Paul Anderegg
September 18th, 2014, 03:18 PM
My new $120 DSC Pocket Camette chat arrived today, so I threw my little HDR-CX900 on it to see how off it really is. I don't have any 3200k lighting with me at the moment, just LED, so I played around with the true white side of the chart in direct 5600k sunlight.
Well.......the colors are off, white balance as well. The camera insists that 1PM direct sunlight is 6100k. This is no surprise, as it thinks my 3200k incandescent lighting is 3700k. If you have ever used the push to white balance button, you may note that regardless of the kelvin it displays, it actually automatically adjusts the "OPTIONS" off-sets without displaying those values. In other words, you will get more accurate colors with 3200k push to white than 3200k using either the incandescent setting or manually setting 3200k.
So here is what I did. After confirming that the camera found the center of the vectorscope at 6100k using push to white, I set 6100k in the manual dial white balance, and adjusted the OPTION offsets until I got the vectorscope centered again. This gave me the cameras basic color correction matrix settings. They are A2/G1. I put A2/G1 into the options menu of every white balance setting except push to white, since it automatically adjusts these values. Brought the camera indoors and tested it out under house lighting. The new values carry over perfectly as far as I can tell. Home lighting whites around 2700k here, and the A2/G1 settings matched the auto white off the DSC card when I manually dialed in 2700k. I also visually checked the LCD on the camera as well as a 7" off camera LCD monitor, using the color side of the DSC chart, and they were accurate in hue and saturation, especially the blue panel.
These WB option offsets should carry over to the AX100 and X70 as well I would imagine. I have a Panasonic Varicam which was professionally aligned, and I use it to determine what kelvin my lighting actually is, which is why I know the Sony kelvin readout is wildly inaccurate. All my camera lights white at 3200 with the Varicam, and daylight whites at 5600k. If you are using these cameras along side higher end models, I would suggest not only using these offsets, but also adjusting your white balance kelvin 500k above what is displayed on the Sony readout. I will post some more on these issues in a few days, after I put the camera on a real high end vectorscope/waveform monitor at the station I work at. I am interested in how the Cinenmatone feature looks on the scope, and will be sure to post pictures of the vectorscope and waveform monitor screen with the Sony on the DSC chart under accurate 3200k studio lighting.
I should mention I have the new firmware version, and have always found the colors on this camera to be "off" quite a bit. I really feel good about the camera now. And yes, you need to put A2/G1 into AWB as well, as it was found to be just as off as the rest of the settings!
Paul
Well.......the colors are off, white balance as well. The camera insists that 1PM direct sunlight is 6100k. This is no surprise, as it thinks my 3200k incandescent lighting is 3700k. If you have ever used the push to white balance button, you may note that regardless of the kelvin it displays, it actually automatically adjusts the "OPTIONS" off-sets without displaying those values. In other words, you will get more accurate colors with 3200k push to white than 3200k using either the incandescent setting or manually setting 3200k.
So here is what I did. After confirming that the camera found the center of the vectorscope at 6100k using push to white, I set 6100k in the manual dial white balance, and adjusted the OPTION offsets until I got the vectorscope centered again. This gave me the cameras basic color correction matrix settings. They are A2/G1. I put A2/G1 into the options menu of every white balance setting except push to white, since it automatically adjusts these values. Brought the camera indoors and tested it out under house lighting. The new values carry over perfectly as far as I can tell. Home lighting whites around 2700k here, and the A2/G1 settings matched the auto white off the DSC card when I manually dialed in 2700k. I also visually checked the LCD on the camera as well as a 7" off camera LCD monitor, using the color side of the DSC chart, and they were accurate in hue and saturation, especially the blue panel.
These WB option offsets should carry over to the AX100 and X70 as well I would imagine. I have a Panasonic Varicam which was professionally aligned, and I use it to determine what kelvin my lighting actually is, which is why I know the Sony kelvin readout is wildly inaccurate. All my camera lights white at 3200 with the Varicam, and daylight whites at 5600k. If you are using these cameras along side higher end models, I would suggest not only using these offsets, but also adjusting your white balance kelvin 500k above what is displayed on the Sony readout. I will post some more on these issues in a few days, after I put the camera on a real high end vectorscope/waveform monitor at the station I work at. I am interested in how the Cinenmatone feature looks on the scope, and will be sure to post pictures of the vectorscope and waveform monitor screen with the Sony on the DSC chart under accurate 3200k studio lighting.
I should mention I have the new firmware version, and have always found the colors on this camera to be "off" quite a bit. I really feel good about the camera now. And yes, you need to put A2/G1 into AWB as well, as it was found to be just as off as the rest of the settings!
Paul