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08-24-2011, 11:39 PM   #1
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Need help on WB
Lens: Sigma 10-20/f4-5.6 Camera: K5 Photo Location: Bali, Indonesia ISO: 80 Shutter Speed: >6s Aperture: F13.5 

I recently own a K5 replacing my good old K20D, but the more I use it the more obvious to me that K5's WB is not as good as K20D's especially the AWB. I spend more shutter count and more time scrolling around WB setting to get the natural colors I preferred, it's getting more difficult capturing sunset/sunrise moments.

I know shooting RAW and PP later or using grey card or expodisc will help the WB, but why AWB setting on K20D is better than K5? Do I miss something?

The sample pic posted below, any aspect of the picture especially WB needs constructive input or critiques, I'll take even the hardest one gladly..

Thanks
KJ





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08-25-2011, 12:41 AM   #2
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After 5 months I feel the same but in relation to my K10D. CS4 helps me when passing from RAW to jpg. It is probably a small adjatement not found till today.
08-25-2011, 01:14 AM   #3
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QuoteOriginally posted by Vitor Quote
After 5 months I feel the same but in relation to my K10D. CS4 helps me when passing from RAW to jpg. It is probably a small adjatement not found till today.
I thought I'm the only one who feel it since I didn't find any thread commenting K5's WB performance.. I still hope it's just a GIGO and someone comes out with an explanation.

After looking back at my old pics I think I agree with you even K10D has better AWB control over K5
08-26-2011, 04:58 AM   #4
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I have been using several adjastements in order to achive the correct balance, even comparing the images taken at the same time with K5 and K10 but, FOR K5, CS4 (RAW format) is my solution.

Regards, Vitor

08-26-2011, 06:53 AM   #5
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QuoteOriginally posted by silverelantra Quote
I recently own a K5 replacing my good old K20D, but the more I use it the more obvious to me that K5's WB is not as good as K20D's especially the AWB. I spend more shutter count and more time scrolling around WB setting to get the natural colors I preferred, it's getting more difficult capturing sunset/sunrise moments.

I know shooting RAW and PP later or using grey card or expodisc will help the WB, but why AWB setting on K20D is better than K5? Do I miss something?

Hi
AWB should get this right. I have a K-5 and it works flawlessly.
I bet the incamera setting somehow got screwed up. Turn the camera on and press the WB of the 4way controller. Maneuver to the top until AWB is highlighted. Press the right side of the 4way controller and now two squares surrounded by a ring will be displayed. The little green square marker should be in the middle. If it is not maneuver it there and press OK. For fine tuning, take a picture and immediately after it goes off from the display press the WB button of the 4way controller as explained above. Your last picture will be displayed and you can now make further adjustments to your liking. The result of your adjustments will be immediately visible in the display.

Further modes can be displayed if you turn the cam on and press the right button of the 4way controller twice. There will be 9 setting options each of which can be fine adjusted, and lock the setting in.

Read the manual !!!!

Greetings
08-26-2011, 07:18 PM   #6
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I don't have the K-5, but Ifind the K-7 to be very accurate. I did find the custom function 12 under K-7 menu "Auto WB under tungsten light" (not sure what it is on the K-5) did make a difference for shots with a lot of yellow in them (I have it set to "strongly correct" at present).
I also have found that the colour response to be different out of the camera to my K200d, and find often that I change the hue in the picture style (this obviously only affects JPGs).
Otherwise Schraubstock is on the money.
08-26-2011, 08:57 PM   #7
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QuoteOriginally posted by Schraubstock Quote
Hi
AWB should get this right. I have a K-5 and it works flawlessly.
I bet the incamera setting somehow got screwed up. Turn the camera on and press the WB of the 4way controller. Maneuver to the top until AWB is highlighted. Press the right side of the 4way controller and now two squares surrounded by a ring will be displayed. The little green square marker should be in the middle. If it is not maneuver it there and press OK. For fine tuning, take a picture and immediately after it goes off from the display press the WB button of the 4way controller as explained above. Your last picture will be displayed and you can now make further adjustments to your liking. The result of your adjustments will be immediately visible in the display.

Further modes can be displayed if you turn the cam on and press the right button of the 4way controller twice. There will be 9 setting options each of which can be fine adjusted, and lock the setting in.

Read the manual !!!!

Greetings
I certainly hope I somehow screwed up the in-cam setting, but I don't think the problem is on the WB setting of the 4way controller since I'm quite familiar as it exactly the same as K20D has. I read the manual over and over regarding this but seems I miss the information.

Look at my pic at the frist post.. it has strong purple color cast on it, it suppose to be a golden sunrise.

Let me compare with another shots, first pic using K5 and the second use K20D.. both has AWB setting (both has the little green square marker in the middle), same lens, location and the lighting condition were very much alike. both processed in LR to get the closest look of the scenery. K20D takes the most realistic picture while K5 suffers purple color cast as before.

K5


K20D


I don't own my K20D anymore to take an apple to apple comparison but my shooting experience with Pentax is long enough to tell something is wrong with my K5 WB. K20D AWB is very accurate right out of the box while I have to juggling around with K5 to get a decent WB.

