Auto White Balance

[yadillah]

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This may have been covered before, but I wish to relate something I noticed today.

I was taking some pictures of a swan and cygnets with the White Balance set to Auto.

I had the camera set to ISO 160. On checking, the WB seemed OK. I then checked in Capture1, and the WB reading was 5650K. The day was sunny.

The next picture was taken immediately after the first, with the same lens, but with an ISO setting of 320. On checking the WB, it seemed decidedly off, and in Capture it turned out to be 3550K.

It surprises me that altering the ISO , when nothing else is changed, has such an effect.

I would be interested in any comments.

[jaapv]

It might be best to peruse old threads, there are a large number of them. A short synopsis: yes it happens too often, but is no big deal, as it is half a seconds correction in raw conversion.

[bayerische]

It might be best to peruse old threads, there are a large number of them. A short synopsis: yes it happens too often, but is no big deal, as it is half a seconds correction in raw conversion.

 

Exactly, the Auto WB is no good, but this is true on most digital cameras. I'm usually setting the WB manually, it's quick due to the "Set menu". Inside mostly Tungsten, outside Daylight. -Fairly simple.

 

One thing I noticed when I first started shooting digital around 2003 was that I got lazy. I shot JPG, auto WB and looked too much at the LCD screen which back then was of very poor quality. Instead of shooting manual with RAW files, I trusted the LCD too much, and often found my self having over-cooked or wrong WB pictures in PS.

 

Well I'm not saying you are lazy, and it would be great to use the WB, if the camera would measure the correct light-temperature, but it seems our beloved M8's wants us working a bit harder!

[rwfreund]

Auto White Balance = Ought to not use

 

Critical situations - use a greycard, whibal, expodisc, etc

Normal - guess, cloudy for most exterior, tungsten for incandescent, fluorescent as appropriate, then tune by eye when you process your raw file.

-bob

[vanhulsenbeek]

Auto White Balance = Ought to not use

 

Critical situations - use a greycard, whibal, expodisc, etc

Normal - guess, cloudy for most exterior, tungsten for incandescent, fluorescent as appropriate, then tune by eye when you process your raw file.

-bob

 

 

This advice should available on a weatherproof card (to be taken out with your camera at all times), next to tems like:

 

-always format a new SD card in your camera before using

-rather not change lenses when the camera is on

 

and the best:

 

-just enjoy

[jaapv]

This advice should available on a weatherproof card (to be taken out with your camera at all times), next to tems like:

 

-always format a new SD card in your camera before using

-rather not change lenses when the camera is on

 

and the best:

 

-just enjoy :-)

 

Are you starting the weathersealing red herring again, Sander ?

 

I agree with the sentiment, though.

[vanhulsenbeek]

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Are you starting the weathersealing red herring again, Sander ?

 

The only Leica I heard of that really was total loss after a rain storm was Co Rentmeester's after he took his famous pictures of buffalo's. Early 70's and published in LIFE.

See: Co-Rentmeester Photography and go to Books/Indonesia

 

But: he had no Ortlieb bag and used his camera in the rain

 

My humble opinion about weathersealing? Only moderately trustworthy and useless when you wish to change lenses.

So, as the French say: weathersealing: BOF!

[jaapv]

Very few flooding reports on the M8 in this forum anyway.. Thanks for the site; I did not know it; the photographer obviously I did know off

[Guest tummydoc]

Very few flooding reports on the M8 in this forum anyway.

 

Spending all one's rainy days on the forum fairly guarantees the M8 will never get wet

[luigi bertolotti]

This may have been covered before, but I wish to relate something I noticed today.

I was taking some pictures of a swan and cygnets with the White Balance set to Auto.

I had the camera set to ISO 160. On checking, the WB seemed OK. I then checked in Capture1, and the WB reading was 5650K. The day was sunny.

The next picture was taken immediately after the first, with the same lens, but with an ISO setting of 320. On checking the WB, it seemed decidedly off, and in Capture it turned out to be 3550K.

It surprises me that altering the ISO , when nothing else is changed, has such an effect.

I would be interested in any comments.

 

As other have said... may happen... AWB is sometime "fool" : the attached example I think is about the same that happened to you : first pict 160ASA AWB, second (few seconds later) changed to 320ASA, no other setting touched... I didn't remember the °K value for the second... but surely not a standard for a normal (cloudy) sunlight !!!

I have anyway to point that this strange behavior occured (to me) only in particular situations... hereby, for example, I was completely under a tree canopy, with greens everywhere...

 

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[yadillah]

Thanks for all your advice. I admit that on this occasion I was a bit lazy, as I usually use a WhiBal card. I just thought it was odd to get such a difference when the only thing that was touched was the ISO setting, and the shots were taken in sunlight, only about 2 seconds apart. As was mentioned, i can correct the shot in Capture.

[ho_co]

Leica is aware of the problem and have singled it out in their newest M8 FAQ on their Web site.

 

They tweaked and tweaked but have now started over to redesign the algorithm, as Guy Mancuso pointed out a couple months back.

 

Glad you're out taking pictures, unlike us dorks who keep up on these things!

 

And I hope we've been helpful!

 

--HC