[K200D]

I'm very happy with my K200D too, no problems with it what so ever. I use the "Natural" setting as opposed to the default "Bright", i find that the "Natural" does a better job of recording the color more true to life. The Bright setting is a bit warmer and perhaps more pleasing to print. To each his own.

[kmccanta]

... My only concern at this point, as I have the camera dialed in to produce much more accurate results, is is this normal?

Well, I'll try to comment to the question of is this normal. However, I have the K100D so we have different sensors, processors etc...

BUT, heres some things that come to my mind:

1) you mentioned being an A/V enthusiast, perhaps you are more sensitive to color shifts. Like a wine (or beer) enthusiast becomes with practice and attention.

2) over many years now, on this and the "other" forum, there have been many discussions about the auto white balance performance. I think that the consensus is that the Pentax auto white balance algorithms stink.

3) It seems that white balance expectations are different if you come from a background of shooting slides or prints or are digital only. slides - you probably like "bright" mode, prints - you are accustomed to having someone else fix the color with out knowing it, digital only - perhaps you fix it yourself. Of course not everyone fits into these extremes, its just on observation of mine.

4) Your monitor really does matter. It may be exaggerating the differences. Also the ambient lighting around your monitor.


Conclusion: if you care about your white balance, the two things that some others do, are:

1: shoot custom white balance (practice finding a nuetral tone, or carry a white/gray/black card, or "expodisk". Or shoot RAW and fix it on the computer

2: If you finally get the colors to be pleasing onthe monitor, but the prints dont match, then you should get a colorimeter (sp?) and "manage" the colors of your screen and printers.


As an aside, if you look at old magazines, there have been different "looks" from different eras. some of that is due to the inherent white balance of popular films. I think of setting the white balance as choosing my film.