D300 lacking purple - DPChallenge Forums

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM

05/16/2008 01:34:16 AM · #1

I've just noticed something and it has be very concerned with my D300. When shooting normal scenes, they look good, whites are white, reds, yellows, nice colors. I'm shooting JPEG fine in standard color mode, auto white-balance in these cases.

For mothers day I tried taking a picture of my mothers cake, it had a rim of purple frosting, however no matter what I did, the frosting turned blue. The white part of the cake stayed white, the yellow flowers yellow, etc. However anything purple turned blue, bright blue.

Tonight while screwing around with it I took a snapshot of my computer wallpaper. It is a CRT monitor. The wallpaper is pure purple, however it came out of the camera a deep sky blue without the slightest hint of purple. So I made a color scale in photoshop, very crude, however I noticed all the colors were spot on, except for the magenta/purplish color which turned a dull almost gray color.

I went through my image settings, tried natural, standard, vivid modes, tried different white balances however those just changed the color of white, not the purple. I tried turning the saturation all the way up and down. I tried fine tuning the white balance all the way into the purple and the purple improves about 2% however the white turns purple then.

Shooting in sRGB.

What am I doing wrong, or is this a defect with the D300 color?

Thanks

Mick

Canon EOS-5D

05/16/2008 01:36:49 AM · #2

That's strange. Have you tried viewing the photos on a different monitor?

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro

05/16/2008 01:41:32 AM · #3

Nods, the result is bright blue on three different monitors.

CarpeLumen

Canon EOS-40D

05/16/2008 01:51:41 AM · #4

This is supposedly a defect in CCD and CMOS digital cameras, TRUE purple is the hardest color to replicate according to an article I read in pro digi photographer. Canon's color styles helped a lot when I went from the 350D to the 30D though. If you tune in the saturation and contrast in RAW, it should be fine though

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8G IF-ED

05/16/2008 01:56:37 AM · #5

Here is an example of what is going wrong.

Anti-Martyr

Fujifilm FinePix S5 Pro

05/16/2008 02:06:31 AM · #6

Good thing the stuff I shoot isn't generally purple, lol.

Sigma 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 Aspherical HF for Pentax

05/16/2008 02:14:07 AM · #7

Actually I just noticed, look at the chrome in the D300 image, and the seal on the door, they are too blue. Maybe it isn't that purple is weak but rather that the blue component is overpowering the red.

Pug-H

Pentax K10D

05/16/2008 02:43:13 AM · #8

I remember

bear_music saying something about digital cameras and the colour purple. (A long time ago, that was - it stuck in the memory. ;-)) I think things have improved since then... ;-)

CarpeLumen

Canon EOS-40D

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro

05/16/2008 01:01:02 PM · #9

I looked into it, purple is the weakest color, it carries the least amount of energy. the sensor is a detector of energy from light and so I am guessing that is why purple rarely gets shown on sensors.

hihosilver

Nikon D200

Nikon AF-S Zoom-Nikkor 28-70mm f/2.8D IF-ED

05/16/2008 01:18:11 PM · #10

YIKES! I love purple...I'm very disheartened to read this as eventually I want my little camera to grow up into either the D300 or the ultimate D3 (wishful thinking here).

Well, maybe by the time I win the lottery, these issues will be fixed...:-/

k9logic

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 85mm f/1.4G

05/16/2008 01:23:50 PM · #11

Darn. I guess that means THE COLOR PURPLE won't be my movie title entry. Back to the drawing board.

Anti-Martyr

Fujifilm FinePix S5 Pro

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8G IF-ED

05/16/2008 06:03:58 PM · #12

Originally posted by CarpeLumen:

Which is funny, because purple actually carries the MOST energy... It's closer on the electromagnetic spectrum to high energy waves like ultraviolets. Seems more like RED should be the hardest color to reproduce with sensors, since it's the lowest energy :/

Mick

Canon EOS-5D

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM

05/16/2008 07:22:06 PM · #13

Originally posted by togtog:

Nods, the result is bright blue on three different monitors.

