Manual Wt.Bal. Sony/Canon at DVinfo.net

John Klein · December 17th, 2001, 04:21 AM

I understand that when set on auto wt.bal. these cams have different looks, but what about when they are both manually white balanced under the same circumstance? Do they still look distinctly different? Am I grounded to one manufacturer? Rendering sucks about as bad as trying to rebalance the color in general on a computer.

Chris Hurd · December 17th, 2001, 06:29 AM

Indeed, when you manually white balance a Sony and a Canon camcorder on the same scene, they will still give significantly different looks. That's because Sony and Canon each produce different "flavors" of video.

I have two suggestions: switch to only one brand of camera (which may involve selling one and buying another);

or switch to an editing system capable of real-time color correction and real-time output to DV, such as the Canopus DVStorm at www.justedit.com -- hope this helps,

John Klein · December 17th, 2001, 12:21 PM

Well now, that sucks.

I just had a tech looking at my cam and he said how "off" a color was, ... until he switched to manual WtBal. Then it was OK according to him.

So my naive assumption was that in the Auto Wt. mode, they had their distinctive looks, but in the manual WtBal mode, they would look nearly identical (color wise).

Any hints offered about needing to manually white balance differently with different amounts of gain? One preset for 0, one for +6, one for +12?

And what about in auto gain? I see that thing compensate in Manual exp. mode too. I'd love to keep gain on auto ( I feel it will look better needing maybe...+9 dB of gain vs. going to +12 db) , but if the color shifts every time it makes an adjustment, that's gonna look weird.

That is one thing I've liked about my ol' D8, it looked clean to +15, and only reasonably noticeable at +18. And quite even as it shifted, too. I know the vx2 is similar doing an informal test.

Canon's +18 needs some preset black-level lowering to make it appear cleaner. Maybe only a click or two. IMO

Anything to say about all this?

Bill Ravens · December 17th, 2001, 01:17 PM

read the other thread re: white balancing with a grey card

December 17th, 2001, 04:21 AM	#1
John Klein Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Wisconsin, USA Posts: 182	Manual Wt.Bal. Sony/Canon I understand that when set on auto wt.bal. these cams have different looks, but what about when they are both manually white balanced under the same circumstance? Do they still look distinctly different? Am I grounded to one manufacturer? Rendering sucks about as bad as trying to rebalance the color in general on a computer.

December 17th, 2001, 06:29 AM	#2
Chris Hurd Obstreperous Rex Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: San Marcos, TX Posts: 27,368 Images: 513	Indeed, when you manually white balance a Sony and a Canon camcorder on the same scene, they will still give significantly different looks. That's because Sony and Canon each produce different "flavors" of video. I have two suggestions: switch to only one brand of camera (which may involve selling one and buying another); or switch to an editing system capable of real-time color correction and real-time output to DV, such as the Canopus DVStorm at www.justedit.com -- hope this helps, __________________ CH Search DV Info Net \| 20 years of DVi \| ...Tuesday is Soylent Green Day!

December 17th, 2001, 12:21 PM	#3
John Klein Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Wisconsin, USA Posts: 182	Well now, that sucks. I just had a tech looking at my cam and he said how "off" a color was, ... until he switched to manual WtBal. Then it was OK according to him. So my naive assumption was that in the Auto Wt. mode, they had their distinctive looks, but in the manual WtBal mode, they would look nearly identical (color wise). Any hints offered about needing to manually white balance differently with different amounts of gain? One preset for 0, one for +6, one for +12? And what about in auto gain? I see that thing compensate in Manual exp. mode too. I'd love to keep gain on auto ( I feel it will look better needing maybe...+9 dB of gain vs. going to +12 db) , but if the color shifts every time it makes an adjustment, that's gonna look weird. That is one thing I've liked about my ol' D8, it looked clean to +15, and only reasonably noticeable at +18. And quite even as it shifted, too. I know the vx2 is similar doing an informal test. Canon's +18 needs some preset black-level lowering to make it appear cleaner. Maybe only a click or two. IMO Anything to say about all this?

December 17th, 2001, 01:17 PM	#4
Bill Ravens Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: santa fe, nm Posts: 3,264 Images: 10	read the other thread re: white balancing with a grey card