Difference in warmth between different Pentax digital bodies

[sandpiper6]

I am not sure if I can easily relate what I mean.

Joe and I use Pentax *ist-D and Pentax K100D (previously *ist-DL). We can have our cameras set at the same saturation, sharpness and contrast settings. The K100D (and the *ist-DL) is consistently outputting warmer images while the *ist-D's output is cooler, almost too cool. I have tried to set mine (K100D) on the lowest setting and having him set his (*ist-D) to the middle or high setting. They still do not produce similar tones. Is there anything else we can do about that? Is this a known issue of concern to any other Pentax shooters out there?

When we do raise his saturation levels in-camera, it doesn't look right.

Any ideas? Articles (links?)

Thank you for this wonderful knowledge base of Pentax users here!

Faith

[jfdavis58]

Why do you want them to match?

To accomplish what you seem to want might not be possible in camera, perhaps not at all. But I know how you can come as close as possible.

It'll cost about $70US to acquire a Macbeth ColorChecker, take a visit to Chromaholics.com or search for Tom Fors to snatch up his ACR Calibrator and depending on computer processing speed take about 2 hours per shoot location to process the image file. Some knowledge of Java is necessary for PScs2 (a small mod to the script) and you need either PS CS 1 or 2.

A similar manual method is outlined in Camera RAW for Adobe Photoshop CS & CS2--but it's not nearly as exact.

[HogRider]

I had the D, the DL and DS at the same time and did a little bit of testing last fall (in RAW). Didn't notice any differences in color cast, except that the DL and DS somehow come up with different Auto White Balance than the D.

Could the White Balance be the reason for your variations? Have you tried to set it to manual and do a few test shots that way?

[Alvin]

Different lenses will have a different effect on the colour casting and WB. I don't know about the differences with the K100D vs. D/Ds/DL. I notice the difference in warmth when I video an event using my Sony camcorder, and my buddy uses a different model Sony.

Have you tried using a custom WB? My buddy and I do that a lot.

[trog100]

i did read somwhere a few years back the japanese prefer a warmer cast to their images.. my k100d is definitey "brownish" it flatters people but the difference between two similar images taken with two different cameras can be quite noticable..

i can tell the diffrence side by side between the K10 and the K100 images simply by the colour cast.. but all the pentax images i have looked at are "warm"..

trog