SL2 and ExpoDisc

[thetankengine]

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Could someone please teach me how to apply ExpoDisc to customise the WB on the SL2?  When I put the ExpoDisc in front of the camera and select either "Greycard" or "Grecard live", the camera kept telling me "can't process because the image is too dark", no matter what I do it's the same result, I even point the SL2 directly towards the light source (not the sun, I'm not that stupid, lol) and it's the same.  Can someone please help me out here?  Thanks.

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[Exodies]

Can’t reproduce the problem but it’s a very bright day here (you took the expodisk out of the packet? 😛)

I did notice something strange in LR mobile, all pics said white balance as shot but every other picture shows the temperature as 0.

Odd numbered pictures show the temp Eg, 4250k, even numbered 0

This is also from sessions with auto WB.

 

ETA another observation - when autofocus chooses the dirt on the windows it’s probably time to clean them.

Edited March 24, 2020 by Exodies

[Joakim]

"...I put the ExpoDisc in front of the camera...", with or without a lens mounted?  Maybe using it without a lens can throw the exposure metering off.

More likely reason might be that you have your camera exposure settings incorrectly, make sure you get a good exposure without it first.

[Jared]

3 hours ago, Exodies said:

Can’t reproduce the problem but it’s a very bright day here (you took the expodisk out of the packet? 😛)

I did notice something strange in LR mobile, all pics said white balance as shot but every other picture shows the temperature as 0.

Odd numbered pictures show the temp Eg, 4250k, even numbered 0

This is also from sessions with auto WB.

 

ETA another observation - when autofocus chooses the dirt on the windows it’s probably time to clean them.

Pictures with a temp of zero are JPG’s rather than DNG’s.  You are likely shooting and importing raw and JPG both.

They display differently because, with a raw file, you are quite literally setting the white balance in the picture, just as if you did it during the original exposure.  With a JPG, the camera has already applied an (unknown) white balance to the image, so you can add an adjustment on top of it, but the software can’t know what the original temp and tint were, so it can’t say your result will be 5400K. Instead, it is telling you how far you are shifting from the original value.

As to the expo disk message... when setting white balance you need to choose an exposure that is neither lost in shadows or too close to white—none of your channels can be clipped.  With many cameras, if all three channels go to white the image gets interpreted as pure black.  Don’t know why, but I have seen it happen many times.  Try reducing your shutter speed—a lot—and see what happens.  The camera gets more light without a lens than with.  Think of “no lens” as being something like an f/0.5 lens.  Try base ISO and 1/4000s (under bright skies) and see if that works.

[Exodies]

Holy moly. Thanks! I thought I was being too heavy on the shutter, getting more pictures than I expected. 

[thetankengine]

8 hours ago, Joakim said:

"...I put the ExpoDisc in front of the camera...", with or without a lens mounted?  Maybe using it without a lens can throw the exposure metering off.

More likely reason might be that you have your camera exposure settings incorrectly, make sure you get a good exposure without it first.

Definitely with the lens on, lol.

When I was shooting with M240, all I need was to put the ExpoDisc in front of the lens, press the shutter and select the centre of the pic when I wanted to customise the WB.

With SL2, I just got no idea how to customise the WB with the ExpoDisc...maybe I need to invest in a spydercube instead...

[Exodies]

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Page 120 of the English manual tells you how to do it.