[Review&QnA] X-Rite Digital ColorChecker SG Imaging Accessory (MSDCCSG)
Electronics > Camera & Photo > Lighting & Studio > Light Meters & Accessories > Color Calibration Charts
[Review&QnA] X-Rite Digital ColorChecker SG Imaging Accessory (MSDCCSG)
About this item
- Array of 140 colors: 24 patches from original Color Checker, 17 step gray scale and 14 unique skin tone colors.
- Each square reflects light the same way as its real-life counterpart in all parts of the visible spectrum, under any illumination, and with any color reproduction process.
- Create a white balance with your digital camera to guarantee precise, uniform, neutral white under any lighting condition.
- Pair with camera profiling software to create a custom ICC profile of your camera.
Reviews
★★★★★
Style: Colorchecker Passport Photo 2 | Verified Purchase
I am an instant believer!!!
For the longest time I could not understand the reason a tool like this was needed. I thought it was nothing but a fancy way of doing white balances which I was already doing. Boy was I ever wrong!
I tried this for the first time recently on an ocean portrait shoot. In post I added the custom calibration and suddenly the colors exploded with vibrance and accuracy. This after struggling with color correction of the skin in Camera Raw for a long time. My photos have never looked better!
So in a nutshell this thing if used properly will make your images more vibrant while making the entire color correction process much easier. The skin was instantly perfect.
The gear I was using to get these results were the Sony A7R IV and 135mm G-Master.
If you do professional photography run do not walk to buy this!
★★★★★
Style: Colorchecker Passport Photo 2 | Verified Purchase
I look like a professional colorist now
This thing has INSTANTLY made my color for pictures and video 10x better. I wish I bought the one specifically for video, but this still works. This one is made more for photographers. But, if you don't have this, get it. It will help your photography/videography look more professional. Invest in yourself!
★★★★★
Style: Colorchecker Passport Photo 2 | Verified Purchase
An Indispensable Tool for Color-critical Work
Paraphrasing that beer commercial, I must admit that I do not use this product for all my photography, but when I have to have faithful color reproduction, I do rely on this X-Rite ColorChecker. When used as instructed, it does its magic, saving hours of fiddling with sliders and ensuring the colors of the final output stay true to the subject. So if you do product photography, digitize color documents for archival purposes, care about skin tone in portraiture, or want to preserve the nuances of, say, the most delicate hue gradations of flower petals, please do yourself a favor and get one.
The ColorChecker book is well made and feels as solid as a product made out of plastic can feel. Opening and closing it could have been smoother, though. Also, it does make quite loud sounds, making me freak out and double-check that I have not broken anything.
The last gripe I have is with Lightroom workflow: once you have run X-Rite ColorChecker Camera Calibration software, Lightroom has to be restarted. Otherwise, it won't see the newly generated camera profile. I wish X-Rite and Adobe could talk to each other and find a solution.
I am attaching a sample photo I took with Sony 7RM3. Hopefully, even after Amazon's recompression, the differences will translate. They are definitely there in my original image: subtle yet noticeable.
★★★★★
Style: Colorchecker Passport Photo 2 | Verified Purchase
It works
Used the color checker and it did make a difference in the final photos - very minor correction, however, a noticeable correction. Expensive but if you're picky about exact colors, then this is a good product for you. There is getting used to the product so watch the video tutorials and learn how to make camera profiles otherwise you'd be wasting your money if you don;t take it to that level of use because this product is expensive.
★★★★★
Style: Colorchecker Passport Photo 2 | Verified Purchase
Saving Your precious time
Q: What makes this simple color checker worth the $119 purchase?
A: TIME. your precious most valuable non-renewable asset. TIME
no more guessing if you got the colors right when doing color corrections in post.
essentially with one click you are able to make sure that with what ever light source you use during your shoot this color checker will be able to ACCURATELY bring back the right colors and white balance of your photo or video.
In this photo i used a yellow light (using a light bar) to exaggerate the effect but as you see in the final photo the yellow light is not evident.
*careful though this is for example only.
if you have different light sources such as the daylight one that i have on the top, then you will notice that it had turned more to blue-ish in compensation to the yellow hue emitted by the light bar.
I wish i could expound more on how this works but there are online videos that will be able to give the function of this item a little more justice
★★★★★
Style: Colorchecker Passport Photo 2 | Verified Purchase
A must have for any serious professional photographer. Artistic uses may vary.
For folks that want to get into photography as an artist or a career and wonder additional tools they would need to go with their camera and lenses, well, look no further. For the art photographer...maybe??
You got to give it to Xrite to eliminate the guess work of accurate colors and temperature, during shoots and in post! Although a bit of a pain in the a$$, once you get used to the set-up and workflow, it's pretty easy to use. The price may seem steep for most, but with it's professional and slight tactical appeal with rugged weather resistant construction, you'll easily realize you don't have to bust out that old janky, paint swatch covered, DIY calibration board you made from Home Depot parts and thought it was a great idea to use for a Bridal shoot, again. Those days are over and with this, you'll thank yourself for the investment well spent.
This pack also have a white and grey cards included, which is great for video and even to calibrate your white balance on your camera. I even use this with my camera phone. It's great for bloggers to do a quick 5 - 10 second clip of them holding the ColorChecker Passport flashing all sides if they're on location and in fairly consistent lighting conditions, like on an over cast day. So much stuff on Youtube avail to watch on how to use this valuable tool in your photography.
Most of us now have a nice bit of extra cash in our pockets, technically making this very affordable. Of course, I must say, this will only improve the color accuracy to a specific standard, for the sake of accuracy and consistency in their true visual representations. So, if your interested in industry work, such as, but not limited to; Product Photography, Hair Color Photography, Beauty, Fashion, Nature, even Reference Photography for 3D projects, or any type of photography where accurate colors are critical, this is the tool for you. It will make color matching and white balance less of a challenge.
