Canon 7D: sRGB vs. Adobe RGB (1998) Color Space

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 26. January 2011 - 6:21

The Canon 7D like all the other “pro” cameras supports both the sRGB and the Adobe RGB (1998) color space. I don't know of any camera including medium format that supports the ProPhoto RGB color space.

  • sRGB is the smallest color space. It includes the least amount of colors.
  • ProPhoto RGB is the largest color space. It includes the most colors.
  • Abobe 1998 RBG is “the” in between.

Isn't it, just like Goldilocks and the 3 bears? Not too big, not too small, just right?

Turns out that NO.

  1. The LCD panels on your camera only supports the sRGB color space. No Adobe RGB (1998) displayed here. If you shoot Adobe RGB and the LCD shows clipped highlight, are they really?
  2. Almost all screens only support sRGB. There are a few monitors that are labeled “Extended Gamut”. The “Extended Gamut” is often the equivalent of the Adobe RGB (1998), but no guaranty. They are significantly more expensive, usually in the $1,000+ range. These “Extended Gamut” monitors are only used by “pros” designers/graphics…
  3. No Internet browser supports the ProPhoto RBG color space. 0, zero, none, nada. The new html5 is supposed to support color profiles and Adobe RGB (1998) but it it doesn't work properly yet. It's more a miss than a hit.
  4. Most printers only support the sRGB color space. Some of the higher end printers, like the Epson R2880, do support the Adobe RGB (1998) color space.

One of the better technical article explaining the difference between sRGB & Adobe RGB (1998) is at http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/sRGB-AdobeRGB1998.htm

The Canon cameras supports both the sRGB and the Adobe color space. It uses a different filename format for each color space.

  • sRGB: img_1234.cr2
  • Adobe: _MG_2345.cr2

My take is that you should use the color space of the final usage. So if your main output is:

  • JPEG files: sRGB
  • Web viewing: sRGB
  • Higher end printing: Adobe RGB (1998)
  • TIFF files: Adobe RGB (1998)
  • 1 hour photo printing lab: sRGB
  • Photo viewing applications: sRGB
  • Lightroom/PhotoShop: Adobe RGB (1998)

So the question is why not always make photos in Adobe RGB (1998) and convert/export in sRGB at the output stage?

The problem is that the sRGB is a smaller color space. To make the Adobe RGB (1998) fit in the sRGB, some “stuff” has to be deleted and you can't control what's being deleted. Some of the highlights of any color will become white. Some of the darker shadows of any color will become black.