Please excuse my choice of words since English is not my native language

Thanks mate


QuoteOriginally posted by Clarkey Quote
I don't have the K-5, but Ifind the K-7 to be very accurate. I did find the custom function 12 under K-7 menu "Auto WB under tungsten light" (not sure what it is on the K-5) did make a difference for shots with a lot of yellow in them (I have it set to "strongly correct" at present).
I also have found that the colour response to be different out of the camera to my K200d, and find often that I change the hue in the picture style (this obviously only affects JPGs).
Otherwise Schraubstock is on the money.
Yes from what I heard and seen K7 WB is very accurate.. I heard K5 WB is accurate too that's why I assume I messed up with the in-cam setting, I read the manual but still can't figure out what went wrong.

08-26-2011, 11:51 PM   #8
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Just like me. The manual and the camera adjustments do not solve me the color temperature problem till now. I’m going in my second K5 (got same knowledge of the camera configurations). Anyway; K5 was a good choice and I’m glad about its general performance.
Regards, Vitor

Last edited by Vitor; 08-26-2011 at 11:59 PM.
09-02-2011, 08:20 AM   #9
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QuoteOriginally posted by Vitor Quote
Just like me. The manual and the camera adjustments do not solve me the color temperature problem till now. I’m going in my second K5 (got same knowledge of the camera configurations). Anyway; K5 was a good choice and I’m glad about its general performance.
Regards, Vitor
No doubt that K5 is a fine camera.. it's a great upgrade from K10D or K20D, I still amaze of what it capable of

My shooting style is mostly Landscape, At sunrise/set light change quickly and I don't want to tweak WB every now and then. Messing up with WB is the last thing I wanna do during that short time of Sunset/sunrise.
09-02-2011, 08:29 AM   #10
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K-5 = serious photographer, right?

Why are you not shooting everything in RAW?

Dave
09-02-2011, 09:53 AM   #11
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QuoteOriginally posted by GDRoth Quote
K-5 = serious photographer, right?

Why are you not shooting everything in RAW?

Dave
Hi Dave..

I always shoot RAW.. it's in DNG format. With K20D it's usually very easy for me to correct the WB in LR, but not with K5
09-02-2011, 11:02 AM   #12
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QuoteOriginally posted by silverelantra Quote
Hi Dave..

I always shoot RAW.. it's in DNG format. With K20D it's usually very easy for me to correct the WB in LR, but not with K5
I'm not an expert, but I always assumed that it didn't matter what WB was set on the camera when you shot in RAW.

Can a more experienced person clarify this point?
09-02-2011, 09:13 PM   #13
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In RAW I set white balance on AWB 99% of the time. White balance is to a large degree subjective. On a sunset it can be wildly different as to what looks right depending on the person viewing it. In raw it doesn't really matter what has been set as it hasn't been "fixed" as in a jpeg. When you open a RAW file, it opens in the raw develop module. There you can alter it to anything that you like without damage to the image. That's why I don't obsess with the WB as it can be changed if I don't like what the camera chose. The reason I like AWB is because I usually forget to reset it when the conditions change. If I'm shooting in my studio doing tabletop photography I'll sometimes set it to custom.

Last edited by Gregory_51; 09-03-2011 at 07:29 AM.
09-03-2011, 04:41 AM   #14
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QuoteOriginally posted by GDRoth Quote
I'm not an expert, but I always assumed that it didn't matter what WB was set on the camera when you shot in RAW.

Can a more experienced person clarify this point?
I think the OP is talking about the native (=RAW) colour response from the sensor. There is a difference in response between CCD sensors (like on the K10d, K200d), and CMOS sensors (K20d, K7, K5), and variations within each type.

You are correct that the WB shouldn't matter at the time of processing, however, I believe the reason the OP is having difficulty is due to the native response of the sensor.
09-03-2011, 08:49 AM   #15
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QuoteOriginally posted by Gregory_51 Quote
In RAW I set white balance on AWB 99% of the time. White balance is to a large degree subjective. On a sunset it can be wildly different as to what looks right depending on the person viewing it. In raw it doesn't really matter what has been set as it hasn't been "fixed" as in a jpeg. When you open a RAW file, it opens in the raw develop module. There you can alter it to anything that you like without damage to the image. That's why I don't obsess with the WB as it can be changed if I don't like what the camera chose. The reason I like AWB is because I usually forget to reset it when the conditions change. If I'm shooting in my studio doing tabletop photography I'll sometimes set it to custom.
Yes I do aware of the advantages of shooting RAW, and I always shoot RAW in most situation to take those advantages.. the problem I have with K5 is the strong purple/magenta color cast that affect some of my sunset/sunrise shots which is not as easy to fix in LR as I did before with K20D. I think the two shots comparison above explain my point.

Is it possible for me to send someone here the DNG file, analyze what I might do wrong and please help me remove the purple/magenta color cast?

QuoteOriginally posted by Clarkey Quote
I think the OP is talking about the native (=RAW) colour response from the sensor. There is a difference in response between CCD sensors (like on the K10d, K200d), and CMOS sensors (K20d, K7, K5), and variations within each type.

You are correct that the WB shouldn't matter at the time of processing, however, I believe the reason the OP is having difficulty is due to the native response of the sensor.
I discussed this issue with a couple of my Flickr friends and they feel the same about K5's AWB performance. But seems in PF I'm the only person who has issue with it, Human error is most likely caused this, please help and show me the lights
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