[Leica] Digital: colour rendition and image quality

[pdzwig at summaventures.com (Peter Dzwig)]

Dear All,

I have just spent a few days photographing and recording some of my late 
father's paintings before they were sent on semi-permanent loan to the 
University of Torun in Poland.

I decided for fairly obvious reasons to use my D-1 to take digital images of 
the 
  70-odd paintings which have been shipped. I was horrified at the variation 
in 
colour between the painting itself, what I saw on the screen and what I 
actually 
got on the SD card. Of course I am aware that my eye and the camera don't 
have 
the same response characteristics; but interestingly I could do little to 
get 
the camera to come close...

Is this my D-1, is it common or is there some reasonable explanation?

Further, my father painted largely abstract works (you might describe him as 
an 
abstract expressionist, but it's not particularly accurate). On those where 
the 
boundaries between areas of colour were not distinct the camera appeared to 
have 
difficulty in producing a sharp image. The opposite being true where there 
were 
strong boundaries. I am coming to the conclusion that the 
image-reconstruction 
algorithms taking the output from the chip and building the resultant image 
in 
memory must have been fooled. Any thoughts??

FWIW, conditions were flat daylight, no auxiliary lighting.

Thanks for any thoughts - as I have a lot more still to do I would like to 
know 
if anyone can suggest correction techniques.

Although this is a fairly stringent test - and an unusual one - when all is 
said 
and done the D-1 is a Leica and should have done better.

Peter Dzwig