New Nikon D3, D300, and D700 "Camera" v3 beta profiles

[MadManChan2000]

Hi everyone,

I have posted a zip file containing updated "Camera" color profiles (Camera Standard, Camera Neutral, etc.) for the Nikon D3, Nikon D300, and Nikon D700. The zip file contains a copy of the readme, but I'll post it here for convenience, too:

For lack of a better name, I am calling these "v3" beta profiles.

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BETA RELEASE NOTES

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Overview

These updated Camera v3 beta profiles for the Nikon D3, Nikon D300, and Nikon D700 are designed to reduce banding and highlight color artifacts. They also address the "too bright" tone curve issues with the previous "v2" version of the D3 and D700 profiles.

IMPORTANT NOTE: When using these v3 beta profiles, if you wish to match the default tonality of Nikon's Picture Controls (e.g., match View NX / Capture NX), you must set the Exposure slider in Camera Raw / Lightroom to -0.5.

Of course, feel free to adjust Exposure to make your image brighter or darker as you like. But in terms of matching Nikon's default tonality, you must set the Exposure slider to -0.5, or the default will be too bright.

For workflow convenience, you can use presets in Camera Raw / Lightroom to take care of both (e.g., simultaneously set the profile to "Camera Standard" and set Exposure to -0.5).

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Installation

If you are on Mac OS X, drag the "Camera v3 beta" folder to:

    /Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRaw/CameraProfiles

If you are on Windows XP, drag the "Camera v3 beta" folder to:

    C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\CameraRaw\CameraProfiles

If you are on Windows Vista or Windows 7, drag the "Camera v3 beta" folder to:

    C:\ProgramData\Adobe\CameraRaw\CameraProfiles

Note that the above path on Windows Vista and Windows 7 may be hidden by default. Check your folder settings.

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Feedback

The profiles are currently in beta status. Please provide feedback via the online Adobe user-to-user forums here:

http://forums.adobe.com/community/cameraraw
http://forums.adobe.com/community/lightroom

Thank you!

[Guest]

MadManChan2000,

I see that you've taken a lot of time and care to generate and improve these profiles. Thank you.

This makes me question if the same level of care can be expected of new profiles for the D7000. It's been 3 years since some of these models have been released.

Are these camera's particularly problematic? Is any similar activity going on for the D7k?

Again, thanks for this.

-Ed

[MadManChan2000]

Ed, the D7000's profiles should already have the same improvements that the latest v3 beta profiles for the D3, D300, and D700 have.

[Yammer]

I'm not sure if I missed the start of all this, but is there a reason behind all these betas? And is there likely ever to be a v.2 instead?

[Yammer]

(and when I say v2, I mean an official release, not a beta)

[Guest]

As you probably noted, default exposure setting for latest v3 profiles is -0.5 EV, which is probably slightly "strange" for some users, so (as mentioned by Eric), some changes in code and dng specification are needed to avoid this. I suppose that's the main reason why these profiles are still in beta status. Also, it looks like Adobe team is still improving calibration procedure, as every new beta version of these profiles is better. According to my tests, v3 for D700 is almost spot on (well, shadow area needs some further work - LUT value segment 0 still not calibrated yet, but is a simple copy of value segment 1, and default blacks = 5 for camera profiles is not the best solution in my opinion - if someone wants "v3.1" profile for D700, drop a note here, I'll publish my version)

[b2martin_a]

Why does the DNG Profile Editor have problems when using version 2 and version 3 profiles?  It appears to work ok with the Color Tables and Tone Curve tabs, but not with the Color Matrices and Chart Tabs.  I was trying to modify contrast using the Tone Curve and Saturation using the Color Matrices tab to match adjustments I made to Nikon D2X Mode2 and Neutral profiles in the D700 camera.  The modifications work if I use the official released versions of Camera D2X Mode2 and Camera Neutral profiles, but not versions 2 or 3 of the same profiles.

[Guest]

DNG PE was made before v2 profiles. Those profiles (and v3) have special values in forward matrices. Moving hue and saturation sliders in calibration pane changes these matrices, so I think it's better not to touch them

[Yammer]

Does this mean we'll have a new improved version of DNG Profile Editor to look forward to?

