Even Canon AWB is poor in indoor incandescent lighting. Canon recommend that you use tungsten setting in that situation. Nikon AWB seems to be similar in that regard. i.e. the further from daylight you get the more you have to intervene.
I use it every time in my studio and it works like a charm: every 50 to 75 shots I shoot my grey-card; in CS3, Lightroom or NX (1 or 2) i put the dropper on the grey-card to re-adjust white-balance et voila..
Ivo Heshusius wrote:
What about using a grey-card?
I use it every time in my studio and it works like a charm: every 50 to 75 shots I shoot my grey-card; in CS3, Lightroom or NX (1 or 2) i put the dropper on the grey-card to re-adjust white-balance et voila..
I was just gonna say, find something 18% grey, or carry a grey card! AWB isn't foolproof. Just set it custom or tailor it to the situation.
I noticed my D300 AWB is better then my D200. The camera would always make everything yellow on the D200. I feel Nikon has further perfected AWB on these cameras and I haven't had a real problem yet on what I throw at it. Of course I haven't shot at extreme conditions lately like ISO 3200 in a basketball gym. If you want more precise processing I would recommend using Capture NX2 as its superb above all other processors. I think the color and quality it produces surpasses ACR.
That's exactly what I get with my D700. I've sent it in to Nikon for them to correct it. But after holding it for 3+ weeks, I get it back and they said they cannot find anything wrong with it. The written English on the Tech's yellow card was horrible. He had the audacity to insult me by saying to check my shutter and apature settings, and if problems exists to reset my camera! I cannot accept this bull Sh*t. I didn't pay $3000 for an awb to be less than the D300! Sorry for the vent.
So doing some preliminary tests with an 18% grey card, I find under 50w recessed halogen lighting, the colors were off about 750K and the tint was off about 10units. Taking some more pictures under incandescent lighting (albeit 100w GE Revel bulbs-the ones with the purple tint) with the grey card facing the light source and my back is to the light source, the color was about 350K off and the tint was off about 5 units. Further info about the camera settings under both light conditions: D700, 50mm 1.4 prime at f/2.8, 1/100s, ISO 200, AWB (0,0), D2X Mode 1, +4 sharpening, +1 Hue, and +1 Saturation.
I still have to try different light sources, such as daylight, shady, and cloudy conditions. I feel I shouldn't have to compensate for it especially for such an expensive camera body.
Has anyone sent their d700 body in for calibration and had a positive result? What did they fix? If it is a firmware issue, then I hope they release it soon.
I will post pictures later on this evening when I get home to give you guys some examples.
AWB has always been unreliable, and I wouldn't be too concerned about it. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Just the nature of things.
I shot some pictures in a dark restaurant this week, and metered off the tablecloths afterward (and even one kid's grey portable DVD player, which gave the best result of all).
The D700 AWB works quite alright around 4500-6000K, but not beyond in any direction. In my opinion, WB is too cool outdoors in sunlight, but very much to warm (yellow) at lower light indoors. Overcast weather can make it freak out totally.
A solution is to always shoot with "sunlight" WB outdoors, tweaked a bit to the warmer side (A2 for me), and adjust manual WB indoors. You actually don't have to use a WB filter. Just use the pre-WB-setting and take a shot straight at what you want to shoot. Works pretty good.
Makten wrote:
The D700 AWB works quite alright around 4500-6000K, but not beyond in any direction. In my opinion, WB is too cool outdoors in sunlight, but very much to warm (yellow) at lower light indoors. Overcast weather can make it freak out totally.
A solution is to always shoot with "sunlight" WB outdoors, tweaked a bit to the warmer side (A2 for me), and adjust manual WB indoors. You actually don't have to use a WB filter. Just use the pre-WB-setting and take a shot straight at what you want to shoot. Works pretty good.
Good call. All it took was one shot for for me to take the values I got and plug them in from then on.
Hi Sorry to bother you but you said that you was very happy with your flash system and results from the SB900. I have the D700 and SB600 and aint happy at all in fact i,m getting the point of getting rid of the lot and moving over to Canon. could you tell me are there any rough settings you use that you could share.
I,m not a big lover of going on the forums and prefer to speak one to one Thanks.
There's a setting on the D3 / D3x that I think the D700 has as well. It allows you to put in an adjustment for your auto white balance settings. You can make them overall warmer, cooler, redder, greener etc. You may want to try that. You could "dial out" a little yellow (or dial in a little blue if you'd rather look at it that way).
In my D3x, it's under the Shooting menu, White Balance, Auto White Balance.
Frankly, I have mine set a notch to the yellow - but I shoot wildlife and landscapes and like a warmer rendition.
I've learned to do those various settings. It brings up a color grid and I've been choosing anywhere from A1-3, M1-3. It warms it up better.
I have to do more experimentation, but I do find under lower light conditions, the awb is terrible. Of course when I use my flash with adequate light, it seems to be fine.
I guess the D700 is a trade off: going full fx at the expense of WB and increase in cost or sticking with a cheaper D300 with better wb, but DX.
It is what it is -- the D700's AWB isn't that great beyond a specific range. I used to complain about it, but in the grand scheme of things white balance isn't too difficult to remedy. If I need spot-on white balance I would either use a grey card/expodisc or bring my Fuji S5.
As others have suggested, you can try to move around the white balance fine tuning. Personally I have mine on b5 for cooler and then I add warmth to taste in raw conversion.
