SONY PMW-EX1 White Balance.

Z

ZFigas

New member
Hi,
I often use the Auto mode in my SONY EX1 camera.
Unfortunately this feature does not work correctly.

Let me give you a selected example that will illustrate this situation clearly.

Being outside during a daylight let say shortly before sunset the camera will setup automatically the respective white balance level. This white balance level will not change if one takes the camera, still being turn on, into the house with an electric light. It causes that the pictures taken in the room are in red color.

I would like to add that applying different setups with Shockless White and ATW Speed makes no difference and no change on the white balance.
[FONT=&quot][/FONT]
My camera has one of the earliest serial number. Neither uploading the firmware 1.11 nor sending the camera twice to the Prime Support have fixed this failure.

Could you please give me your opinion on this situation.

Regards
ZF
 
Last edited:
The answer is not to use full Auto mode at all. You should manual white balance whenever your scene changed or when you move from 1 place to another. There is no short cut to this though.
 
What do you all use to set White Balance while out and about or in different indoors locations?

I was thinking of buying one of those SLR White Balance Cards on a keyring to carry around.
 
If you must use auto white you will need to experiment with the white balance settings to find the response you like. THere are settings for Shockless White and AWT Speed in the camera set menu as yo have noted however they do work, just slowely in a lot of cases.

Be sure you have AWT visible on the screen otherwise you might actually be in auto. If you are in Auto and press the manual white button, rather than saying 'no you can't do that in auto', it takes a white balance and changes to manual.
 
PS: I find adjusting the shockless white and AWT speed great for adusting white manually. You ride in manual, and in any scene you can get a pretty accurate white (like auto operates) when you press the manual white balance set.

The better way is to use a picture profile and the preset white settings, and change white balance by adjusting the value of the preset setting. You can adjust this dynamically as you are shooting (although it could be a more accessible menu iteam).
 
Agreed... I hardly every both with the white balance button any more, as I find it pretty easy to balance using the LCD. I use the picture profile preset, and adjust the white balance manually using the menu dial. It's usually around 5600K outdoors, 3200K indoors. When shooting in a home with dim lights, we often crank it down to 2800K to get a balanced image. After a few shoots, you're eye will know when the LCD image is 'right'...

At least, that's what works for me. Haven't even brought a white card to the last few shoots...

-Ben
VMLH.com
 
Thats what I have been doing up until now too.......by the eye in the LCD and your figures are near identical to mine which I preset in my PPs.

It isn't much of a problem in SLRs because of course there is the magic of Photoshop for that picture that needs a white balance adjustment but video with 25 frames a second.....thats a lot of wasted time.
 
PMW-EX1 is equipped with the Auto Tracking White (ATW) option.
ATW should change the level of White Balance according to the Shockless White and White Speed settings. This is explained in the manual.
However, my camera doesn’t do it. I am interested to know how this feature works in other cameras.
Is this only my camera defect or is it a common factory shortage?
[FONT=&quot][/FONT]
 
I believe it is the nature of the EX1 and EX3.
I have the EX3 and sometimes even when I do a manual white balance it is still off.

I also have the Canon XH-A1 and I can do a pretty good white balance and with the EX3 sometimes I have to do a 2 or 3rd try.
 
I really wish Sony would allow you to manually adjust the white balance value in the part direct menu without going though all the picture profile mess. The camera can obviously do it, the feature just needs to be programmed outside of the picture profile and into the direct menu....
 
I agree with you GuyB.....it should be available in the part direct menu.....it is a pain to have to change the setting in the Picture Profile Menu when you are following someone from indoors to outdoors for example.

I use the EX3 ..not the EX1 btw.
 
I don't find it a pain.
After you select the White Balance using the Picture Profile menu, the menu remembers the last parameter you were changing. So, the next time you hit the menu it goes right back to
the last parameter you adjusted.
 
Unless you power down, then you have to go through the menu again. I'd still prefer it as a feature of the standard direct menu, just scroll across to the WB, click and roll up and down, TFE if you ask me ;-)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top