Is color depth in DSLR cameras are a big deal?
Is color depth in DSLR cameras a big deal? I just bought my canon 500D. And i notice that its color depth is only 21.7. I just recently notice it after i look into the reviews. Its my fault not looking on the reviews much early, you can't blame me cuz i don't know much about SLR's or any website about it.T_T.now, sometimes i can't help to feel bothered about the color depth thing because when i look on reviews on other SLR cameras.(based on the website snapsort.com). They have much more color depth than mine regardless that some of them already old models. For example the canon 450D (color depth of 21.9), the canon 1000D (color depth 22), the nikon D3000 (color depth 22.3), the nikon D5000 (color depth 22.7) and the latest nikon D3100 which was released recently and is much cheaper with the color depth of 22.5).
does this really affect the overall quality of the picture? Is color depth a big deal on it? Thanks in advance.
Added (1). Does my camera has an OK color depth with 21.7? Or is it below average and poor? I'm sorry if i'm asking silly questions. I'm still an amateur when it comes to photography and cameras.
Added (2). Sometimes i can't help to notice the difference with my shots (canon 500D) and my friend shots (nikon d3100). I find his shots much more colorful and sharp.
Other than reviews, do you have any complaints about the camera when you use it? Or about the output of the camera?
If not then I don't see what the problem is.
Colour depth is not too important, it's just a measure of the accuracy of the reproduced colour and the Gamut of colour (basically the range of colours available on the cameras palette). Anything above 20 is fine.
More important measures are dynamic range and ISO (low light) performance. Modern sensors have improved these dramatically over the last six or seven months, noticeably so.
Canon cameras have been old technology for a while now, Nikon, Sony and notably Pentax currently all offer improvements over Canon.
On this in independent site you can compare cameras,
http://www.dxomark.com/...d3)/Pentax
Notice how Nikon and Pentax achieves their better figures by having fewer pixels (lower pixel density).
Change the Pentax Kr to the Pentax K5 from the drop down menus and see a real difference.
Ignore it - it'd be a big deal if the values were something like 18 vs 22, but 21.7 vs 22.7 is negligible. You wouldn't ever be able to tell the difference by looking at the photos, and other factors have a way bigger influence on it.
Edit:
Take a look here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/...olor_depth
As you seen on the sample shots, one already has to look closely to discern a difference between 8 bit and 24 bit color depth. The difference between 21.7 and 22.7 bit will be pretty much invisible.
Edit2:
That difference likely comes from increased saturation - you can set this in the camera as an image optimization setting, or in post processing on your computer. This has nothing to do with the color depth.
The sharpness issue may be due to a better lens, better use of depth of field or more careful focusing.
That is bit depth, and I wouldn't worry about it.
If you are shooting JPEG, you are limited to a color depth of 8. Most printers can only print in 8-bit mode without special software. If you are processing your images in Lightroom or Photoshop, you are only using 16bit color.
So just because your camera is capable of recording a bit depth of over 20, doesn't mean that you are using it. It most just means that the camera has a wider starting color gammut, so you will get slightly more accurate colors, but I doubt 99% of people can tell the difference between 24 and 16bit. And no one can tell the difference between 21, 22, and 24.