Yellow color shift on EX3

[Jim Forrest]

I am getting a yellow color shift on my EX3. This is something that just started happening 3 months ago, but today I really saw it.
At first I thought it was just the viewfinder that was looking a little yellow/orangeish. But looking at the video it truly has a yellow orange tint.
It doesn't seem to matter what format I use.

I am using PP Standard and I have not gone into the menu to change anything. I briefly looked at the settings and they all seem to be the default mode, at least I have not changed any settings.

I always white balance and often black balance.

I have been able to correct WB in post but I don't always edit the footage and have to dump into someone else's hard drive.

Not sure what is going on.

Ideas welcome.

[Vincent Oliver]

Can you post a screen grab

[Andy Wilkinson]

Never seen anything like this yellow cast you are talking about but I would consider doing a 'Factory Reset' and see if the problem goes away - you can access this option in the Menu. Sure, you'll loose any custom settings (but just maybe you've accidentally and unknowingly done something to one of the settings - we all make mistakes sometimes).

I remember I screwed up some settings on my EX3 in the early days of ownership (that affected exposure) and this got me out of that hole very quickly - much to my relief!

EX3's are pretty damn reliable but failing that it's probably a call to Sony Prime Support. I suspect if you called them this is the first thing they would suggest you do anyway. Others may have better ideas - anyone?

Anyway, let us know how it pans out.

[Jim Forrest]

Originally Posted by Vincent Oliver

Can you post a screen grab

He is one of original screen grab and one corrected in post.

[Jerry Porter]

looking at the grabs it honestly looks like your WB is off. What did you have it set to when you were there? That's the corner of 14th and Penn right????

[Jim Forrest]

Originally Posted by Vincent Oliver

Can you post a screen grab

Here is another shot minutes later uncorrected and alittle yellowsish but on the other hand the blouse looks white.

[Jim Forrest]

Originally Posted by Jerry Porter

looking at the grabs it honestly looks like your WB is off. What did you have it set to when you were there? That's the corner of 14th and Penn right????

Yes it is, at Freedom plaza surrounded by 100 occupiers.
I white balanced on a white piece of paper ...it was around 6300k if I remember right. I don't use presets.
Just WB each time (as well as black balanced).

[Jerry Porter]

That last shot looks really nice. Unless it does this consistently I would think that the WB was just off on that shot.

[Jim Forrest]

I hope you are right....but it did it a couple of times last month. Maybe I need to white balance a few times.
Right now I will hit 'factory reset' and do some more tests.
Thanks for the input.

[Bill Ward]

Has your reporter been checked for jaundice?

The EX-3 will sometimes take an odd color balance. If it doesn't look right, try to move the white card around a bit and take a couple more balances.

Or, you can use a custom PP, step into the color temp and roll it up and down a bit to see if that improves life any.

[Alister Chapman]

I don't think it's white balance. Whites are white, the road signs are white. Adding a white offset would probably only make things worse. To me it just looks like the kinds of colours you get this time of the year, late in the day when the sun is low and the light passing through thick wedge of nice brown pollution filled sky.

To tweak the colours without changing the whites you would have to adjust the matrix in a PP.

[Jerry Porter]

Pollution on that corner in the afternoon is about as bad as you will find it anywhere in the country. DC used to be a physical swamp and is still sitting at the bottom of a bowl. So pollution/smog just hangs there.

[Zoran Vincic]

If you ask me this is nothing more than a wrong white balance and I disagree with Alister on this one. In both screenshots the whites show lack of blue.

Looking at your first screenshot, white surfaces (the roadsign just right of the talent) read about 10-30 lower value for blue channel compared to R and G channels.

Here's a simple correction done with an blue 80 filter with 25% strength



The blouse on the second screenshot is blown and I bet that it isn't white at all although it looks like the camera was balanced right on that blouse.

Looking on the large arrow on the street just left of the talent there's a 30-50 difference between R-G and B channels and again, 25% of the blue 80 filter got that arrow in the ballpark and evened all three channels out.

Other than that, I don't think there's nothing wrong with your cam.

Also check that the white balance offset is not engaged. And I would strongly recommend that you get a proper 18% gray card for white balancing. "White" photocopier sheets can be tricky sometimes, as you can see...

[Vincent Oliver]

You didn't mention what paper/card you used to do a white balance with. Many papers contain additives that can cause a false reading. Try a variety of white papers and you will see what I mean. Also on a grey day a white sheet can look a cool blue, which in turn has the same effect as using a warm card. Your eyes will compensate for this in the street, but unfortunately the cameras WB wont

Try using your camera in a controlled lighting environment and see if you are still getting a yellow cast.

[Jerry Porter]

Or buy some Vortex Media cards to use. I love mine.