Originally posted by tuco To be clear, I don't deny your experience. I've have also seen one or two comparisons on reviews as well. Each used out of camera JPEGs and neither used the portrait color profile the Nikon camera has. And the zoom factor to look at the difference seemed pretty unrealistic. I guess it boils down to if you could pick out all the Canon pictures on a table full of them from all kinds of cameras.
I never found the portrait setting on Nikon to be any better. It just gave a less contrasty yellow/green, peach or grey.
I don't think I could pick the Canon's out, but would have a high success rate picking Nikon unless the photographer spent a lot of time in post trying to make them look better.
I don't necessarily think Canon is best, just way better than Nikon. Olympus used to be great before the latest generation of sensors, they are still decent, but not nearly as nice as older ones. I have a theory that the Sony sensors or at least current high dynamic range CMOS sensors may be harder for camera makers to get good skin tones out of.
Canon's seem to be more forgiving from one area of the face to another. Shadow transitions are gentler. Nikon is harsh and will leap from one tone to another with little transition. Probably makes for nice landscapes, but not pleasing on portraits.