White balance issue on P1 back

[hausens]

I'm very pleased with the result of phase one IQ3 back. However, it looks like the automatic white balance is not their strength. If I shot in AWB, each time I have to correct the WB in C1. Is there any better way because literally, one has to remember how the lighting of that particular photo looked like.

 

[Paul Spinnler]

1. You want to neutralize the scene lighting - grey card
2. You want to capture the exact lighting condition - Sekonic colorimeter in the field and manual WB in the back

 

[Ray Harrison]

For me and in my experience, the first rule of AWB on a P1 back - true with my Credo and then my IQ4 150 - is to not use it . I'll do what Paul suggests or shot in, say, "Daylight" or something like that.

 

[Paul2660]

+ 1. I have always found AWB on a P1 back is not accurate. I always have the back set to daylight. I will Shoot a grey card and make the adjustment in C1 later. I am not an indoor shooter with P1, landscape only.

Paul.

 

[hausens]

Thank you guys! Daylight is helpful. I found AWB rendered the color temperature of landscape photos from 3000K to 8000+K! It's crazy. It seems that the daylight WB fixes the temperature to 5001k. No weird fluctuation anymore. Now I'm very curious how the other cameras estimate their WB. From my experience, both my Pentax and Nikon cameras have more accurate estimates. Not sure if the WB is improved on cmos backs.

 

[Ray Harrison]

Thank you guys! Daylight is helpful. I found AWB rendered the color temperature of landscape photos from 3000K to 8000+K! It's crazy. It seems that the daylight WB fixes the temperature to 5001k. No weird fluctuation anymore. Now I'm very curious how the other cameras estimate their WB. From my experience, both my Pentax and Nikon cameras have more accurate estimates. Not sure if the WB is improved on cmos backs.

I haven't found that it has improved on my IQ4 (CMOS) back. Nikon does an OK job, but my Leica (M11) is also wonky with AWB. I don't know if it's the fact that this is the first Leica that's an on-sensor meter or what and I'm not sure how the IQ4 is doing it (it can do on sensor metering but not sure how it does it with the XF).

 

[hausens]

I haven't found that it has improved on my IQ4 (CMOS) back. Nikon does an OK job, but my Leica (M11) is also wonky with AWB. I don't know if it's the fact that this is the first Leica that's an on-sensor meter or what and I'm not sure how the IQ4 is doing it (it can do on sensor metering but not sure how it does it with the XF).

Thank you for your comment! I looked for the specs of HAP focusing system. Haven't found detailed information on its specs. If it uses a RGB sensor, then it's possible that the body can do it.

 

[buildbot]

Thank you for your comment! I looked for the specs of HAP focusing system. Haven't found detailed information on its specs. If it uses a RGB sensor, then it's possible that the body can do it.

I think it would be just luminance, the patent for the autofocus system is here: https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/05/88/9d/0377544f65f1ca/US10158796.pdf
I believe the Hy6 has a white balance sensor: http://www.rolleiflexpages.com/Hy6.html "an integrated RGB sensor for automatic white balance in connection with digital backs"
but I actually don't know of any back that works with it... Maybe the AFI series do?

 

[guphotography]

Is there any difference between shooting daylight in camera and change wb after in c1?

 

[hausens]

I think it would be just luminance, the patent for the autofocus system is here: https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/05/88/9d/0377544f65f1ca/US10158796.pdf
I believe the Hy6 has a white balance sensor: http://www.rolleiflexpages.com/Hy6.html "an integrated RGB sensor for automatic white balance in connection with digital backs"
but I actually don't know of any back that works with it... Maybe the AFI series do?

Cool implementation! Thanks for the information! Another MFD camera known to have rgb AWB sensor is the Pentax 645z. But neither does it support C1 or exchangeable back.

 

[hausens]

Is there any difference between shooting daylight in camera and change wb after in c1?

It should not have any difference if the photo is shot in raw.

 

[drevil]

My P65 is on daylight WB all the time, and no change in C1 later on

 

[guphotography]

It should not have any difference if the photo is shot in raw.

That's what I thought.

In which case, AWB would give you an extra set of options in addition to the presets, wouldn't it?

I've been in one situation where I set the WB to flash for an indoor portrait shoot, which turned out to be too warm, but because of it, I lost the option of AWB, which would be better balanced in that situation, hence mine stays on AWB all the time.

I use grey card with tricky indoor lightings, recently started to trial some apps that measure colour temperature, see how accurately it does under different lighting conditions.

 

[Ray Harrison]

I think it depends on what you want for starting points since for raw images, white balance is a set of information applied on top of the image later at rendering time. It doesn't actually affect the file until you actually see Schrödinger's cat. Whether the numbers are written to a file at capture time or later, to me, is just a matter of preference (at least for what I do). If I need a reference, then a card works great. I prefer a standard starting point like daylight vs a moving target (AWB) but I can see where having AWB (if it worked) would be useful too, certainly in events and such.

 

[hausens]

That's what I thought.

In which case, AWB would give you an extra set of options in addition to the presets, wouldn't it?

I've been in one situation where I set the WB to flash for an indoor portrait shoot, which turned out to be too warm, but because of it, I lost the option of AWB, which would be better balanced in that situation, hence mine stays on AWB all the time.

I use grey card with tricky indoor lightings, recently started to trial some apps that measure colour temperature, see how accurately it does under different lighting conditions.

The AWB is an additional parameter written in the metadata of a raw file. You will not lose any information if you shoot in other WB but the AWB parameter measured by the camera. However, it’s possible that you can get it back by clicking the magic wand icon in the c1 WB toolbox!