of offering multiple color space options (or "color matrices" in their parlance) with the 1D. No fewer than five options are available, four of which are based on sRGB, one of which is based on the Adobe RGB 1998 standard, which offers a much broader color gamut.

We've maintained for a long time now that there's no reason why a given digital camera can't offer multiple color-rendering options. While you can always manipulate the color after the fact on the computer, having multiple color options available in the computer is akin to film-based photographers switching from Kodachrome to Velvia to achieve a different "look" to their photos.

Canon’s five different Color Matrix options do just that. The default Color Matrix 1 is based on sRGB, and offers "natural" coloring, while Color Matrix 2 has its hue and saturation optimized for skin tones. Color Matrix 3 is likewise based on sRGB, but has its saturation boosted, similar to high-saturation color film. Color Matrix 4 is based on the Adobe RGB color space, providing much wider color gamut with lower saturation. (Matrix 4 would be the natural choice for people working in calibrated workflows.) Finally, Color Matrix 5 is again sRGB-based, but apparently with reduced saturation to permit greater post-exposure manipulation without losing data.

As digital continues to evolve for the professional photographer, we expect to see multiple color options become a commonplace feature on high-end equipment. We view the options offered by the EOS-1D to be an important step in that direction.

10 white balance modes (list, fourth page of color brochure)
To accompany its unusual color space flexibility, the EOS-1D also provides no fewer than 10 different white balance modes. The available modes include:

• Auto (see below for information on Canon's unusual "Hybrid Auto" white balance)
• Daylight - Balanced for sunlight, approximately 5,200K
• Shade - Balanced for open shade on sunny days, approximately 7,000K
• Overcast - Balanced for cloudy skies or dusk, approximately 6,000K
• Tungsten - Set up for professional tungsten studio lighting, approximately 3,200K
• Fluorescent - "Typical" fluorescent (is there such a thing?), about 4,000K
• Flash - Set to match EOS speedlights, approximately 5,600K
• Custom - The usual custom or "manual" white balance option, which bases the white balance adjustment on a shot of a white or gray reference card. The EOS-1D can accommodate a range of roughly 2,000 - 10,000K in this mode. (Wow! - That's a very wide white balance range.)
• Manual Color Temperature Setting - This is an unusual mode we suspect will be very popular with photographers. You can specify the color temperature for neutral white balance directly in 100-degree increments from 2,800 to 10,000K. Very nice, a feature we're surprised isn't widespread. (Why not extend it all the way down to the 2,000K that the Custom option can handle, though?)
• Personal White Balance Settings (As many as three) - You can use Canon's software to create up to three custom white balance settings on the computer, and then upload them to the camera. These settings will then appear as options in the 1D's menu system. (This strikes us as potentially very useful for news organizations or other situations where you'd have multiple shooters working an event, and wanted to insure color consistency between them.)

Hybrid Auto White Balance
Here's a feature we've been expecting to turn up in a digicam for a while now–white balance determination that's independent of subject color! Normally, digicams compute white balance by analyzing the image captured by the sensor. This is fine if the subject has no predominant coloration of its own, but fails miserably for subjects with dominant color casts. (For instance, a model wearing a red dress against a maroon background would trick the camera into thinking the scene lighting was very reddish. The result would be an inappropriate cyan correction being applied to the image, to counterbalance the red.)

In the EOS-1D, Canon has integrated an incident-illumination sensor on the front of the camera into the white balance system. This gives the camera additional information about the lighting, unaffected by subject coloration. We'll be interested to see how this innovation works out in practice, but we applaud the basic concept.

White Balance bracketing
White balance bracketing is another useful feature that Canon included in the EOS-1D. You can set the camera to shoot three images at the same exposure level, varying the white balance setting between shots by up to +/- three steps, each step being equivalent to 5 Mireds (Micro-reciprocal degrees). Mireds are a bit of an arcane measurement, but represent the units most directly applicable to the mathematics of color adjustment, the main benefit in their favor being that they're additive. - A filter that shifts 3200K light by 100K will produce a much different shift in 7000K light, hence the use of mireds to describe the shift, rather than degrees Kelvin. (For example, 5 mireds at 3200K is a shift of only 52K, while 5 mireds at 7000K is a shift of about 257K.) This is all a little convoluted for the uninitiated, but pro photographers are used to working with mireds in calculating filter factors, and professional color meters generally offer a mired scale for calculating filter corrections.)

Customize image processing from computer.
This isn't a new feature, as it was available with the D30 as well, but it probably deserves mention anyway. Using the Canon software, you can set up fairly complex custom image adjustments on your computer, and then download those settings to the EOS-1D where they can be used as a standard preset. Very handy, if you find yourself wanting to affect the camera's default behavior in some way.