View Full Version : How do I lock white balance in auto mode??


Peter Jefferson
March 16th, 2004, 04:26 AM
seriously.. ive tried everythign.. form 3200 and 5700 to different manual settings and its either too red or too blue..

stick it in auto, let it fine tune and voila.. but move the cam and BANG, lighting is dead again..

all i wanan do is lock white balance in place once its tracked..
its not much to ask...

i mean.. hell, the MX500 even has an AE Lock fuinction which locks the lighting setup

what am i forgetting here..?
what am i doin wrong??

I shoot mainly weddings and big corporate jobs (controlled and uncontrolled environments)

and frankly, its not good enough when skintones are perfent, then the sun comes out and then they die...

any ideas suggestions and tips would be greatly appreciated.

thx in advance

Peter Jefferson
March 16th, 2004, 04:33 AM
by the way the above rant is due to my own frustrations, not the cameras inability to operate.. i jsut havent experienced this before at such a level

Ken Plotin
March 16th, 2004, 10:42 AM
Peter,
Forget auto. Set the WB switch on the side of the camera to either A or B preset, then use the WB button on the left front of the cam to set your white balance. The viewfinder will confirm accurate balance. After that, leave it alone until your next location demands a WB change.
Hope this helps.
Ken

Barry Green
March 16th, 2004, 12:47 PM
Exactly.

When the white balance is in auto, it's automatically tracking and constantly readjusting. You can't lock "auto".

So use either "A" or "B" and manually take a white balance. It'll stay locked on that white balance until you change it.

Martin Weilmeier
March 18th, 2004, 02:51 PM
I believe that on the DVX-100A you can assign WB Lock to one of the User buttons. I'm not sure if this is what you are looking for, but I believe it locks the WB while in AWT (auto white tracking) mode. The indicator on screen switches from ATW to LOCK when this is activated.

martin

Steve D. Taylor
March 20th, 2004, 11:12 AM
Yes, if my dvc80 is the same (and I think it is in this respect), there is an option to assign "ATWLOCK" to a user button in the SW MODE setup screen.

Steve.

Peter Jefferson
March 21st, 2004, 12:53 AM
I believe that on the DVX-100A you can assign WB Lock to one of the User buttons. I'm not sure if this is what you are looking for, but I believe it locks the WB while in AWT (auto white tracking) mode. The indicator on screen switches from ATW to LOCK when this is activated.


THATS what i was after....
I couldnt find it in the manual thou... :(

Tung Bui
March 21st, 2004, 06:17 PM
ON the dvx100A you can set automatic mode so that the auto white tracking is off ie you have to set the white balance yourself. That way the camera will still do its own auto exposure, gain and focus.

Peter Jefferson
March 22nd, 2004, 04:40 AM
Hey tung bui, long time no see!
Hows the 100a going??

i thought about using manual WB, but i don t like the overcompensation it gives (eiter too red or too blue)

I actaully LIKE the auto white tracking, i just couldnt figure out how to lock it !!!

Tung Bui
March 23rd, 2004, 10:03 PM
I find the automatic white balance way too slow on the panasonic.On my mx500 it took a long time for it to make up its mind so I gave up and just white balanced it myself.

The thing I cant figure out is that when I turn off the auto mode to go manual I find the camera increases its exposure by a half to one stop even though on the iris stays the same (and gain definitely off). As well when you move the iris you actually can go half stops between the numbers stated on the screen. Too bad if you forget the exact exposure. The exposure lock on the mx is something I wish the dvx has. It was simple and locked everything until you changed it.