Canon EOS 5D

Picture Quality / Size Options (9.0)
The Canon 5D records RAW and JPEG files, with a full resolution of 4368 x 2912 pixels. RAW files can only be recorded at this full resolution, but JPEGs can be recorded at full (called Large on the 5D) as well as lower resolutions. Medium is 3168 x 2112 and Small is 2496 x 1664. JPEGs can be recorded in either “Fine” or “Normal” quality. Normal files take up about half the space in memory that Fine files do.

Picture Effects Mode (9.0)
The Canon 5D offers the same Picture Styles as the EOS 1D Mark II n, and both cameras can accept new styles, which are available for download from Canon. Each style is a group of settings for sharpness, contrast, color saturation, and color tone. Monochrome replaces saturation and tone with “filter effect,” which replicates the effect of colored contrast filters on black and white film, and “color toning,” which gives a tint to the final image much like a toned black-and-white print.

The Picture Styles appear in a table in the 5D menu. The styles – Standard, Portrait, Landscape, Neutral, and Faithful – show up in a column at the left, while their image parameter settings – Sharpening, Saturation, Contrast, and Color Tone – appear in columns to the right. Each parameter shows a numerical value in the table, but strangely, all of the settings in all of the styles appear to be Zero, except for sharpening in Standard, Portrait, and Landscape. This is deceiving, because saturation, contrast, and color tone vary among the styles, the “0” merely indicates its starting point, not a neutral designation.

Portrait, for instance, “adjusts” color in the yellow, red, and magenta range, while decreasing sharpening. The user can make further adjustments with the color tone setting, pushing skin tones toward yellow or magenta. So the “0” setting in color tone in Portrait doesn't indicate that the color tone is untouched; it just means that it is set to the Portrait Style's default.

Portrait

Likewise, Landscape pumps up greens and blues and contrast, while the menu indicates that they are set to default – that's the Landscape Style default, not the camera default.

Landscape

The Neutral Style shows zeros for every setting, which is essentially accurate. It also happens to produces images that match the default output of the EOS 1D Mark II, the predecessor to the EOS 1D Mark II n. Photographers who shoot new and old cameras can use the setting to make sure their images match.

Neutral

Faithful's parameters look identical to Neutral, but the manual says Faithful is set up to reproduce colormetrically accurate color under 5200K lighting. Both Neutral and Faithful make good images for post-processing, because they don't sharpen or boost saturation, leaving more detail in the image.

Faithful

Standard

Canon's first three downloadable styles are “Nostalgia,” “Clear,” and “Twilight.” Nostalgia lowers color saturation for everything except yellow. Canon's samples give an impression of 30- or 40-year-old prints from color negatives. Clear reduces haze, punching up contrast in long telephoto shots. Twilight nudges deep blue sky toward purple, though Canon cautions that it is less effective with pale skies.

It's possible to edit the settings for each style, and to create and save user-defined styles.

The Canon 5D's parameter controls for sharpening, saturation, contrast, and tone are very powerful: at their maximum settings, they give unnaturally bold results (not always a bad thing) but since they can be adjusted in small steps, it's possible to tailor their effects.

The in-camera effects are applied before the image is saved as a JPEG, so for JPEG workflows, it has a clear advantage over post-processing – the changes are made on an uncompressed image. Canon also touts the styles for RAW workflows, noting that they should be timesavers in image processing.

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