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White Balance on HDX-900
Hi,
I’m having a hard time finding info on this. I’m a first time user of the HDX-900. This might of been covered already and it might seem like a stupid question.
So… By default the HDX-900’s white balance (on prst setting) is set to 3200K. From there I can adjust the filter wheel to 4300K and 6400K. Why not 5600K?
Should I set it to 4300K and (electronic) white balance thru that filter?
I don’t get the use of this filter wheel if you can’t set it close to 5600K.
I know that it’s better to add a real filter in front of the CCD to reduce noise and to have better dynamic range. I also understand this is why this camera has this feature. But I must be missing something.
Thanks!
Charles B.
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22 Replies
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Charles, You can set any of the presets and A & B to whatever you want. Do this…
Main Menu – Operation – White Balance mode. Then there you can change the Preset, A & B to 5600. You can also set it anything you want.
Hope that helps.
Ernie Santella
Santella Productions Inc.
http://www.santellaproductions.com -
yeah i found that but i still have to put one of those filters in front. Does it compensate?
Thanks
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Maybe I misunderstood your question? You asked how to change the preset from 4300 to 5600 correct? OK, we got that.
Now, I did some checking myself and did start to wonder about another question. I pulled my lens off and did notice that the C & D filters are physically different. I can’t quite tell how much difference in color though. Anyone know?? ‘D’ definitely looks darker.
I always assumed ‘C’ & ‘D’ were the same and you just preset your temp in the menu. But, it looks like they are different. That being so, I would use the filter closer to your required temp, thus less electronic correction needed. Use ‘C’ for shot closer to 4300 (florescent) and ‘D’ for outdoors at 5600 or above.
Anybody else want to chime in on this? And, anyone know the exact physical filter color correction of the ‘C’ & ‘D’ filters?
Ernie Santella
Santella Productions Inc.
http://www.santellaproductions.com -
yeah the consensus seems to be exactly that. To reduce the electronic correction.
Let’s see if anybody else has any input.
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The physical glass filter “D” that you roll in manually is 6300k in preset, assuming that your preset is set to 3200k in the OPERATION/WHITE BALANCE MODE MENU. Likewise,the physical glass filter “C” is 4300k in preset. If you want to bypass the glass color correction you can leave the physical glass filter on clear–3200k and change the OPERATION/WHITE BALANCE MODE value to whatever you want in either preset, awb/ A or awb/B. I often set my preset to 5600k and use the clear filter, “B”, under HMIs or Kinos because they look too warm using the daylight 6300k glass filter “D”. The C and D filters are also more dense than the clear filters A and B so sometimes it’s nice to be able to change color temp without losing light by changing the menu instead of the glass. Careful though, because if you set your preset to say, 4300k, and roll in the glass filter “C” (4300k), you’ll actually be shooting at 8600k. Roll in glass filter “D” and you’ be shooting at about 10,000k.
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Tom,
But, using ‘B’ and having the camera do the color temp adjustment up to 5600, adds noise vs. using D with very little electronic color temp.I’m not sure that is the best option in that situation.
Ernie Santella
Santella Productions Inc.
http://www.santellaproductions.com -
Well I talked tom my rental house here in Montreal and he told me to put it at the closest value to what you are shooting and white balance thru that.
Thanks for all the info, I had no idea the 3200K was clear.
Cheers!
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I’ve never seen/noticed this noise you mention in the field, nor have I heard any complaints from clients or post houses. I’ll be running some tests though! Thanks for the heads up.
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[Ernie Santella] “Tom,
But, using ‘B’ and having the camera do the color temp adjustment up to 5600, adds noise vs. using D with very little electronic color temp. “I think this is a popular legend, but not true. While I have a Varicam, I’ve tested it with using filter/white balance vs. 5600k preset(electronic balance) and discovered that in fact there is less noise shooting in daylight than tungsten light with the Varicam. My test revealed that the native color balance of the camera is between daylight and tungsten, but closer to daylight.
So, I now always shoot with the camera daylight balanced electronically when shooting in daylight situations and the results have been very nice. The original poster is correct when he notes that filter “c” is not amber enough and filter “d” is adds too much color to correct the tungsten balanced camera to daylight.
Varicam/Steadicam Owner
Los Angeles, CA
http://www.brucealangreene.com -
Did you do those tests in the same lighting condition? Meaning: Did you have the same amount of light?
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