I don't quite know how to respond to this. In my 25 years of printing color professionally, including countless portfolios for regional media photographers, a 5cc shift was automatic grounds for rejection.
This was the result of "blind testing". I would make four or five prints from one negative/ transparency, and present them, one at a time, to my wife and others who CLAIM a nearly "mystic" eye for color balance. The correlation (from the questions of "Which is more cyan ?" 0r, What changes in color filtration do you think are appropriate ?") is really zero. I could do as well flipping a coin.
Thre are as many variables affecting the PERCEPTION of color as are introduced by ambiet conditions and the "mindsets" of the evaluators.
I could tell the differences betwen color balance with an analyzer ... I cold not, and, frankly, I tend to doubt those who claim to do as well, or better, "by eye".
I guess the obvious question would be, who calibrates your analyzer? And, without a gray card or color wheel in the corner of every sheet of film or on every roll. how do you use the analyzer to correct color balance when their is no reference point for your negative?
*I* "calbrate" the processed information when I use the analyzer. The specifc method would best be described in the ColorStar 3000 manual. I'll try to condense:
1. Select a point on a test strip, exposed from a sample ~ 18% gray area.
2. Press "Analyze". The ColorStar will measure the densities of yellow, cyan, and magenta - and an integration indicating overall density - and "reset" the ColorStar to indicate a "null" for (close to) 0.55 density. Another test strip, exposed to those values and analyzed again, will be closer to 0.55.
3. Contiune until the strips are within +/- .01 or so.
4. Without an image of 18% gray, repeated analyses will be averaged, in the same way as an exposure meter averages the brightness levels, to give a more or less "close" color head setting.
... channel on the analyzer for ONE combination of paper emulsion and film emulsion, how can you then transfer these unique values to different film emulsions and expect the the same neutral balance? Try doing this with Kodak Gold 200, Kodak Portra 160 NC, and Fuji Pro 160 S.
You can't. The ColorStar is designed to establish information about a specific paper, chemistry, light source, and target color balance -- not to calibrate an entire system. A change of paper, for example, from Fuji to Kodak requires the establishment of a new "channel".
Clearly, you will need to adjust to the unique characteristics of each film emulsion. If you establish a benchmark of "Neutral" for Portra 160 NC lot# xyz123, printed on Fuji CA lot# abc456, and you then analyze Fuji Pro 160 C lot# lkj890, for printing on Fuji CA lot# abc456, the analyzer, of course, will only tell you what is "correct" for its benchmark, not your task at hand.
Not dependent of emulsion. The ColorStar will digest the characterstics of the light received from any emulsion, and translate it to dichro head settings to duplicate a specfic color combination/ overall density.
I have not even addressed the issue of changing light. Many of us shoot early morning or evening due to the warm, gentle light these times provide. Does your analyzer allow for these intentional differences in color? On the contrary. It will correct for them, leaving a dull, neutral print.
Well ... I have a series of images exposed with the only source of light being the output of color transperencies projected throuhg a Hasselblad PCP80 Projector, and onto AgfaColor *Daylight* balanced film. The Color temeperature of the projection lamp is somewhere around 3800K, and really, all bets are off after the light passes through the various transparencies, anyway. Trying to print these "by eye" would be a nightmare. Using the Colorstar, at least the effort was coherent, and far less painful. Yes, cyan filtraion - a lot of it - was necessary.
I said previously in this thread that it must be a religious thing. So I guess that makes me a preacher for the opposing religion, "You don't need a stinkin' analyzer." If you can calibrate an analyzer, you can balance a print.
I guess I'll have to agree with that last part: I CAN and do "calibrate" the ColorStar 3000, and I "balance" prints - very well, thank you.
I have three (3) ColorStar 3000s. None of them "stink".