In camera sRGB vs. Adobe RGB settings

Capturing
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My trusty old Canon 60d has both the above settings, and initially made sense to me, until I read an answer to a letter found in PhotoPlus (June 2016)…

Q… Should I shoot in AdobeRGB or sRGB for the best results when I shoot in Raw?

A… It doesn’t matter. A Raw file has no colour space until it’s processed, and the rear LCD can’t show the extra colours in an AdobeRGB image. If you first choose AdobeRGB, the first character of the file name will be an underscore, eg: _MG0001.CR2. I use sRGB for this reason alone.

So, if this the case, why would Canon offer both modes, and not just one? I mean doesn’t it seem pointless having two modes which do the same thing?

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  1. If you shoot raw, it doesn’t matter which one you choose.
  2. If you shoot jpeg then it does matter, at least in principle, and many people do shoot only jpeg. AdobeRGB is a wider gamut color space than sRGB. It can be better starting point for jpeg-processing and printing. It is the rear LCD which cannot show the difference, but with a good monitor you can see the difference.
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@Fotonut the raw file is not changed in any way with regard to this setting. What does change is the embedded JPEG and the JPEG thumbnail.
If you develop the raws yourself, set your camera to sRGB - then your thumbs and preview look correct everywhere.

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