How to get Canon colors on Sony camera? Picture Profile Settings

I have been working with Sony cameras for 5 years now. Why? Because I think that it’s a brilliant gear and obvious choice for filming weddings, but also for more demanding video productions, such as music videos, commercials, real estate videos or travel vlogs. The only area that, let’s be honest, leaves a lot to be desired in Sony cameras is… color. Although Canon is technologically far behind Sony, it is much better when it comes to the color science. Therefore, a question appeared in my head: is it possible to emulate the Canon colors on Sony camera?

Can you get Sony to look like Canon?

When you type “Canon colors in Sony” in the YouTube search engine, you will see a dozen videos with specific settings provided, which you just need to type in the Picture Profile to reproduce Canon’s colors in Sony. Interestingly, all these settings are different, and some of them are even opposite to each other – in one we raise the blacks level to +15, and in another we reduce it to -10.

This means that there are no universal settings that will be perfect for every situation. Of course, a certain base of settings is a helpful starting point, but depending on the lighting conditions in which you are recording, there may be a scenario, where despite the above settings, the image from Sony will have too much Tint compared to Canon. Then, instead of opening menu and going into the Picture Profile settings and modifying them every single time, you can simply enter the white balance settings and slightly increase Magenta to reduce the level of Tint in the image.

It’s not enough that you mindlessly copy the settings from me or another filmmaker – you have to learn how to adapt them to your situation. In a moment I will share the settings that I use every day to reproduce Canon’s colors in Sony as faithfully as possible, but I encourage you to experiment with them. Try to record several videos in which you change one setting at a time – first you can increase Magenta to see how it affects the image. Then, you can increase the level of detail and see what happens, then play around with Black Level etc. That way you will get used to the Picture Profile settings and learn to see when your image stops looking natural and which setting to change to fix it.

Sony in camera settings to achieve Canon colors

I’ll cut to the chase, which is what you came here for. Open the Sony Camera menu, find the Picture Profile tab, then select any PP1 to PP9 profile you want to adjust.

Here are my settings for getting Canon colors on a Sony camera:

Black Level +8
Gamma Still, Range: Wide, Level: -3
Color mode ITU709 Matrix
Saturation -7
Color Phase -7
Depth
R -2
G -1
B -2
C -1
M +3
Y -2
Detail -5

How to fix Sony video colors?

It is definitely easier to get Canon colors in a Sony camera if you use newer models such as the A7III, A7IV or A6400, A6600 in the case of cameras with the APS-C sensor. They have much better color science than the older A6300 or A6000.

Sony cameras have always had a tendency to record an image in which the colors were too green, unlike the Canon where the colors were shifted more towards magenta. Overall, the Canon image is slightly warmer and looks more cinematic than the greenish, cool and washed-out colors from Sony. Therefore, one of the most important settings when trying to reproduce Canon colors is to increase Magenta (M + 3) and decrease Yellow (Y-2).

The truth is, you can get closer to the Canon color science, but the only way to get 100% the same colors is… to buy a Canon camera. Sony and Canon are two different manufacturers who have separate technologies, patents and software in their products.