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White balance filter/cap or grey card??

PostPosted: Wed Oct 10, 2007 4:40 pm
by robert
Hi all,
I dont shoot raw, and want to know if anyone has any views on which of the above works well.

My 400D doesnt have incremental white balance so i have to go with the few presets.

any experience??

Robert

PostPosted: Thu Oct 11, 2007 7:31 pm
by Yi-P
Never used a WB cap or filter.. but I do use a grey card regularly.

I find shooting under mixed lighting, grey card adjusted WB and in camera WB are two worlds apart. I also use it to take manual exposure readings, works a treat. It just takes a bit of time and trial/error to learn how to use the grey card.

Re: White balance filter/cap or grey card??

PostPosted: Thu Oct 11, 2007 7:48 pm
by gstark
Hi Robert.

robert wrote:I dont shoot raw


Is there a reason why you don't?


To answer your question, either of those methods will give very satisfactory results, and far better than the standard in-camera wb will generally provide.

Please also have a look at the tutorial on this subject, referenced from our front page.

PostPosted: Thu Oct 11, 2007 10:06 pm
by Oz_Beachside
i used auto for a while, until I realised how irregular it was. once i understood what it did, then i used the tutorial on the front page, helped!

just bought an expo disc, and they work great. grey card was a bit irregular for me

Re: White balance filter/cap or grey card??

PostPosted: Sat Oct 13, 2007 12:26 am
by robert
gstark wrote:Is there a reason why you don't?



Actually no reason other than thought JPEGS were good enough for what I do- I do print some A3's but not that many per month- and I thought JPEGS were more easily processed. I normally only take less than a dozen shots whenever I go out so its not a time thing (RAw convertor), just didnt think i needed to.

Oz B- Is the expodisc radically better than those you can get for less than $10 on ebay?? They both look like a filter that one takes a baseline shot to use as custom WB,

Robert

PostPosted: Sat Oct 13, 2007 1:52 pm
by SteveGriffin
I have a grey card but rarely use it because it never seems to be around when I want it - does fit neatly into the camera bag. However I recently bought a cheapo WB cap and love it. I looped it onto the camera strap so it is always with me - mostly getting in the way :? but it is dead simple to use and gives much better results than using auto.

I bought a 77mm cap so it will fit on the front of any / all of my lenses. The smaller filter lenses I just need to hold onto it while I preset the WB