All of that being said, it really comes down with usage. Art Photography, by the very nature of it, open-ended to interpretation by the artist (photographer), colors can be manipulated to fit a certain tone and emotion created by the artists vision. I guess if you needed accurate colors to have a good foundation to start with, especially if the imagery were grouped together and you want to stay consistent to a theme, then this may be a good investment for you.
What this product cannot do is make you a better photographer if you are not using it.
★★★★★
Style: ColorChecker Classic | Verified Purchase
Used in forensic photography as one assist to accuracy 👍
Pantone charts have to be kept in a cool dark place to have a life of 2 years or so. The more expose-use to UV the less the accuracy.
Combined with a black/white/gray card and a couple types of meters, degrees kelvin of light in a specific area can be accurately measured.
The color-temperature of the illuminating source (s) - will impact the color of the evidence in question.
✅ Don’t forget the system, monitor and printer all have to be calibrated as well for color accuracy.
★★★★★
Style: ColorChecker Classic | Verified Purchase
If you are reading this, buy it!
I really should have bought this a long time ago. If you don't already have one and you are reading this -just buy it. Next you are going to want something smaller so you will purchase the X-Rite MSCCPP ColorChecker Passport like I did. You really need both. The larger target is great inside and some outdoor shoots but you really can't beat the passport for portability. The Color Checker does the job and it costs what it costs. It would be nice if it cost less but the custom Lightroom color profiles for each of my camera bodies is well worth the investment. I also put this purchase off too long: Datacolor Spyder4Elite S4EL100 Colorimeter for Display Calibration There really is no point worrying about color management if you haven't calibrated your display. After reading many reviews I decided to purchase the Datacolor Spyder4Elite instead of the X-Rite ColorMunki or i1 Display Pro bundles. I'm very pleased with the X-Rite color checkers + Spyder4Elite combination.
★★★★★
Style: Colorchecker Passport Photo 2 | Verified Purchase
Perfect for color accuracy and traveling to shoots
The passport is the perfect size to take with you on a shoot. The software that accompanies it (must be downloaded after registration) works perfectly.
Be sure to get a good, close up shot of your passport with your actual lighting setup. If the passport is too small in the photo it will not automatically detect it. (You can crop and adjust manually)
I used this passport on canvas art in a gallery setting. The colors matched perfectly.
Best purchase for smaller projects. If you do large items, you may want to go with the larger sheet.
★★★★★
Style: Colorchecker Passport Photo 2 | Verified Purchase
I can't believe I went without this for so long!
I've had great success using this for nuanced corrections for spot on skin tones in complex lighting - grab a quick shot of your model holding the card and tune in post.
I've had middling success with the calibrated dual-luminance profile - it works well for exposure ranges close to the samples, but isn't very accurate in very dark exposures.
Question & Answer
Question :
I am new to photography and want to invest in a color checker. do i need additional software? besides adobe lightroom and photoshop?
Answer :
Hello, the x-Rite color checker comes with its own software which you need to install so that Lightroom and photoshop can recognize it and calibrate the colors accordingly. On the other hand, photoshop and Lightroom will cover 99.99% of your needs; being a beginner or a pro.
Question :
For stills/video, do I need to buy both versions, or can I use this for both? what are the pros/cons of the video version? is one a superset?
Answer :
I own the photo version only. I use it for white balance generally, and color adjustment for shooting jpegs (rather than raw) that I don’t want to post process in photoshop or Lightroom much or not at all. But you could certainly use it for video too. The description of the video version talks a lot about multi-camera setups, where you’re shooting video with 2 or 3 cameras at the same time and want to make sure the colors are being recorded the same in all the cameras so you don’t have to do as much color correction in post production. If you’re shooting video with only one camera, there’s no reason why the photo version of this device wouldn’t be all you need.
Question :
Is the color chart Matt or glosy-Thanks Biob Acks
Answer :
The chart has matte color squares with flat black borders. There are no shine spots on the chart.
Question :
Is the color checker useless if you are just going to apply presets to the image anyway? And does it work on the entire session, shade and sunight?
Answer :
The ColorChecker is a professional tool that is vital for obtaining consistent accurate photos. You need to take a photo with the ColorChecker included each time you change your lighting scenario. That means that one in shade and one in sunlight, one with flash one without etc. One should also be using the manual white balance setting to achieve optimum results. Preset color balance are pretty much useless as they are a "guess" of what "normal" is.
Question :
Does this work with luminar app by skylum?
Answer :
Should. I'm not familiar with the app, specifically. But this item is a 'thing' - its like a card of reference colors that are strictly quality controlled (in terms of production). Not digital, no OS. So if the app works on your computer, by itself, then its just a matter of getting this image in there (via 'open' or 'import' or whatever) and getting back to work.
Question :
Does anyone know if the passport photo or passport video can be used for both photo and video? i don't want to buy 2 of them.
Answer :
Basically yes. Both checkers have the same color balances.
Question :
Will this work on Gimp if I manually use the color dropper tool?? Thanks.
Answer :
Gimp is just an image editing tool. This product is for setting the white balance in a camera before filming. It serves no purpose inside a program like Gimp.
Question :
Is this water proof? I am looking for something to white balance under water.
Answer :
Unfortunately these x-rites do not withstand water. My checker is made of cardboard. Hope this helps.
Question :
What is the difference between the color checkers that are $30 and the ones that are $350?
Answer :
they both work but the 350 one give you more colors , better match
Question :
Anyone else getting a desaturated image in Lightroom?
Answer :
I have not experienced any issues with desaturated images.
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