The King of Colour

Friends of mine who own Canon bodies say that Canon produces better colours. Those who have Nikon cameras swear by theirs. Which system should I invest in for the best colours?
Ronald D’Souza, New Delhi, via email

This story was originally published in September 2014.

Sorry to burst everyone’s proverbial bubble. No system gives the ‘best’ colours. After all, what do you define ‘best’ as? Vibrant and saturated? But if it’s vibrant, it’s probably not accurate. If it’s accurate, it’s probably not vibrant. And so on.

Sure, every camera manufacturer has its own palette, which they largely stick to, most of the time. There is a tonality that one may associate with the default look of Canon, another one may connect to Nikon. Similarly, Olympus, Fujifilm, Sony, Pentax and other brands all have their own look, sometimes subtlely different, sometimes very. Each will have their own quirks too.

Which one you prefer is a personal choice. Most importantly, whatever system you use, you can fine tune the look based on what you need. Sometimes, it may take a bit more work during post, but that still doesn’t mean that one system’s colours are better than another’s.