Why E-M1 would show yellowish/warm in comparison to FF, in night, in iAuto?

[dipan000]

Hi,

I took two pictures, one from E-M1 (M43) and other with Z6 (FF) at night time, in dull light and just in Auto mode. E-M1 shows me some yellowish blend in them, while Z6 shows very natural color.
Is it due to difference of sensor size, or some settings on E-M1? I understand, non-auto mode would give more flexibility, but I am asking for iAuto only. Because there are times, when I need to hand camera to somebody to focus on us/me and just click on button. May be Z6 may have more natural color rendering, or I am be missing to set something in E-M1.
From my both pictures in first post, the paper bag beside the truck is pink. Nikon can tell it is Pink, but E-M1 shows it overexposed. It looks yellow or washed out.

Here are pictures for comparison.

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Thanks

 

[Hypilein]

This has nothing to do with the sensor. It's the auto white balance that is giving different results. If you shot RAW check the white balance that was chosen by the camera. Some situations are difficult for some cameras so it is better to use manual white balance. I find that a lot of cameras have problems with indoor artificial light and will often give yellowish results. The Nikon is surprisingly good.

Cameras also have a range of white balances that is possible described in Degrees Kelvin. This is not normally an issue for most photography but in underwater photography if you don't bring artificial light you will reach the limit of white balance at about 10-15m depth depending on the camera and if you use additional red filters. Olympus is actually quite strong in that category (much better than for example Sony), so I'm surprised it handled this scene so poorly.

If you can set RAW for iAuto mode than you can just fix it in post and not worry about this, even when handing the camera to someone else. In Jpegs wrong white balance more or less can not be fixed.

 

[ThereAndBackAgain]

Just a thought - is this a symptom of the 'keep warm colour' setting in the Olympus menu? Gears - G - keep warm colour. I note from the manual that the default setting is 'on'.

 

[ac12]

In my local high school gym, my Nikon D7200 auto WB works well.
Not so my EM1, the color is "off." I have to use custom WB on the Olympus.
So, it is nice to know how to do custom WB, for when the camera's auto WB cannot handle the light.

Or shoot in RAW and adjust in post.

 

[WT21]

Just a thought - is this a symptom of the 'keep warm colour' setting in the Olympus menu? Gears - G - keep warm colour. I note from the manual that the default setting is 'on'.

Back some time ago, most (all?) cameras had trouble with indoor lighting - especially incandescent lighting - going too warm. IIRC Oly was the first that I remember to provide an option to auto adjust the warm out. They made it an option, and it was surprisingly good. I think the first time I saw this was when I first got an EPM1.

It is possible that other makers have added this as default now while Oly still has it as an option. Try turning “keep colors warm” off and then do comparison shots. Would love to see the results if you are able to test.

 

[WT21]

Two other thoughts, though I think these are not the issue - 1) if you are using anything other than incandescent lighting, different shutter speeds could yield different colors due to light flickering. Try setting shutter speed to the same. I don’t think this is an issue because your shutter speeds are slow, but it is worth a mention 2) Also, the Oly seems to have captured more of the scene, which means there is more brown wood and light grey carpet which could yield a different WB outcome. I don’t think these two are the main issues, but if you control for both framing and shutter speed, you’ll have more of a standardized test.

It is not due to the sensor size at all, btw, but the white balance and color science of the two camera makers. I think the “keep warm” option is the main issue here. Let us know what kind of lightbulbs are in use in that room. I’m guessing incandescent.

 

[WT21]

Last post one way to see for yourself that it’s the camera processing and not the sensor is to take both pictures in raw and then use Lightroom auto white balance and see how they look (or manually adjust the white balance). They will turn out very nearly the same, showing that it’s how the in camera JPG processing is impacting the final output.

 

[dipan000]

Thanks for all your advices.
Yes, I agree that it is camera's mind, how it would present final outcome when picture is taken in iAuto mode.
There is no flash or professional light. It is just room lighting. Looks like Nikon color rendering is different than Olympus's, in other way, more natural. Pink is pink for Nikon
I will (learn and) try adjusting it in RAW. As of now, I was simply shooting in iAuto of E-M1 and Auto of Z6.

 

[WT21]

It’s just one setting. Please turn off “keep warm colors” and you’ll see a difference I think. See https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3814288

Also -- you should bring both pictures back into the room with the same lighting. While your brain knows that ball is pink, you'll find with the same lighting, it doesn't look as pink as you remember it. The Olympus is capture a more accurate scene when "keep warm colors" is on because light has a color (or a wavelength that reflects certain colors back to us in certain ways). That's why you can get new LEDs in different color temperatures, because lighting impacts how we see the same object.

 

[Stanga]

The correct answer is that with the Olympus what you see is what you get. With the Nikon you get what Nikon wants you to see.

 

[b_rubenstein]

In iAuto mode the WB ignores the Keep Warm Colors OFF setting. If you're going to hand someone the camera to take a picture, put it in Program mode, Keep Warm Colors set to OFF, and set the Auto ISO to an appropriate range for the light level.