Canon Vs Nikon

[Kris]

Yesterday my friend brought his 20D over with 17-55mm lense and we had a play around with my D70. I noticied shot for shot his camera appeared to put out far more natural photos especially relating to skin tones and white balance then mine - I was very impressed with the 20D and how easy it was to obtain a good shot.

Has anyone found that the same shot on a Nikon requires more effort?

Your thoughts?

[mR_CaESaR]

being a 20d user, i'm going to be bias

canon rocks!! canon is the shizzle!! hahah just kidding

in all honesty, i haven't used a D70 so i can't really compare, if the 20d does require less effort, then i'm sure the D200 will change a lot of that.

I did think about buying the D70 before though, was much better then the 300D i was intially purchasing, but once i held the 20d, i was in love

[gstark]

I think thaty Canon's image processing is slightly oriented towards the PHD market, whereas Nikon requires more user intervention int the form of PP.

That said, what custom curves, sharpening, etc settings did you have in place? There are simply so many variables - with both cameras - that a valid comparison is often difficult to perform.

[Kris]

I use no curves and dont set anything inside the camera - should I?

Agree on the variables but I was really impressed by just picking up the 20D and shooting..

[MCWB]

I use no curves and dont set anything inside the camera - should I?

Yes! A good custom curve will reduce the amount of post-processing you need to do.

[DionM]

Depends what colour/sat/sharpness settings were in the 20D.

But its a pointless comparison just picking up and shooting.

I am surprised you got any decent shots with that rubbish Canon 18-55 on the front of the 20D though

[gstark]

I use no curves and dont set anything inside the camera - should I?

Agree on the variables but I was really impressed by just picking up the 20D and shooting..

The corfrect answer is "I don't know".

The correct answer is also "why don't you try some, and see how you like them?".

In all seriousness, that is the way to go - load a curve, and play with some in-camera settings, shoot for a few days, and see what comes out. Change the curve, repeat the process, and keep on doing that, trying a number of different settings and custom curves.

Examine the work on a calibrated monitor as you go - don't use the camera's LCD - it's too unreliable for critical analysis - and make notes about what you like, and what you don't.

Obviously work with what you like - if you like something - and keep going from there.

FWIW, I have most of my WB settings turned down a notch or two, and generally use a realia curve. When using the on-board flash, it too is turned down somewhat - up to 1.3 stops sometimes - in order to just add a smidgeon of light and reduce the contrast ratio in the subject matter.

[gstark]

I am surprised you got any decent shots with that rubbish Canon 18-55 on the front of the 20D though

It's natural softness aided the camera in getting that nice smoothness that Canon images so often have out of the camera.

[Kris]

Gary, I will try this. Can anyone give me some Curves (links to) that I could start playing with?

I also turn down the flash a bit - it's far too unnatural in most of the shots I've taken.

[gstark]

I think that Steve (Killa) has some on his site, but just do a search on DPR and you'll find enough to fill a camera bag, and then some.

Just be careful that you don't weigh down your HDD with all of that extra data.

[bloop]

Do custom curves affect RAW shots or only JPG?

[gstark]

All shots.

They apply to the curve that underlies the image.

Grab a copy of RawMajik and see what you can do with curves and raw images.

[MHD]

Really Gary?

I do not know about this, I thought a Curve dictates the way that the channels are mixed from the CCD changing the contrast profile of the resulting image (The simplest thing being setting the black and white points) I thought a raw image was just exactly what the sensor sees... There for unaffected by the use of curves...

[gstark]

Play with Curve Surgery and see what happens when you load different curves. Remember that Curve Surgery only works on raw images ...

These are the curves that sit under the image, not to be confused with the curves adjustments that you might employ in NCE or PS, which only apply at a later point in the process.

[MattC]

Kris,

Here is a link to some good curves for general shooting - I had the page open when I read this.
http://www.digitalkb.com/nikon/d70/tone ... ad_libary/
Here is the link to RML - yeah, that page open too.
http://www.rawmagick.com/index-1.html
RML or CSP are both good for changing curves in a given image and doing a subjective evaluation. Choosing a curve is much easier when you can see the effect of each lined up in the same images.
I use a slightly tweaked version of sReala2. BTW, CSP wont save edited curves for upload to camera by design. They still need to be edited in Nikon Camera Control.
Also, do not under estimate the value of the Nikon in-camera curves, particularly the low and medium low curves.

Cheers

[gstark]

Matt,

Also, do not under estimate the value of the Nikon in-camera curves, particularly the low and medium low curves.

Excellent point. They're always there too, whereas you're only limitied to just the one custom curve at a time within the D70.