Rate your auto white balance.

insanefred · October 23, 2009

Just curious, what do you think of your camera(s) auto white balance. Be honest now. :wink

Nikon D50

40% hit (close enough) 60% terrible (way off)

Nikon D300 (latest firmware)

I have only found it accurate in direct sun light and when using flash. :dunno

Nikon D700

Accurate in direct sun light and when using flash.
Overall much more accurate than the D300, still a little too off to trust it.

dangin · October 23, 2009

Nikon D3 - pretty damned good WB.

Canon 5DII - little too green and red at times.

yes, i shoot both.

Zerodog · October 23, 2009

D90 and D300S. Good enough in most situations. And close enough to easily tweek in LR when working with a raw image.

craig_d · October 24, 2009

Canon 5D Mark II. I shoot RAW all the time, so the camera's opinion on WB is merely a suggestion that I rarely take without modification. Outdoors, particularly at midday, it's often a reasonably good suggestion. Under artificial light, not so much.

The fundamental problem with auto WB, which as far as I know is applicable more or less equally to all digital cameras, is that the camera has no way of knowing what the light is supposed to look like. When I first moved into digital photography in 2001, I found it puzzling that shots taken at sunset didn't really look any warmer than shots taken at noon under cloudy skies. Eventually I realized that the camera was trying to make every shot fit its model of neutral, balanced light. So now I shoot RAW and set WB myself and my sunsets actually look like sunsets.

angevin1 · October 24, 2009

Your rating query is probably directed at acceptable as a SOOC jpg?

I think the Nikon D300 and D700 are quite acceptable. inside/outside and all. Of course various lighting will render confused WB, and Mercury vapor and other such lights yield green tints and such...but I tend to either light my subject like I want or go with whatever light is there and allow that to reflect what the scene looked like.

I use AWB exclusively...and I find it pretty much can pick a close WB for me...I use LR2 and even if I can set it perfectly, find that that sometimes removes what I saw in the scene.

insanefred · October 24, 2009

craig_d wrote:

Canon 5D Mark II. I shoot RAW all the time, so the camera's opinion on WB is merely a suggestion that I rarely take without modification. Outdoors, particularly at midday, it's often a reasonably good suggestion. Under artificial light, not so much.

The fundamental problem with auto WB, which as far as I know is applicable more or less equally to all digital cameras, is that the camera has no way of knowing what the light is supposed to look like. When I first moved into digital photography in 2001, I found it puzzling that shots taken at sunset didn't really look any warmer than shots taken at noon under cloudy skies. Eventually I realized that the camera was trying to make every shot fit its model of neutral, balanced light. So now I shoot RAW and set WB myself and my sunsets actually look like sunsets.

I take it you rate yours poor?

craig_d · October 24, 2009

insanefred wrote:

I take it you rate yours poor?

No more so than others. White balance is an artistic decision, and therefore not one that a machine will do well at except under limited circumstances.

Philip Goh · October 25, 2009

I've found my 50D to be good in most instances but horrible under fluorescent lighting. I normally shift the white balance slightly to make it appear warmer as I feel that Canon's AWB does too good a job and makes images a little too cool for my liking.

paddler4 · October 25, 2009

I'm with Craig. The only way to consistently get the WB you want is to shoot raw and take the camera setting as a suggestion (if even that). if the lighting is really complex or odd, us a gray card.

Zarathustra · October 27, 2009

Sony a100 (I know, I know...) and the AWB only functions with natural light. Anything else comes out looking like absolute garbage. When I first got it, before I started shooting RAW, I had so many images ruined by looking like somebody had peed in the space between the lens and the filter. Oh, well. At least I've known better for the last couple of years.

These days I just shoot in Daylight mode and fix it in Adobe RAW. Much better!

NikonsandVstroms · October 27, 2009

Fuji S5, as fas as auto WB goes it is the best I have tried, I would say it is 80-90% of the way there. I don't use it that much but when I do it doesn't have the weird results Canon, Olympus, or Nikon can create.

SoCalAl · October 27, 2009

Nikon D300 very good & D3 EXCELLENT!

Almost always use Auto WB.

Joves · October 28, 2009

Tried it once on my D300 and, didnt like it at all. I only use my own measured WBs. The overcast was one of the worst from what I could see.

time2smile · October 29, 2009

D50 I agree, ah maybe i'll go 50/50
D90 much, much, much better.

Rate your auto white balance.

Comments