What format are the files? Also, what software are you using to view them?

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM

05/16/2008 09:49:19 PM · #14

Hey Mick,

See above, but to save you time, the format is JPEG fine, standard color mode (not vivid, neutral, or monochrome lol).

I will take a shot in uncompressed 14-bit raw, and again in tiff, just to be sure it isn't the JPEG. :) One moment please...

Almost the same result from the camera under RAW and TIFF, however I will note that I was able to correct the image as RAW by boosting purple 30 points, blue and magenta +10 points, which is quite a lot, but at least yielded a purple background.

Originally posted by Mick:

Originally posted by togtog:
Nods, the result is bright blue on three different monitors.

What format are the files? Also, what software are you using to view them?

Mick

Canon EOS-5D

05/17/2008 02:00:03 AM · #15

Originally posted by togtog:

If there were a firmware update available, I would give that a try. Failing that, I would send the camera in for a check up.

aerogurl

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G DX VR

05/17/2008 03:26:22 AM · #16

I did just read that D300 had a firmware upgrade available.. it was supposed to help with purple fringing... but you don't have purple at all, which worries me since I plan to get the D300 soon. (firmware link)

Tamron SP AF 90mm f/2.8 Di for Nikon

05/17/2008 03:51:04 AM · #17

I just checked, my Canon PowerShot G2 has the identical same issue. So it is not a D300 issue. This is very interesting.

Message edited by author 2008-05-17 03:51:32.

Maverick

Nikon D200

05/17/2008 06:16:09 AM · #18

Neither my D70 or my D200 do purple particularly well - how does your D40 do? I don't shoot a lot of purple unless I'm shooting flowers so it doesn't bother me too much.

Originally posted by hihosilver:

(edit: grammar)

Message edited by author 2008-05-18 12:09:11.

hihosilver

Nikon D200

Nikon AF-S Zoom-Nikkor 28-70mm f/2.8D IF-ED

05/17/2008 08:43:39 PM · #19

Originally posted by Maverick:

Neither my D70 nor my D200 does purple particularly well - how does your D40 do? I don't shoot a lot of purple unless I'm shooting flowers so it doesn't bother me too much.

I've never had an problems with purple. But, I love nothing more than to over process all my colors anyways...::sheepish grin::

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

05/17/2008 09:13:08 PM · #20

After reading this I had to go back and check my purples. All of my photos with purple in them are very nice purples. So maybe not a problem with all cameras??

DrAchoo

Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5

05/17/2008 09:59:20 PM · #21

Originally posted by hihosilver:

I've never had an problems with purple. But, I love nothing more than to over process all my colors anyways...::sheepish grin::

I knew there was a reason I liked you...

05/17/2008 11:29:19 PM · #22

Originally posted by gwe21:

After reading this I had to go back and check my purples. All of my photos with purple in them are very nice purples. So maybe not a problem with all cameras??

That is very interesting. Care to show a couple of them so I can try to figure out what is different with the scene?

I took photos of purple things today, only a few, curtains on someones house (no they were not undressing on the other side or something), a purple truck, a purple sign, all turned bright blue. It is annoying to say the least.

05/17/2008 11:40:59 PM · #23

Originally posted by togtog:

Originally posted by gwe21:
After reading this I had to go back and check my purples. All of my photos with purple in them are very nice purples. So maybe not a problem with all cameras??

That is very interesting. Care to show a couple of them so I can try to figure out what is different with the scene?

I took photos of purple things today, only a few, curtains on someones house (no they were not undressing on the other side or something), a purple truck, a purple sign, all turned bright blue. It is annoying to say the least.

I will post some tomorrow for you, here is one off hand that I have on this computer (rest are on my big computer)

05/17/2008 11:46:30 PM · #24

Do you have a warranty on your camera? Can you take it back where you got it and do some test shots with another d300? take something purple with you and shoot it with your camera and another one. If its yours, I would ask Nikon for a replacement.