Phil H.
Active member
I've been reading that lots of people have been having green tinted monitors after doing an auto white balance. I recently got my camera and decided to test it out. Yep, green monitor after a proper WB. Of course I also black balanced, but that did nothing to shift the colors as far as I could tell. I used stock camera settings. It happens with all lenses and all ISOs. It also happens in both tungsten and daylight.
Have a look at what the AF100's flip out monitor looked like. Shot with Canon 7D on Daylight balance. The AWB monitor actually looks a little more green in person than it does in these images. The VAR 2800 actually was the closest match to the color I saw in the scene with my eyes. I have very warm lights in my office.
EVF DTL was on, that's why you see the hard edges and noise. Again, the AWB looks more green than this image shows. It's so green that I feel uncomfortable trying to make judgement calls about the color palette of what I'm shooting when using AWB.
Then I wanted to see if the green was only happening in the monitor or in the actual AF100 footage also. Let's find out. I underexposed slightly so the color shifting effect would be more obvious in the whites:
As you can see, the AWB frame is slightly greenish, the VAR2400 more blue/magenta, and the third more warm/orange. This matches what I saw in the monitor, except the AWB seemed a bit more green in monitor.
It's easier to see the color shifts when going back and forth between the full res caps, so here they are:
AWB
VAR2400
VAR2800
CONCLUSION:
The VAR2800 was the closest match to what I could see with my eyes in the room, which had very warm lighting. The VAR2400 is the lowest variable setting you can go to in order to try and cool the scene down. I tried every other variable color temp and none of them caused a green shift in the monitor or footage.
This means that, when auto white balancing (AWB), the camera is doing more than just correcting color temperature, it's adding a touch of green. I noticed this every time I did an AWB, indoors and out. In warm lighting and cool lighting. I even tried to get slightly different colors onto the white bounce board based on the surrounding environment during the AWB, and still, green sneaks in.
The footage itself is not disgustingly green. It's a mild effect that can be easily corrected in post if I want. However, the green I see in the monitor is a bit disturbing. It messes with my judgement calls.
I'm glad I did this test. If this is how all AF100's operate, then I'll adapt, using this knowledge to make judgement calls on set. If these results are not typical of all AF100s, then a bunch of us have an issue that needs to be addressed.
If after AWB you are experiencing green monitor and/or footage, please speak up here so we can let them know how wide spread this is.
If you are not seeing green in the monitor and/or your footage after an AWB, please also speak up so that we can find out if we with the green cameras are doing something wrong, or if our cameras themselves are actually doing something wrong. It would be even better if you could post screenies as I have done. Thank you.
Phil
Have a look at what the AF100's flip out monitor looked like. Shot with Canon 7D on Daylight balance. The AWB monitor actually looks a little more green in person than it does in these images. The VAR 2800 actually was the closest match to the color I saw in the scene with my eyes. I have very warm lights in my office.
EVF DTL was on, that's why you see the hard edges and noise. Again, the AWB looks more green than this image shows. It's so green that I feel uncomfortable trying to make judgement calls about the color palette of what I'm shooting when using AWB.
Then I wanted to see if the green was only happening in the monitor or in the actual AF100 footage also. Let's find out. I underexposed slightly so the color shifting effect would be more obvious in the whites:
As you can see, the AWB frame is slightly greenish, the VAR2400 more blue/magenta, and the third more warm/orange. This matches what I saw in the monitor, except the AWB seemed a bit more green in monitor.
It's easier to see the color shifts when going back and forth between the full res caps, so here they are:
AWB
VAR2400
VAR2800
CONCLUSION:
The VAR2800 was the closest match to what I could see with my eyes in the room, which had very warm lighting. The VAR2400 is the lowest variable setting you can go to in order to try and cool the scene down. I tried every other variable color temp and none of them caused a green shift in the monitor or footage.
This means that, when auto white balancing (AWB), the camera is doing more than just correcting color temperature, it's adding a touch of green. I noticed this every time I did an AWB, indoors and out. In warm lighting and cool lighting. I even tried to get slightly different colors onto the white bounce board based on the surrounding environment during the AWB, and still, green sneaks in.
The footage itself is not disgustingly green. It's a mild effect that can be easily corrected in post if I want. However, the green I see in the monitor is a bit disturbing. It messes with my judgement calls.
I'm glad I did this test. If this is how all AF100's operate, then I'll adapt, using this knowledge to make judgement calls on set. If these results are not typical of all AF100s, then a bunch of us have an issue that needs to be addressed.
If after AWB you are experiencing green monitor and/or footage, please speak up here so we can let them know how wide spread this is.
If you are not seeing green in the monitor and/or your footage after an AWB, please also speak up so that we can find out if we with the green cameras are doing something wrong, or if our cameras themselves are actually doing something wrong. It would be even better if you could post screenies as I have done. Thank you.
Phil
