A new idea for cameras that offer a "flat" setting in their Jpeg menus.

I've been playing around with my Panasonic S5 camera because it's part of the L mount alliance, it's smaller and lighter than the other full frame L cameras I have, and because the files from it look just great. It has more "canned" Jpeg profiles than do any of my Leica cameras and one of the profiles I like in the S5 is the "flat" one. As you can see from the samples here, the flat images are, well, flat. The dynamic range is compressed so that shadows don't block up too quickly and highlights don't burn out until you really push them. The files are like flat negatives that are begging for #3 contrast papers. 

The Sigma fp offers a similar setting only it's called, "off." Which means that no profile is applied and the file is similar to an unprocessed raw file, only without as much bit depth. Both cameras offer a very flat profile which reminds me of Log files for video. The benefit, at least from my point of view, is that these flat files are very malleable. Cooperative. Configurable.

You can make the midranges contrastier, keep the shadows open, tone done aggressive highlights and move colors around without the files hitting the edges of their performance bubbles too quickly. Sure, you could shoot raw and do the same (and more) but for many situations in which color correction isn't fraught with peril you can instead choose to use Jpegs and have the advantage of working with much, much smaller files. 

That's all. Just wanted to mention the presence of flat files and non-profiles in case you glossed over that in the 395 page owner's manuals...