I'm a Sony user and setting a manual white balance while keeping everything else (focus, exposure, audio) in automatic is easy.

But my friend has a DVX100A and he's stumped. Pushing the 'full auto' button turns on the auto w/balance ok, but this is easily fooled and seems to wander off even during a shot. I know there's a dedicated w/bal switch with A, B and preset, so is this where he locks down the setting but still leaves the rest of the cam on auto?

A bullet point sequence would be helpful from an owner.

tom.

Tom,
If you go into auto setting in the menu there is the option there to turn the white balance to auto or just to leave it off when you press the auto button. When it is set to off then the white balance presets on the switch on the side of the camera come into effect regardless of whether you press the auto button. If you have chosen for the auto white balance to be on with auto mode than off course it will turn on when you press the auto button. This will account for the funny change in color every time your friend presses the auto button.

It all depends on what you are doing. If you are shooting stuff all day then I prefer to leave the preset to 5600k so that as the light gets more orange I will see it. This gives the golden hour its nicer tone. I use to white balance everything but it all ends up looking like the same time of the day all the time. Otherwise the auto white balance on the dvx is hopeless. Its so slow and inacurate unlike the sony's so I do a manual white balance if I want accurate colors.

good luck.

Sound about right. My DVX100a's Auto White Balance doesn't work very well when moving through different areas of a house with different color temperatures. My VX2100 works much better. If we could just get a mix of both cameras I'd be happy.

Tery

Thanks guys, most helpful. The Sony is TTL w'bal, whereas the Panny uses an external sensor to gather 'at camera' ambient colour temperature info. You'd think the Panasonic would be better than the Sony, wouldn't you? But my VX2k is better than my MX300, so somehow Sony overcomes the limitations of only white balancing what the lens sees.

tom.

Jumping in a bit late, but still confused about the DVX WB concept. Apparently, because manual WB is possible using a white (gray) card, there is some TTL WB metering, at least in manual mode. Maybe auto WB mode goes through an external sensor. As far as I can see on pictures, this sensor seems to be covered by a deep red colored plastic window. If I am right, how can this sensor ever measure the full light spectrun?

Andre is correct. Manual white balance is TTL, auto white balance uses the external sensor.

Thanks Barry, but what I wanted to know is whether or not this sensor is covered by a deep red plastic cover. If yes this looks more like an IR sensor.

i think ppl are gettin confused here...

the DVX has one of the most accurate WB sensors on the market when going auto, however, the q was...
"setting a manual white balance while keeping everything else (focus, exposure, audio) in automatic is easy."

With the DVX, its also easy...
Not only do u have AB presets, but these can be adjusted on the fly with the little round button just on front on th boton right hand side of the lens (when looking at the lens directly)

In either auto or manual, im yet to find a camera in this range which is as accurate as the DVX in colour reproduction. Then again, i also use the auto white balance when shooting multicam jobs, then lock that off with a preset user button.
When moving around in auto mode, i usually target a white point whne i notice colour starting to shift from location to location, BUT to speed up this process, i switch between A or B (3200 or 5600) then flick it back to auto then lock it once i find it).
Usually takes a couple of seconds to find an accurate WB this way in auto mode.. sometimes even faster (ie almost instant).

Peter wrote " When moving around in auto mode, i usually target a white point..." Does this mean DVX has a TTL WB in auto? Otherwise there would not be a need to "target" the cam. I know what WB systems are but I still wanted to know (I am not a DVX owner) if the external sensor on the right part of the cam, is white or red colored.

white, frosted.

Thanks Tom

The reason why I wanted to know the color of the sensor is because some Panasonic cams seem to use an extra IR sensor for AWB. Google search e.g. "AWB IR Sensor" . Somebody knows why?