I wanted to understand the filters on the Pancam so I used the table from this article, http://athena.cornell.edu/pdf/tb_pancam.pdf , to assemble a graph of exactly what we are seeing from the Pancam. I also used information from http://www.squ1.com/light/human-eye.html to include a representation of the sensitivity of the human eye to various wavelengths. Here it is:

NOTES:

Half of the filters are in wavelengths we don't see.

Of the eight in the visible spectra:

One of these, the open L1 postion, sees "everything".

One of these, #8, sees very little, like a welder's goggles, in the peak of blue range of human sensitivity.

Two of these, L7 and R1, see everything with a shorter wavelength, beginning at the peak of the blue range of human sensitivity. Is this the filter that is making that basalt, and those viewing mars, so blue? (Or violet, really.)

Cyan is a color we do not see very well, which is the slightly wider bandpass filter L6. Is this the one most used for blue in most combinations, since that's how my monitor, printer, etc. does it? (Robert Clark, this is the blue you refered me to in response to my kodachrome rant.)

We see alot of green, this is filter L5.

We see alot of yellow, highlighter color, filter L4.

Our vision of red tapers off towards the infrared, filter L3 covers part of that.

All but one of these are from the left camera.

These filters cover 38% of the visable spectrum.

CONCLUSIONS:

We will never see The True Colors Of Mars. Not, at least, the way our eyes would see them.

Perhaps combining L7 and L6 before combining three channels would resolve the too blue issue. Or pulling out some violet in Photoshop.

I'll not be able to create reasonable Color Stereo Photos because all the visible channels are out of one camera. I'm broken-hearted, I really am. The blue issue doesn't give me the blues, but this does.

OTHER:

This analysis does not include the issues of solar distance or the effects of Martian atmosphere on the incoming spectra. Who knows what the color chips, wires, NASA logo or anything else looks like on Mars with human eyes.

Our eyes evolved on earth, not Mars.

I've not yet assembled color images from Mars myself, perhaps I'll try sometime, just not right away, especially given the color stereo thing, it was the only reason I really wanted to combine channels.

One of these days I'll post with embeded links.