Camera Comparisons: Are The Nikon Z7, Olympus E-M1 Mark II, Fujifilm X-T3 And X-H1 Comparable In Terms Of In-Camera JPEG White Balance

White Balance as applied to the JPEG files straight out of the camera (click to enlarge)
There are two sets of Fujifilm camera images as I wanted to test both Astia and Pro Neg S film simulations.

 This comparison experiment started with me wanting to create a Lightroom preset so I could replicate the blue skies of the Fujifilm Astia film simulation (my favorite hue of blue skies) rather than have the overly magenta/blue skies I find objectionable in the Nikon Z7.  Since I was going to conduct an experiment, I thought I might as well let my curiosity run a bit and conduct additional experiments.  I thought I would test if the ISOs of each camera were or were not equivalent as well as a) how close the ISOs came to the old Sunny 16 Rule that was used worldwide to standardize (ASA and DIN standards) film speeds, b) how each camera's ISO ratings compared to one another and c) how the Direct Sun White Balance setting differed among my cameras.  You can read more about this in my two previous posts which can be found here with the one comparing the camera's differences in ISOs and luminance or brightness, here.  This post will cover the differences among the cameras in JPEG White Balance.

Disclaimer:  As far as the look of the images is concerned, what you see on your monitor may not be what I am seeing on mine as a) your monitor may or may not be calibrated for color, luminance, dynamic range, etc. and b) I really have no idea what subtle changes Google makes to image files when it processes them and posts them in Blogger. On my calibrated monitor, I can easily see differences in white balance, density, color hues, etc.  My narrative may be more relevant than how the files are displayed to you.

I set out to make identical exposures with all processing done in-camera with little or no influence from an editing program.  That means I used JPEG exposures and not RAW.  I attempted to create a condition in which everything about the comparison was equalized in all cameras—hopefully.  Here are the settings and how I set things up:

Sunny day, no clouds in the sky and with sun behind me
Images made at about 11:00 a.m. which provides pretty much maximum illumination
All cameras were tripod mounted
All cameras set to manual exposure
All cameras had the Direct Sun White Balance set
JPEG file format; all image processing is done in-camera with no LR interpretation
Standard/Neutral/normal camera profiles (No Velvia, Portrait, Landscape, Vivid, etc.) set
ISO 200 as that is the base ISO of two of the three brands
Sunny 16 Rule would dictate exposure as 1/200th sec. @ f/16 or equivalent (I used 1/1600th sec. @ f/5.6)
1/3 stop incremental brackets; 1 1/3 stop up to 1 1/3 stop down from Sunny 16 exposure to cover potential differences in each camera's ISO claim
24mm full frame field of view for each camera/lens combination (24mm, 12mm, 16mm respectively as shown in these posted images)
All internal camera controls for contrast/saturation, color, etc. zeroed out—null position
All cameras set for AF-S focusing
IBIS turned off in Nikon, Fujifilm X-H1 and Olympus E-M1.2; no IS in X-T3
All cameras set for Single shot

Two sets of exposures were made with each camera/lens combination, the first with an X-Rite Colorchecker Passport in the frame so I could later measure gray scale luminance to find a common defined standard (.70), measure RGB color patch values as well as set white balance from one of the gray patches.  The other set are identical images but without the Colorchecker Passport included.

Based upon each camera having the same settings and all file processing done in-camera and photographing the same scene within minutes on a cloudless day, this was about as equal as I could possibly make things so the comparison could be as valid as possible.  I don't think so but I may have left something out.  You may have questions, which is fine.  This is not a scientific experiment but an attempt to conduct a carefully constructed set of circumstances to obtain valid, repeatable results.

The image at the top of this post represents a composite of the JPEG images directly out of each camera using the camera's White Balance setting set to full Direct Sun.  You can see how they slightly differ not only in white balance but in the rendering of other colors.

The image below represents a composite of the JPEG images directly out of each camera but now with the white balance normalized by using Adobe Lightroom Classic CC's Eyedropper Tool in the Develop module.  The third gray patch from the bottom in the left hand most column of the X-Rite Colorchecker Passport was the patch used to set white balance.

Every camera produced an out of camera image that was a bit on the blue or on the cool side, but not by much.  Also, each produced an image that needed just a bit of magenta added to ensure the gray patch was neutral in its RGB measurement.  Here are the corrections needed for each cameras to achieve a neutral white balance according to Lightroom.

                                    Correction Needed;  Blue/Yellow     Green/Magenta
Nikon Z7                                                          + 2                      + 2
Olympus E-M1.2                                               +10                      + 2
Fujifilm X-T3                                                    + 7                      + 4
Fujifilm X-H1                                                    + 9                      + 3

The image files didn't require a lot of correction, but if you understand that your camera is producing files that are a bit on the blue side, for example, you can adjust your camera's or LR's default settings to compensate for that so you don't have to later go in and spend time editing white balance in each file.  The same thing can be said about RAW files after some experimentation.  After all, don't we want easier, faster and better with our editing?

Corrected White Balance using the X-Rite Colorchecker Passport's third gray patch from the bottom in the left hand most
row and the Lightroom Eyedropper Tool in the Develop Module. (click to enlarge)

I hope these little experiments with my four cameras gave you some interesting if not valuable information that you can use to run your own tests or just increase your knowledge base.  If you have any comments or questions, please leave them below as your thoughts and experiences may prove valuable to others.

Join me over at Instagram @dennisamook or my website, www.dennismook.com. 

Thanks for looking. Enjoy! 

Dennis A. Mook 

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