Color Accuracy
There are two ways to display the results of our color accuracy testing visually and we’re going to show you both here. The diagrams below show the ideal tracking of the colors in the ColorChecker as squares and the actual tracking of the camera as circles. The line connecting the two represents the error for that tone.
 

 

Canon Rebel T1i

Nikon D5000

Olympus E-P1

Looking at the Imatest results, the Nikon provides the most faithful reproduction. There is very little deviation between the target and the result, with the biggest variations in yellows and cyans. The reds, usually a problem, are very much on target. All in all, a fairly remarkable, and excellent reproduction.

The other cameras are a little more typical of a lower-end product. The biggest problems are in the reds. That said, the Olympus really does a significantly better job rendering reds than the Canon, and the rest of the gamut is pretty tight, even rivaling the Nikon.

In the modified ColorChecker charts below, the flaws in the Canon are painfully obvious – take a look at the reds. The big square shows how the camera is rendering the color. The small, vertical rectangle shows what the color should be, in hue and luminance. The small squares show the camera’s native rendering of hue only, with the luminance corrected.

 

Canon Rebel T1i

Nikon D5000

Olympus E-P1

 

The Nikon is a step above the others in terms of providing a faithful reproduction, though the Olympus is only slightly behind. The Canon T1i is the outlier here, with significantly inaccurate renderings in the red tones - something that becomes apparent with rendering caucasian skin tones in particular.