Which has larger impact on color, the camera body or the actual lens?

9 years 6 months ago #398059 by Colorado Mike
Which impacts the way the colors look the most the camera body or camera lens?   Assuming you are shooting in RAW.  I have used some older manual lenses and it seems the color becomes off.  Which means my original assumption that the body made the most impact, might not be all true. 

Can you add to this? 


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9 years 6 months ago #398061 by Joves
The lens will have an affect on how the camera sees the light. It depends on the type of glasses that are used in the construction. Some of the older glass is actually great for color rendition, some well quite frankly sucks. They actually try to get them to be color neutral, and just pass light through, but that it pretty much impossible, as each type of glass has its own transmission limits. There are a few different types of glass used in good lenses to offset the effect that one type has on the light. So the lens does have the greatest effect on how the cameras media, whether film, or sensor sees the world.


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9 years 6 months ago #398064 by Colorado Mike
Well that answers that.  I'm surprised but not surprised if that makes any sense.  Now when you say the type of glass, are you talking about the quality of the lens?

:thx:


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9 years 6 months ago - 9 years 6 months ago #398078 by Shadowfixer1
Lens coatings are a lot different now and will give a different color and or contrast. A Nikon 50mm 1.8 lens has a much different look color and contrast wise as compared to my 18-200, 80-400 and 105. These 3 render scenes fairly closely to each other. Newer glass and coatings will give a different look than the older. Better, maybe, but definitely different.

Different cameras makes a difference also. Especially different brands. There is no definitive answer to your question.
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9 years 6 months ago #398134 by ThatNikonGuy
+1 lens.  That's why you should invest in better glass before better body IMO.


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9 years 6 months ago #398320 by Cathy Kadolph
Really?  I would have thought the camera body with the sensor was responsible for processing or impacting the color. 

"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once you grow up." Pablo Picasso
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9 years 6 months ago #398339 by garyrhook

Cathy Kadolph wrote: Really?  I would have thought the camera body with the sensor was responsible for processing or impacting the color. 


As stated, to some degree. +1 The glass can have a huge impact on the light reaching the sensor.


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9 years 6 months ago #398361 by Connie K Photos
 Gary is correct, the difference between poor, good and great glass can have a large impact on color quality. 


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9 years 6 months ago #398389 by Stealthy Ninja
My voigtlander 15mm lens will have colour fringing on my A7. There's an example of a lens impacting the colour of the image in a way that's hard to correct in PP.
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9 years 6 months ago #398394 by effron
This is another one of those questions.....:dry:   
Both the body and lens matter. Depending on individual samples, one might make a bigger difference than the other....

Why so serious?
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9 years 6 months ago #398489 by Ian Stone

effron wrote: This is another one of those questions.....:dry:   
Both the body and lens matter. Depending on individual samples, one might make a bigger difference than the other....



+1 yep, but I think lens has the largest impact


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9 years 6 months ago #398524 by Sandy Smith Photos
Both, however lens has larger influence 


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9 years 6 months ago - 9 years 6 months ago #398528 by Joves

Colorado Mike wrote: Well that answers that.  I'm surprised but not surprised if that makes any sense.  Now when you say the type of glass, are you talking about the quality of the lens?

:thx:


Yes of the glass itself, or the elements used to make the lens. There are many types of glass, each with a refractive index, the index tells you how each type of glass transmits light. You can use different types of glass to modify/partly cancel the effect of another element. When I was helping a friend grind an objective for an 8 inch f/16 refractor telescope with three elements the first element was Crown glass, and then Flint as the second, and Water glass as the third. Each element helped the other or improved how the light got to the eyepiece.  You can only cancel out so much from a lens, so hence the coatings. I am glad that all I had to do was help grind the elements, and not do the math for it. I personally have only ground mirrors for my own scopes, way easier.
Also now inside of many of the budget lenses they are using polycarbonate/optical plastic over glass to bring the cost down.


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9 years 6 months ago #399037 by Sawyer
I use to think it was all about the camera body, but then found the correct answer is the lens. 

Canon 5D Mark II | Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM | Canon 35L | Sigma 85 1.4 | Helios 44M-6 58mm(M42) | Zeiss 50mm 1.4 (C/Y) | Canon 135L | (2) 430EX II
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