Anybody know how to black balance the EX1? The white balance is just a simple push of the button...but I've heard that black balance must be done in the "maintenance menu". How do you get into the maintenance menu?....and can you actually black balance this camera?

Thanks in advance

Steve

...the maintenance menu. Press and hold MENU and CANCEL on the rear of the camera, then press SEL/SET to access.

Thanks...amazing that you can't find that in the manual!

To those who have their EX1 firmware updated to v. 1.11:

Is the Black Balance item active in the hidden maintenance menu? With my current fw (1.02), it's there, but grayed out...

To those who have their EX1 firmware updated to v. 1.11:

Is the Black Balance item active in the hidden maintenance menu? With my current fw (1.02), it's there, but grayed out...

My version 1.05 has it.

OK, so if you perform a White Balance, then turn on the Black Balance in the maintainance menu, will the camera shut down the Iris and perform the Black Balance?

John

Thanks...amazing that you can't find that in the manual!

Umm, that's because you, the end user, are not supposed to be in the maintenance menus in the first place. Black balancing is one item though that I feel should be in the user menu area if not activated by a switch. It's not needed as frequently as white balancing.

-gb-

Greg, we discussed this option elsewhere (for the EX3); what are the most typical circumstances when you _would_ run the auto Black Balance procedure?

Greg, we discussed this option elsewhere (for the EX3); what are the most typical circumstances when you _would_ run the auto Black Balance procedure?

Its main purpose is to eliminate any residual current being output from the pixel sites under conditions of complete darkness... often referred to as thermal noise. That's why the camera will automatically close the iris completely when it does the black balance.

Conditions under which you may want to black balance are typically when the camera experiences a large change in operating temperature... especially from colder to warmer. Otherwise, it is a periodic thing to allow for other minor factors that could come into play.

Here's something that just occurred to me though. With CMOS sensor technology, black balancing may not be as necessary as it is with CCD type devices. We all talk about how clean and relatively noise free CMOS sensors are by design so this may have played into the decision to make it a maintenance menu item on the EX.

-gb-

Does anyone know if there is a black blance on the EX cameras anywhere?

I don't mean any of the gamma altering functions I mean a true and proper black balance similar to the white balance?

The EX3 has an auto black balance function that can be executed from the menus. It is the first sub-menu on the Camera Set menu page.

However, the EX3 (and I assume the EX1) automatically performs a black balance everytime you turn it on, so it would be unusual to ever need to use this menu control.

Have never done a manual black balance on an EX but I have messed one up on another camera. Make certain the iris is closed or better yet, put a lens cap on. Any light leaking into the sensor can result in some funky results after doing a black balance.

i had a back focus problem today on set with a rented EX3 as B-camera. this made wonder about my own EX1 and its own Back Focus. when looking in the maintenance menu i became aware that the "Auto FB Adjust" and "Auto BLK Balance" were greyed out. has anyone with v1.11_0531 had success adjusting one or both of these procedures?

What I've noticed on my Ex-1 is that the black balance in preset seems off on vectorscope and I can't correct it with a manual black balance.

In fact my whole color balance in preset is way off to the magenta and no tweaks in the PP menus can correct it. Its too bad because I generally like to use preset. My friends Ex-1 doesn't have this issue. I can perfectly match the preset look with a white balance through 3/8 Green + 1/8 CTB but can't get near it with the phase or color shift or matrix adjustments.

that really sucks, but wait are you saying that you have the option to perform a "manual" black balance?

Black balance should not have a notcable effect on white balance or colours. Setting the black balance sets the black levels of the R, G and B channels so that they are all at zero. Unless it is grossely off it should not change the cameras colour balance, which is a function of R, G, and B gain as opposed to black balances simple zero level set. There can be a tiny hints of coloration in near black parts of the picture with very poor black balance but there certainly should not be any effect to mid tones or other parts of the image.

I'm not sure that my magenta hued preset is due only to poor black balance. In practice I haven't noticed that the blacks were off but the whites are clearly magenta. Of course I haven't really looked carefully at the blacks. I didn't notice any of this till I got on a vectorscope.

It seems that the preset has a matrix and color balance all its own independent of the PP settings that underlie any other changes you set in the camera. In a more expensive camera those are adjustable as well. Too bad I can't at least do a black balance. Funny though, until I looked at the vectorscope I never noticed how off it was and used preset fairly often with nary a complaint.

The camera just came back from Sony repair so I'm not totally sure it was a pre-existing condition though - might be from a new board. Maybe I should call Sony.

My EX3 and EX1 both have very good colour response with no hue or colour cast. I would suggest a megenta colour cast using presets is abnormal.

i had a back focus problem today on set with a rented EX3 as B-camera. this made wonder about my own EX1 and its own Back Focus. when looking in the maintenance menu i became aware that the "Auto FB Adjust" and "Auto BLK Balance" were greyed out. has anyone with v1.11_0531 had success adjusting one or both of these procedures?

just want to remind everyone about my inquiry?
thanks.

just want to remind everyone about my inquiry?
thanks.

i had a back focus problem today on set with a rented EX3 as B-camera. this made wonder about my own EX1 and its own Back Focus. when looking in the maintenance menu i became aware that the "Auto FB Adjust" and "Auto BLK Balance" were greyed out. has anyone with v1.11_0531 had success adjusting one or both of these procedures?

For the Auto FB Adjustment, make sure the focus ring is forward and the barrel switch in auto. The cam cannot do an Auto FB adjust if the lens focus is in manual mode.

thanks tom, but i've done that and still can't access/perform it.

That's disappointing Michael. A couple things you've probably also tried, but I would put the menu display on partial, the iris switch to auto, and shutter auto switch to on.

I assume you also reset all.

From the description you gave in the other thread about the backfocus, it's pretty imperative to get the flange back calibration working.

I checked my firmware version just now, same as yours, FB and BB not grayed out.

i haven't done an all reset yet or any of the other suggestions you mentioned. i'll try it again tonight. thanks for responding.

EUREKA!!! I found it!

so, note to all who are trying to perform a Auto FB Adjust you must:
1. place the lens focus ring forward(auto)
2. switch focus switch to auto
3. zoom must be in servo
4. iris set to auto

i think that's all.

still can't perform an Auto BLK Balance though

I've managed to get into the maintenance menu, but which menu-option do I need to select to perform auto black balance ?

Is it MN > Black Shading > Auto BLK Shad ? Just want to make sure i got the correct one.

Why bother? The camera automatically does a black balance everytime you turn it on.

I wish it did. I've got A LOT of noise in my black levels when shooting footage. I was told that resetting / calibrating the black levels would solve the problem, just want to make sure I got the correct menu option.

I doubt that noise in your black levels has anything do to with the black balance. Black balance is for color.

Twan, like Doug said, black balance is done each time the camera is turned on.

If your shadows are noisy, it probably is the way your camera is set up. I find Profile 4 is noisy. Also make sure your gain is 0 or -3. Black stretch will also affect noise.

The EXcams do have a bit of noise, much better than most cameras in this price range. The truth is we are really spoiled these days. A lot of people feel CCD's are less noisy and maybe they are especially 2/3" CCD's.

I think the EX cams are really the first inexpensive HD cameras that have decent low light performance.

Best way to get rid of noise is to not underexpose. And not boost the gain. Also mess with your profiles.

Sorry for bumping this thread, but I was going through the EX1R Maintenance Menu and the Auto Black Balance option for some reason only executes in interlaced mode.

Hope that eliminates some confusion, you now know that if you shoot interlaced, and you know how to get to the service menus, you can do an auto black balance on the EX1R.