[civiletti]

It's true that you can adjust colours and contrast and clarity during PPing but wouldn't it be nicer if you wouldn't have to?

You always need to adjust color, as film and sensors do not react to color balance the way our eyes do. Also, we may want to choose what to emphasize in mixed lighting situations, or may want to control the palette for artistic reasons.

Here is same photo of Opal Creek with more suitable color balance:

[axl]

You always need to adjust color, as film and sensors do not react to color balance the way our eyes do. Also, we may want to choose what to emphasize in mixed lighting situations, or may want to control the palette for artistic reasons.

Here is same photo of Opal Creek with more suitable color balance:

no you don't you adjust white balance in your camera so you don't have to adjust the color in PPing...

[deadwolfbones]

I adjust every single shot in PP, though not always white balance. Often with several shots in succession from the same camera and the same lens I adjust WB on some of them and not on others.

There is no magic combination of lens and body that produces perfect WB every time, unless you manually set the WB for every shot.

Is it true that certain lenses produce "richer" / "deeper" / "truer" colors more often? Possibly. Is it something I'm going to lose sleep over when I PP every image anyway? Nah.

[civiletti]

no you don't you adjust white balance in your camera so you don't have to adjust the color in PPing...

When shooting in RAW, color balance is only a "serving suggestion." Balance presets can often get you close. Manual balancing for incident light in a particular situation can be very accurate IF incident light is uniform and reflected light does not produce color cast. In the field, this is often not the case. Part of a scene may be lit by direct sun, part by blue sky. Reflection from green vegetation or orange rock can effect color. The camera cannot know what I want. At dawn I may want the ultra-cool color of skylight that can reach 20,000*K, or I may want to correct to 5000*K balance. Under artificial light, I can use the approximation to natural light, or I may want to boost an important color that is misrepresented by the imperfect CRI of the source.