Jim, both pictures are a little out, the first and second were not taken with the same camera. The beni is a little dark in the first and the second has a glare over the water softening the beni a little.
Please give your opinion of this koi. Your thoughts are valued.
To give some idea of the volume this koi had over most of the others, here is a photo of one batch of auction koi, all from the same spawn, my kohaku is just coming into shot, bottom, second left.
I think you can see from this photo, Momotaro are not ignoring quality and pattern over size, all koi through the auction were over 40cm and 11 months old.
I think the true colour can be seen.
Maurice..