When using auto WB (AWT) my first HMC-151 gave a red hue under all conditions and was replaced by the dealer. The new one initially seemed OKish but on its first wedding last weekend AWT never seemed to get it right usually tending to red but sometimes quite blue. Under difficult lighting I do a manual WB but I've never had any other camera produce anything other than a neutral picture in average lighting conditions. Any one else have this problem or any ideas what's wrong?
HMC-151 AWT Problems
- Thread starter bazza
- Start date
Yep!! The Auto White Balance on this camera is very ordinary (like the JVCs), use manual or preset.
One other thing I noticed with my two HMCs is that both have badly calibrated LCDs, which tend to lean heavily toward the blue spectrum - this means correctly colour balanced images tend to look blue tinted
on the camera's LCD and there's is no way to adjust the LCD colour balance 
I have to constantly tell my operators not to go by the LCD for White Balance when they use the HMCs because they keep bringing me back indoor footage that always looks too red
Out of all our cameras I reckon the Canon A1 has the most robust picture!
One other thing I noticed with my two HMCs is that both have badly calibrated LCDs, which tend to lean heavily toward the blue spectrum - this means correctly colour balanced images tend to look blue tinted
on the camera's LCD and there's is no way to adjust the LCD colour balance I have to constantly tell my operators not to go by the LCD for White Balance when they use the HMCs because they keep bringing me back indoor footage that always looks too red
Out of all our cameras I reckon the Canon A1 has the most robust picture!
Justyn
Veteran
The Manhattan LCD does show things to be closer to the camera original than the LCD.. and certainly displays a ton more color information than the LCD. I will be calibrating it to bars upon my next shoot. This past one was so fast I had barely enough time to get it out and on a stand... BTW, I highly recommend it for the price.. and you can pick up a nice case for about 50 bucks.
DaFireMedic
Well-known member
What are you white balancing on? When I MWB on a white card, it looks very good. When I MWB against an 18% gray card (which always worked well with my HV30), it has that reddish tint.
D.R. Gates
Well-known member
It's inevitable that we'll start hearing about the negatives as more people become owners of the camera.
There is really no excuse for the camera not to be handling auto white balance decently, especially if one can't trust the LCD color to attempt a manual adjustment.
I have two of these cameras and when I run them side by side the LCD on one is definitely not producing the same colour temperature (visually) even when both are run using the factory indoor/outdoor pre-sets, thankfully the colour temperature of the footage they produce is identical, the problem is with the way the image looks on the LCDs which makes it difficult for the operator to eyeball the correct temp.
Once the wedding peak season is over I'm going to take this up with Panasonic because I just can't afford to have cameras sitting in a workshop atm.
I know Rob Myers from Panasonic Australia frequents this board and wonder if he can shed any light on this issue...
Once the wedding peak season is over I'm going to take this up with Panasonic because I just can't afford to have cameras sitting in a workshop atm.
I know Rob Myers from Panasonic Australia frequents this board and wonder if he can shed any light on this issue...
Barry_Green
Moderator
Have you put up the color bars and attempted to calibrate the LCD to the bars? Inasmuch as it's possible, of course...
Use the vectorscope to determine if your color balance is actually off. The LCD is going to be a poor way to judge color reproduction because if you're even slightly off axis it changes the color representation significantly.
Use the vectorscope to determine if your color balance is actually off. The LCD is going to be a poor way to judge color reproduction because if you're even slightly off axis it changes the color representation significantly.
In my case the recorded footage looks identical between the two cameras, however, when popping up bars on both cameras you can see that the LCD's are definitely not correctly calibrated (one is more green/blue than the other).
Barry I'd love to be able to make colour temperature (tint) adjustments on the LCDs but there does not seem to be such an adjustment available though any user menu I can see. Making me aware of a hidden service menu (assuming one exists) would be an incredible time saver for me, otherwise it's a Panasonic quirk I have to learn to live with (I've already labelled the camera that shows more blue on the LCD so at least me and my operators know how to monitor colour.)
It's not a huge issue because at least both cameras are consistent and the result can be corrected in post, but it would be nice if the LCDs were a little better calibrated
For the record my two DVX's never had this problem.
Barry I'd love to be able to make colour temperature (tint) adjustments on the LCDs but there does not seem to be such an adjustment available though any user menu I can see. Making me aware of a hidden service menu (assuming one exists) would be an incredible time saver for me, otherwise it's a Panasonic quirk I have to learn to live with (I've already labelled the camera that shows more blue on the LCD so at least me and my operators know how to monitor colour.)
It's not a huge issue because at least both cameras are consistent and the result can be corrected in post, but it would be nice if the LCDs were a little better calibrated
For the record my two DVX's never had this problem.
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I know a lot of people use the LCD all the time, maybe it's just my eyes but I can't see in enough detail to focus properly and colour adjustment is a waste of time unless you can somehow eye the LCD at the same angle every time. To me it's just for framing. So I use the viewfinder which I have to say is a little disappointing too on this camera. Despite the promising looking large eyecup the little screen still seems a bit too distant to be comfortable. But hey-ho it's liveable with and no camera is perfect. Anybody have any comment on the accuracy of the viewfinder colour, I haven't had a chance to do comparisons yet?