Black balance should not have a notcable effect on white balance or colours. Setting the black balance sets the black levels of the R, G and B channels so that they are all at zero. Unless it is grossely off it should not change the cameras colour balance, which is a function of R, G, and B gain as opposed to black balances simple zero level set. There can be a tiny hints of coloration in near black parts of the picture with very poor black balance but there certainly should not be any effect to mid tones or other parts of the image.

I'm not sure that my magenta hued preset is due only to poor black balance. In practice I haven't noticed that the blacks were off but the whites are clearly magenta. Of course I haven't really looked carefully at the blacks. I didn't notice any of this till I got on a vectorscope.

It seems that the preset has a matrix and color balance all its own independent of the PP settings that underlie any other changes you set in the camera. In a more expensive camera those are adjustable as well. Too bad I can't at least do a black balance. Funny though, until I looked at the vectorscope I never noticed how off it was and used preset fairly often with nary a complaint.

The camera just came back from Sony repair so I'm not totally sure it was a pre-existing condition though - might be from a new board. Maybe I should call Sony.

My EX3 and EX1 both have very good colour response with no hue or colour cast. I would suggest a megenta colour cast using presets is abnormal.

just want to remind everyone about my inquiry?
thanks.

For the Auto FB Adjustment, make sure the focus ring is forward and the barrel switch in auto. The cam cannot do an Auto FB adjust if the lens focus is in manual mode.

thanks tom, but i've done that and still can't access/perform it.

That's disappointing Michael. A couple things you've probably also tried, but I would put the menu display on partial, the iris switch to auto, and shutter auto switch to on.

I assume you also reset all.

From the description you gave in the other thread about the backfocus, it's pretty imperative to get the flange back calibration working.

I checked my firmware version just now, same as yours, FB and BB not grayed out.

i haven't done an all reset yet or any of the other suggestions you mentioned. i'll try it again tonight. thanks for responding.

Auto FB Adjust settings
 

EUREKA!!! I found it!

so, note to all who are trying to perform a Auto FB Adjust you must:
1. place the lens focus ring forward(auto)
2. switch focus switch to auto
3. zoom must be in servo
4. iris set to auto

i think that's all.

still can't perform an Auto BLK Balance though

I've managed to get into the maintenance menu, but which menu-option do I need to select to perform auto black balance ?

Is it MN > Black Shading > Auto BLK Shad ? Just want to make sure i got the correct one.

Why bother? The camera automatically does a black balance everytime you turn it on.

I wish it did. I've got A LOT of noise in my black levels when shooting footage. I was told that resetting / calibrating the black levels would solve the problem, just want to make sure I got the correct menu option.

I doubt that noise in your black levels has anything do to with the black balance. Black balance is for color.

Twan, like Doug said, black balance is done each time the camera is turned on.

If your shadows are noisy, it probably is the way your camera is set up. I find Profile 4 is noisy. Also make sure your gain is 0 or -3. Black stretch will also affect noise.

The EXcams do have a bit of noise, much better than most cameras in this price range. The truth is we are really spoiled these days. A lot of people feel CCD's are less noisy and maybe they are especially 2/3" CCD's.

I think the EX cams are really the first inexpensive HD cameras that have decent low light performance.

Best way to get rid of noise is to not underexpose. And not boost the gain. Also mess with your profiles.

Re: Black Balance?
 

Sorry for bumping this thread, but I was going through the EX1R Maintenance Menu and the Auto Black Balance option for some reason only executes in interlaced mode.

Hope that eliminates some confusion, you now know that if you shoot interlaced, and you know how to get to the service menus, you can do an auto black balance on the EX1R.