[biz-engineer]

I was browsing photo galleries in Flickr, flower images taken with a Pentax K10, and I found color rendering to have something special that we lost in newer camera models equipped with CMOS image sensor.
Wouldn't it be great if current cameras, K1, K1II, K3III, Kp would have a CCD function that can be enabled in quick menu to reproduce the K10 look?

[house]

I was browsing photo galleries in Flickr, flower images taken with a Pentax K10, and I found color rendering to have something special that we lost in newer camera models equipped with CMOS image sensor.
Wouldn't it be great if current cameras, K1, K1II, K3III, Kp would have a CCD function that can be enabled in quick menu to reproduce the K10 look?

Make a lut if you want to have the look?

[biz-engineer]

Make a lut if you want to have the look?

Sure, but not as immediate as having it done by Ricoh in camera, in addition I'm sure they have exactly K10 translation matrices, should be a big deal if done internally by Ricoh Imaging, but a great add-on to our cameras.

[Franc]

what's wrong with this:
Get "that CCD look" with the K-3 / K-3II and Lightroom - PentaxForums.com

[Unregistered User 8]

what's wrong with this:
Get "that CCD look" with the K-3 / K-3II and Lightroom - PentaxForums.com

You beat me to posting a link to this article, Franc.
Perhaps we can alert the author of that excellent thread ( @BigMackCam ) to put in an appearance here...........

[BigMackCam]

Did someone call?

Actually, I like the OP's idea. I'd take it a stage further, and suggest that tone curve and HSL for each colour band should be adjustable in-camera, embedded in raw and exportable as single-illuminant DCP and ICC profile files. That would allow any raw converter to utilise either the embedded, DCP or ICC profile directly... No need for the user to create profiles with additional software tools; and because the adjustments would be in-camera, you'd see the results in Live View and JPEG playback. That would be pretty awesome.

That said, it's not too much hassle to tweak colours and curves in most raw converters, then save them as preset styles or profiles. Plus, a well-calibrated and profiled PC display gives a much more colour- and tonally-accurate representation than most camera displays, which helps in getting exactly the right look.

That article of mine and the adjustments therein remain relevant for those wanting to emulate another camera, and the result is reasonably close to the K10D look that many of us like so much...

[Larrymc]

Did someone call?

Actually, I like the OP's idea. I'd take it a stage further, and suggest that tone curve and HSL for each colour band should be adjustable in-camera, embedded in raw and exportable as single-illuminant DCP or ICC profile files. That would allow any raw converter to utilise either the embedded, DCP or ICC profile directly... No need for the user to create profiles with additional software tools; and because the adjustments would be in-camera, you'd see the results in Live View and JPEG playback. That would be pretty awesome.

That said, it's not too much hassle to tweak colours and curves in most raw converters, then save them as preset styles or profiles. Plus, a well-calibrated and profiled PC display gives a much more colour- and tonally-accurate representation than most camera displays, which helps in getting exactly the right look.

That article of mine and the adjustments therein remain relevant for those wanting to emulate another camera, and the result is reasonably close to the K10D look that many of us like so much...

Hmmm the posts here got me wondering if PhotoLab had a color profile for the K10D. Ah, here it is no tweaking necessary, my DXO PhotoLab program has a setting for the color profile of the K10D in their color rendering section of the development module.

[UncleVanya]

Hmmm the posts here got me wondering if PhotoLab had a color profile for the K10D. Ah, here it is no tweaking necessary, my DXO PhotoLab program has a setting for the color profile of the K10D in their color rendering section of the development module.

Yes it does. I’ve not compared the results, but other than red, I’ve not been in the camp that thinks ccd was better.

[ChristianRock]

Yes it does. I’ve not compared the results, but other than red, I’ve not been in the camp that thinks ccd was better.

Yes reds are quite delightful usually in CCD cameras, but to me the biggest difference is in the nuances of green, the "in-betweens" of greens.

K10D


K200D


Another thing - for me - is the look of how the light falls on water and metallic objects, which to me is much more film-like. But that's more subtle and I don't expect most people to see it the way I see it ...

[Kozlok]

I use BigMacCam's CCD lightroom profile quite frequently. There are some shots that it just really makes pop. Here's a shot with and without the CCD preset applied.

For this shot, it's pretty subtle, but CCD makes her face pop a bit more, and the blues in the ball look better.


Without:


With CCD:

[BigMackCam]

I use BigMacCam's CCD lightroom profile quite frequently. There are some shots that it just really makes pop. Here's a shot with and without the CCD preset applied.

For this shot, it's pretty subtle, but CCD makes her face pop a bit more, and the blues in the ball look better.

Nice to see how well it works on the K-3 III

It's more noticeable when viewing at larger size on Flickr, by clicking the images in your post. Immediately obvious are the brighter but richer fur and earth tones, and the deeper, richer blues. Less obvious, but playing a part, is the more vibrant yellow, visible in the grass toward the front of the scene, to the left and right of that lovely doggy These are tones where the old K-3's embedded profile and JPEG styles are lacking, IMHO, and it would seem the in-camera profiling on the K-3III maintains this look. The nice thing is, it's not difficult to address in post, whether through profiles or custom adjustment presets...

[UncleVanya]

I use BigMacCam's CCD lightroom profile quite frequently. There are some shots that it just really makes pop. Here's a shot with and without the CCD preset applied.

For this shot, it's pretty subtle, but CCD makes her face pop a bit more, and the blues in the ball look better.


Without:


With CCD:

I like the “CCD” version better but I’d also be curious if changing the camera body rendering in DXO photolab would give a similar output - I more often will use the DXO film emulation package to get a film look, my experience with the camera body renderings is minimal.

[kypfer]

I was browsing photo galleries in Flickr, flower images taken with a Pentax K10, and I found color rendering to have something special that we lost in newer camera models equipped with CMOS image sensor.
Wouldn't it be great if current cameras, K1, K1II, K3III, Kp would have a CCD function that can be enabled in quick menu to reproduce the K10 look?

It's a concept I've had in mind for a while … take exactly the same picture with exactly the same lens using both a CCD and a CMOS camera, then comparing the results in an image editing program, adjusting the curves in the CMOS image until they match the CCD image.
The lens would need a tripod mount, for consistency, and the subject would probably ideally be a daylight-lit test chart. The few seconds between swapping bodies on the fixed lens should be sufficiently short to eliminate any exposure anomalies. Both images would need to be taken with the same in-camera setting, the default "Bright" would seem an obvious choice.
If the required adjustments are performed with the Digital Camera Utility, these settings should be directly translatable to the in-camera settings, as both camera and software use the same terminology. These could then be saved as a User Mode for instant recall

[BigMackCam]

If the required adjustments are performed with the Digital Camera Utility, these settings should be directly translatable to the in-camera settings, as both camera and software use the same terminology. These could then be saved as a User Mode for instant recall

Sadly, neither the camera nor DCU allow adjustment to individual RGB channels or tone curve (beyond some preset shapes for greater contrast, high / low key etc.). With those, you could get reasonably close to mimicking another camera's output by hand (as opposed to automated profiling); without them, highly unlikely. In addition to RGB levels and tone curve, you ideally need the ability to adjust HSL of multiple colour bands - like the patches on a colour reference chart - to achieve better accuracy. Lightroom, Darktable, RawTherapee and (I'm guessing) several other advanced raw converters offer varying implementations of these adjustments - but DCU and in-camera features don't

[aslyfox]

Yes it does. I’ve not compared the results, but other than red, I’ve not been in the camp that thinks ccd was better.

heretic