[jeallen01]

As above on the last few weekends' aviation shots;

Colour balance/caste (not sure what would be the correct term in this instance) seems to change cyclically from frame-to-frame - normal then yellow then through most/all of the colour castes which can come from changes in the White Balance settings.

The body is set to AWB, and, so far, the only thing that seems to make a difference is to set the WB manually according to the conditions - although I think that using the Selective Area (Small) and linking the AE to the AF seem to contribute to the issue, so I have delinked the AE from the AF and I think that I will set it for either Centre Spot or Centre-weighted Average.

Anyone have any idea what I might have done, and/or other ideas how to fix it PDQ as I am going to a lot of shows over the next few weeks?

Thanks in advance.

PS: this body supposedly got a full service, although no actual repairs, by the official UK Pentax service centre last September and had very little use until late April this year.

[Blacknight659]

I notice the same change in WB when using Auto WB with each shot you mentioned in my K-5iis, and my old canon 60d.I think this is common for all digital shooters. You can notice it with every successive photo in a similar scene but it is even more noticeable when shooting in studio.

Shooting Manual WB is the only way to shoot for me. Even if the light changes, I just keep shooting at the WB i have set, then fix it all in post.

It is a best practice to select the correct WB on your own and/or correct in post. I don't think you have a defective camera.

[jeallen01]

Blacknight

Thanks for the info - so it looks like there may not be something wrong with the machine!?

Funny thing is that I have never noticed the effect before with (now sold) GX10/K10D, K5, KR or K30!!!

In fact, on the same day that I shot a lot of frames at an airshow with the K-3, I also took some similar shots with the K5 (albeit with a different lens) and the effect was not present on those.

I also don't remember it happening with the K3 last year before the service work (which was done because I had a lot of back-focus problems with it)

Anyone else experienced, at least somewhat, the same effects?

[nomadkng]

Anyone else experienced, at least somewhat, the same effects?

I've never really cared about WB since I went digital. It was very important for film, because it was tougher to fix in a darkroom.

I shoot DNG and the "As Shot" values for successive DNG can change shot to shot, especially if you are panning, because the angle of light changes.

So to answer you question, I'm of the belief it's inherent to the digital sensor age. The camera is much more adaptable (in most cases) when it comes to WB. I let it figure it out for every shot.

There are instances where I'll "force" a WB (to correct indoor lighting on straight to JPEGs comes quickly to mind), but given the ease of the ACR WB, it's literally the least of my concerns for any given image.

[jeallen01]

.... the "As Shot" values for successive DNG can change shot to shot, especially if you are panning, because the angle of light changes......

The confusing part of your comment above is that I took several series of test shots indoors this afternoon in lighting from the adjacent window, and deliberately held the camera pointed at a fixed group of objects and steady, and fired off 6-shot bursts. The same differences in AWB and in manually set WB could be pretty clearly be seen when neither the lighting nor the camera angles had changed from frame to frame.

[jeallen01]

Sorry but bumping this thread as I would really like to see any other experience of this effect occuring.

[rfg]

Sorry but bumping this thread as I would really like to see any other experience of this effect occuring.

Must say I've never noticed anything like this, with either my K3 or my old Kr. I mainly leave the camera in AWB and it certainly can get fooled at times, but with constant scene and lighting I get pretty consistent results. As a recent example I was photographing powerpoint slides at a talk (used jpeg). They all have a greenish caste but the same WB correction in lightroom served to correct them all.

(Edit typo)

[panonski]

Yes, I would also say it's a NORMAL THING.

WHY? You must understand the way the camera do it's bussiness, and in this case it's measuring White Balance. Measuring is always some arithmetic result, and as you move your camera, or subjects move in your frame, picture and color balances are changing to .

It's impossible to get same WB when is set to Auto, and that's why professional shooters don't like it.

It's OK, when you need some amateur shoots, or maybe one shoot, or your scene is pretty stable - but when you dealing with many shoots in same room, or outdoor - the auto white balance will always be different , sometimes less, sometimes much more noticeable.

----

As you pointed out, your link to AF and AE could sure be responsible for measuring, but it's not crucial thing here, cause WB on AUTO is not correct way to get the same result, in pictures taken one by one, in same conditions,
cause camera "reads" different conditions every time you pointed to different spot, and that's just not accurate.

Or, should I say it's accurate if you look picture one by one, but if you look them in a play mode, you will surely see difference between each one of them,
which leads us - to set the WB on Manual, no matter if we guess to set it 100 % correctly, because we will get the same results, on each photo.
---
It's very important thing if you shoot some ceremonies or people - because when you came home, and put your pics on big screen, you will see,
how difficult is to set SAME VALUES, on pictures with AUTO WB, because every and each one of them will be different,
and no matter how much you will try to fix it to get them "same" - you will fail

[jeallen01]

Going to two airshows over the coming weekend, and I'll what happens now that AE and AF are delinked because I have only linked the two very recently - otherwise it might mean another trip to the Service Centre (hope not - that's expensive).

[panonski]

Going to two airshows over the coming weekend, and I'll what happens now that AE and AF are delinked because I have only linked the two very recently - otherwise it might mean another trip to the Service Centre (hope not - that's expensive).

post you pictures here, straight from camera, and we will see

[jeallen01]

Will do - but probably not till Monday or Tuesday (busy weekend and I'll be dog-tired by the end of it.