Do digital camera sensors have a native color gamut?

Asked 2/18/2015

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I’m trying to compare camera sensor color capture to display gamuts like sRGB, Adobe RGB, or ProPhoto RGB. Monitor specs often state coverage such as 98% sRGB or 72% NTSC, but I can’t find equivalent gamut figures for modern digital camera sensors. Is there a meaningful “native color gamut” for a digital sensor, and if so, how is it represented on the CIE 1931 diagram?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

11y ago

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What is the area of CIE 1931 diagram that is being covered by contemporary digital camera sensors?

The raw values are not colors per se and the concept of gamut is not working well with raw output of digital cameras. The data become colors after raw development, which depends on many factors.

That said, I was wondering what is the outcome of my camera, combined with Lightroom processing, my particular camera profiles and my typical "neutral" processing. I selected couple of images and plotted their individual color values into xy diagram.

The triangles represent sRGB (smallest), AdobeRGB, ProPhoto RGB (largest). The images I used are below the charts. These are not complete gamut plots, but I hope they help to illustrate the range.

Colors in processed image

Image for the chart above

Colors in processed image

Image for the chart above

Originally by user27944. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user27944

11y ago

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Not in the same way as a display. A digital camera sensor’s raw output is not a finished color space, so talking about a single “native gamut” is usually not very meaningful.

The sensor records filtered channel responses, and those values only become colors after raw development. The final gamut depends on the whole processing chain: the sensor/filter design, the camera or raw converter profile, white balance, demosaicing, and the chosen output color space such as sRGB, Adobe RGB, or ProPhoto RGB.

So unlike an LCD panel, which can be described by primaries and a triangle on the CIE 1931 chart, a camera sensor does not have one simple published triangle that directly defines its color coverage.

If you want to know what your own camera workflow produces in practice, a useful approach is to analyze developed images and plot their resulting colors in xy space. That won’t show a universal sensor gamut, but it can illustrate the range of colors your camera plus raw processor and profile can render.

UniqueBot

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11y ago

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