Can I get color drift on a Nikon?

bigeater

Can the colors of a Nikon camera be calibrated somewhere in the firmware? I don't mean adjusting the tint on the LED screen. I mean the actual rendering of the colors. Again, it's not the green color cast. It's something else and it's really bumming me out.

I have noticed that I'm getting slightly funky colors from my D7000 lately, even though I always set a custom white balance, use Adobe CS6 and calibrate most of my jobs using a ColorChecker. It's not so much the colors that are "off" it's that the relationships between the colors just don't have that Nikon "snap" that I used to see. I only have 40,000 or 50,000 shots on the camera but I'm wondering if there's anything NIkon can do for this. Does anyone have experience getting the color parameters of their camera recalibrated (other than with the green LED cast issue).
Thanks
RS

PB_PM

Are you sure it isn't the colour settings for your monitor? Have you calibrated it?

bigeater

Yup. My monitors are calibrated within an inch of their lives and the last time I took the test I was in the 90th percentile for color discrimination. That's why I'm assuming that there's either something wrong with the camera or I have a big old tumor eating away at my visual cortex. I'd like to rule out the camera first.
And again, it's not the vividness of the colors, it's how they relate to each other.

PB_PM

Have you checked the colour space settings on the camera? Did you accidentally reset it to sRGB?

Ironheart

Are you shooting raw? If not, you might have accidentally changed your picture controls, page 131 in the D7000 manual

kyoshinikon

Turn off active D lighting for a start. While I love my D7000 (I see sharp and snappy pics) the color is a bit different on mine which is probably a reflection of that new "bayer" filter it featured. Are you experiencing a moire pattern or actual color flooding?

bigeater

I shoot RAW, and the place it's most noticeable is with straw-colored subjects such as pasta and blonde hair. They really start to go toward the fluorescent yellow of dog urine. People of Mediterranean extraction who have olive skin, their skin gets really muddy. And this happens with my Nikon speedlights, with daylight and with tungsten. Here's an example, the first one is what the camera rendered, the second is adjusted to make the pasta look like it actually did in real life.
I know a small jpg hosted by flickr is not the ideal way to show this problem, but that's the internet for you...

heartyfisher

I know what you mean .. frustrates the heck out of me ! I thought the only solution would be a to go get a D4 ;-) .. however it seems better for me recently .. I have been playing with some settings.. and work flow.. not exactly sure what makes it better sorry ..

Hmm .. what raw converter do you use ?

FlowtographyBerlin

Hmm .. what raw converter do you use ?

Looks like he's using Lightroom (image description).

bigeater

Yes, indeed, lemsI use Lightroom 4. So it sounds like I'm not the only one with strange color prob Have you found a solution? I was thinking about selling the D7000 and looking for a good deal on used D3 or D3x, it would be in the same price ballpark as a D800 and i wouldn't have to worry about all the weirdness of the D800.