[MadManChan2000]

For now, it only means that I have some debugging work to do ...

[Shutterscript]

Vit, would you mind posting your "v3.1" profile for the D700?  I'm also finding that the blacks = 5 value is getting rid of quite a bit of shadow detail in some cases (when compared to View NX 2).  Other than that, this seems to be a great profile.  Thanks.

[jljonathan]

Does anyone know of anything like this for LR that is available for Canon?

Thanks

Jonathan

[Lucca man]

Vit, it would be nice to test yu V3.1 D 700 profiles.

Many thanks if you can make available such profiles.

best regards

[Guest]

I posted a link to it in the topic "Quality of Camera profiles measured (D700)"

[Lucca man]

Dear Sir,

many thanks for your kind profile!

I downloaded it and I will check in the incoming days, providing you a feedback.

best regards

[jljonathan]

Sorry, I doubled up by mistake. Does anyone know of anything like this for LR that is available for Canon?

Thanks

Jonathan

[amam123]

Decompile those profiles by dcptool then write inside .xml file description of your canon model. Compile xml to .dcp. Now you get nikon color on canon.

[j8kerussell]

Can you easily explain how to do this so that I can create camera profiles for my Canon G11? 

Would this help with matching colors between my G11 and my Nikon D700 if, let's say, I'm shooting with both cameras at the same location?

[areohbee]

Just beware.

I don't know how many models gynngee has done this with (and had "perfect" results), but if it were always that simple, Adobe would not have different files to implement the same profile on different cameras. Different cameras may have different sensor response characteristics, so how well this works will depend on how similar the two camera sensor response characteristics are, and maybe some other things I don't know about...

Regarding more officially supported ways of doing it:

One easy way to get the same look on different camera brands is to choose an Adobe profile (i.e. Adobe Standard or ACR 4.X...).

The other way is to use the DNG profile editor (read the doc).

[ssprengel]

To match two cameras, at least to some degree, you use a color-checker and Adobe or X-Rite software to create a custom dual-illuminant profile, and/or set of profiles for different lighting conditions, based on the Adobe Standard profile for each of your cameras.

To create a custom profile you buy a Color Checker Passport from X-Rite which includes the software or use a larger, standard-sized Color Checker also available from X-Rite and then use the DNG Profile Editor from Adobe Labs.

ColorChecker Passport:

http://xritephoto.com/ph_product_overview.aspx?ID=1257

DNG Profile Editor:

http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/DNG_Profiles

[John Blaustein]

Datacolor / Colorvision also has a new camera profiling package called SpyderCheckr:

http://spyder.datacolor.com/product-cb-spydercheckr.php

John

[ssprengel]

Looks good. Thanks for the heads-up.

[Jeff Schewe]

Just to be clear, the Datacolor doesn't provide a DNG Profile as a result, it produces a set of modifications of the HSL sliders in the form of Presets. Not the same thing at all and depending on your needs, less optimal than having a real DNG Profile. You must limit your adjustments of the color rendering to the HSL panel so it eliminates the use of HSL in other presets (otherwise you overwrite your HSL settings).

[ssprengel]

The DNG Profile Editor/X-Rite Passport software and the Datacolor HSL presets would seem to complement each other, so I'd likely use both.

[Jeff Schewe]

ssprengel wrote:

The DNG Profile Editor/X-Rite Passport software and the Datacolor HSL presets would seem to complement each other, so I'd likely use both.

I would suggest you look a bit further...dealing with a Preset vs a DNG Profile is different...

[ssprengel]

I would use Adobe Standard in place when computing multiple Datacolor HSL presets for various lighting conditions.

I would also Adobe Standard as the basis of a dual-illuminant DNG Profile Editor profile and have this custom profile in place when creating multiple Datacolor HSL presets for various lighting conditions.

Then I would use Imatest and my eyes to see which was preferable.

I realize the Adobe Standard profiles have hue-twists in them and the DNG Profile Editor-generated ones do not, so it's possible one scheme would be preferable over the other.