Nikon SLR Cameras

Green color cast with Nikon D600 and D800 (esp.at high ISO)?

Chris
Chris

Is there a slight color bias with the Nikon D600 and D800 toward green >

In one video review on youtube it showed the images from the Canon 6D and the D600 and the D600 photos showed a slight green bias which became overwhelming at high ISO's in very low light. The Canon 6D looked more natural. Ken Rockwell noted the same about the D800.

Apart from that there wasn't much difference. The 6D is let down by only having one cross type focus point… But the D600 let down by this color bias?

Added (1). Thank you to 'The Last Anon' -
some of what you say I think is valid but I would rather use a camera where I'm not having to color correct every single photo above 400 ISO. Judging from the results I have seen online, the D600 would need that but with the 6D most images didn't need anything doing to them. Regarding altering the white balance settings - that will give an approximation of what I'm looking for but the amount of correction will vary with the ISO number - so I would prob. Have to remember the WB correction for every single ISO above 400 (or whatever looks right) and manually set it for each ISO. Tedious

Having said that the 6D has a major flaw in the single cross type focus point ( obviously dumbed down so that people will lust for the 5D mkIII)

Given the options and considering that a 5D mk IV won't be out for at least 2 years and I rekon the replacements for the D600 and D800 will still have the problem, I will save a bit more and get a 5D mkIII

Added (2). EDIT: I don't think there's any perfect camera. If there was, the manufacturers would have a hard time trying to get everyone to upgrade.

I'd love a Mamiya 645 AFD II and a Credo 80 digital back but I don't want to take out a mortgage to buy it - and I don't think it would be much use for indoor low light photography, much more for architecture, studio and maybe weddings.

It will be interesting to see what comes out as the successors to the 5D mk3 and D800. Will Canon be tempted to match the D800 resolution?

The Last Anon
The Last Anon

It might but I don't see why that matters.

It might to an engineer like Ken rockwell who doesn't correct his colors and relies solely on his camera but not for a serious photographer who actually develops his or her own photographs.

Choosing the right white balance preset and +10 saturation is not color correction.

Are you going to be using the camera primarily in "very low light" at higher ISO levels or is that something that will occur once in a while?

Images should be color corrected anyway. If you want to "get it right" in the camera then make a photo of an object, correct the color and determine how much magenta/amber needs to be added in order to offset the cyan / green.

Experiment with different ISO levels and determine at what iso level this occurs or how it changes over ISO levels.

Go to Menu>White Balance>Preset manual, adjust the necessary amber green blue or magenta to create a color compensation filter.

It won't be 100% accurate because you can't finely control the amount of colors added in camera but that is why we make it right in post anyway, we know as photographers our equipment is limiting even if you "get it right."

Lack of cross type sensor autofocus points is more of a problem to me than a color problem in "very low" light.

I try not to be in very low light in the first place and when I'm, I expect poor color anyway.

I can fix color, I can't fix out of focus images. ( Loosely speaking here.)

Edit: So I have to wonder if that a problem occurring with all models and modern ones or early models only?

I get what you are saying and I agree. I correct my colors so that problem wouldn't effect me. The problem I have with Canon in general is what I would consider to be somewhat large gaps in body price / performance like you are describing here. I think doing exactly that will be the absolute best thing for you.

The Mark 3 has more menus than windows 8 and some of them are really annoying. I don't like the fact that the electronic horizon can't be viewed while looking through the viewfinder and that you have to enable the joystick to select the focus points on the fly. It has annoying problems of its own including the fact that it does have an SD card slot and CF card slot but the bus is essentially shared and operates at the speed of whichever card is slower. That means if you have a class 10 SD card and epic CF card, you now get SD card speeds. In my mind that makes it a 1 card slot camera. I have used the mark 3 extensively in college and a lot of L glass but it does have problems of its own although I did not experience anything severe in terms of color cast, just off a little bit of magenta in the shadows. Its a beastly camera in most other regards.