Scene file white balance adjustments

[Noel Evans]

From another thread as its somewhat related.

Someone suggested just getting a 5600 manual white balance and leaving that permanently on Ach or Bch and forgetting the 5600k preset. I think that's great advice as an interim workaround until it gets properly fixed.

Thats a great idea.

Barry or anyone else that knows, in the scene file settings you can + or - to either Ach or Bch, does anyone know exactly what the K temp of the increments equate to?

TBH I wish pana would scrap this setting and just make the adjustment so you can physically just set any white balance of your choice in the preset. Often you know your lighting set up or light conditions and you want to keep it the same for that entire shoot, or refer to one of 3-4 settings. Anyway just a thought. The reality is all our cameras are going to have to go in for the WB fix, maybe theres a simple software update that could do this?

 

[Noel Evans]

Anyone? Thoughts?

 

[Mac]

I've been doing that since I received my camera (June I think) and discovered the 5600 preset problem.. I set Preset B permanently, which only leaves me A for manual adjustment, but that's okay...

And then when I want a "LAW AND ORDER" look, I use the built-in preset, so I have choices..

As I mentioned elsewhere, I personally do not like manual WB in daylight situations because it negates the subtle colors of daylight (ie, dawn, late afternoon, etc).. I only do it when shooting a dramatic scene that needs to intercut - in documentaries I never do it...

 

[xianchi]

I have no idea how it relates to K but I have mine set at -1 or -2 with my WB manually set to 5.6k for most of my outdoor footage. I also wish there was a way to dial in the K temperature like there is on my dSLR's.

It would make things a bit easier sometimes.

 

[Barry_Green]

Barry or anyone else that knows, in the scene file settings you can + or - to either Ach or Bch, does anyone know exactly what the K temp of the increments equate to?

No...

TBH I wish pana would scrap this setting and just make the adjustment so you can physically just set any white balance of your choice in the preset.

Me too, that would be much better.

 

[davhud]

Having only 1 manual balance can really slow you down in a mixed lighting situation.
One of the things that bothered me a bit about this camera when I bought it was the way the filter wheel was setup. Most pro cameras have a fliter wheel were the 1 position is no filtration which corresponds to the 3200k balance. The other 3 postions are a daylight filter with varying degrees of ND. This camera is much more like consumer cameras were all the wheel or switch controls is the ND.

Don't know how much this affects the preset problem if any. But you can see my other posts on this problem ad nauseum.
Wish I'd checked the camera out in daylight before I bought it.
The way it seems to me now is the that it's neither fish nor fowl. Not a pro camera and too expensive to be a comsumer camera.

 

[Mac]

dayhud: I agree in principle with what you're saying about the filter wheel, but as filters get more electronic than optical, that is something we'll be seeing on all cameras soon...

I had (still have, actually, just putting it up for sale) a Canon XL H1 that I shot my last documentary with that has a WB setting where you can manually dial in the K number in the viewfinder - I LOVED that feature!!! I never used a preset..

I do occasionally use film filters (85, 85N6) but it's not as fast, so I use the presets... It may be heresy to say, but I've actually grown to like the built-in (as I said above, LAW AND ORDER look) preset - so as long as I remember to keep my "B" 5600 I am fine either way.

 

[xianchi]

Check this out!

I was looking at the manual today and came across this...

---------------------
PRST: Use this when you have no time to adjust
the white balance.
• The value for the white balance is
factory-set to 3200 K.
• It can be changed to any color
temperature using a menu option. For
more information, see [Setting Color
Temperature Manually].

That last bit is pretty intriguing but I was unable to find how to do it. A search of the PDF for "PRST" and Setting Color Temperature Manually did not yield any usable info... but maybe someone else will have better luck than I did.
---------

 

[Noel Evans]

OK so what its talking about is using the preset as a quick option. Flick the switch all the way left and your in prst mode, then flick the wb swtich to alternate between 3200k and 5600k.

I get what your alluding to but it doesnt exist, which is pretty much what Barry and I were mentioning above. Wish list stuff.

 

[xianchi]

I know I know but this sentence.....

• It can be changed to any color
temperature using a menu option.

Switch to "any color" is different than "between 3.2/5.6" ....It really makes it sound like there is something we have all been missing... but how could that be?

 

[Noel Evans]

Yeah, again that wording is confusing and technically speaking you can through using warm cards or other tools, though you cant dial it in specifically.

My hope is a couple of small software changes coming through as we see the white balance preset fix come through also - though I have never seen it happen before.

 

[Mac]

What would be nice would be if they'd rewire the camera so that a USER button could switch the front audio gain dial from audio to white balance so you could dial in the number that you prefer - that would be very nice.. just dreamin'...