Dialing the white balance in at DVinfo.net

Michael Maier · May 1st, 2008, 05:35 PM

With the EX1 you can go in the PP menu and dial the white balance in. I was wondering if there's any disadvantages to that as opposed to white balancing the old fashion way? With HMIs for example they have a pretty stable color temperature. So if you dial in the WB based on their color temperature it would be as precise as a manual WB, right? It's just a more flexible variation of the presset. I'm just asking because today somebody was arguing that it was not the same as WB manually in terms of accuracy. But if you know the temperature you need, like when you have a color meter, I don't see why it wouldn't be as precise. Thanks.

Eric Pascarelli · May 1st, 2008, 05:43 PM

Manual white balance leaves the magenta/green shift neutral, while white balancing with a card will adjust the magenta/green shift. At least this is generally true - I am not absolutely certain that this is the case with the EX1.

So the same kelvin numbers on two cameras can yield different looking results.

Thats why, if shooting multiple cameras, I would only dial in the WB - this way you know they are matched, if not completely correct.

Piotr Wozniacki · May 2nd, 2008, 04:32 AM

Eric, you got me interested. I'm preparing for an important event, when I'll be shooting with my EX1 along with 2 other cameras, being XDCAM HD (F350's). Of course, I'll be inter-cutting the three, so the WB as closely matching as possible is a top priority.

Are you saying we should dial in the same Kelvin values, rather than WB manually to a white card?

Paul Curtis · May 2nd, 2008, 06:11 AM

I'd vote for dialling in manually. I tend to choose my WB based on what sort of feeling i want. Especially when you're combining tungsten and daylight, i like 1/2 CTB on tungsten with a not quite balanced daylight or whatever the scene needs. I prefer to get the information recorded with as much CC in camera (because the processing is better) then afterwards. Of course it depends what you're doing as always.

cheers
paul

Eric Pascarelli · May 2nd, 2008, 07:40 AM

Piotr,

I would definitely dial in manually.

I just shot a viral with 2 EX1's and copied the settings from one camera to the other, and used the preset white balance (5600K) for both.

They matched perfectly.

I was also amazed that pretty much every setting in the camera copied over - not just pp's but video format, LCD display options, timecode user bits, etc.

May 1st, 2008, 05:35 PM	#1
Michael Maier Trustee Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 1,269	Dialing the white balance in With the EX1 you can go in the PP menu and dial the white balance in. I was wondering if there's any disadvantages to that as opposed to white balancing the old fashion way? With HMIs for example they have a pretty stable color temperature. So if you dial in the WB based on their color temperature it would be as precise as a manual WB, right? It's just a more flexible variation of the presset. I'm just asking because today somebody was arguing that it was not the same as WB manually in terms of accuracy. But if you know the temperature you need, like when you have a color meter, I don't see why it wouldn't be as precise. Thanks.

May 2nd, 2008, 04:32 AM	#3
Piotr Wozniacki Inner Circle Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Poland Posts: 4,086	Eric, you got me interested. I'm preparing for an important event, when I'll be shooting with my EX1 along with 2 other cameras, being XDCAM HD (F350's). Of course, I'll be inter-cutting the three, so the WB as closely matching as possible is a top priority. Are you saying we should dial in the same Kelvin values, rather than WB manually to a white card? __________________ Sony PXW-FS7 \| DaVinci Resolve Studio; Magix Vegas Pro; i7-5960X CPU; 64 GB RAM; 2x GTX 1080 8GB GPU; Decklink 4K Extreme 12G; 4x 3TB WD Black in RAID 0; 1TB M.2 NVMe cache drive

May 1st, 2008, 05:43 PM	#2
Eric Pascarelli Major Player Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Los Angeles, CA Posts: 498	Manual white balance leaves the magenta/green shift neutral, while white balancing with a card will adjust the magenta/green shift. At least this is generally true - I am not absolutely certain that this is the case with the EX1. So the same kelvin numbers on two cameras can yield different looking results. Thats why, if shooting multiple cameras, I would only dial in the WB - this way you know they are matched, if not completely correct.

May 2nd, 2008, 06:11 AM	#4
Paul Curtis Major Player Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: canterbury Posts: 411	I'd vote for dialling in manually. I tend to choose my WB based on what sort of feeling i want. Especially when you're combining tungsten and daylight, i like 1/2 CTB on tungsten with a not quite balanced daylight or whatever the scene needs. I prefer to get the information recorded with as much CC in camera (because the processing is better) then afterwards. Of course it depends what you're doing as always. cheers paul

May 2nd, 2008, 07:40 AM	#5
Eric Pascarelli Major Player Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Los Angeles, CA Posts: 498	Piotr, I would definitely dial in manually. I just shot a viral with 2 EX1's and copied the settings from one camera to the other, and used the preset white balance (5600K) for both. They matched perfectly. I was also amazed that pretty much every setting in the camera copied over - not just pp's but video format, LCD display options, timecode user bits, etc.