Expodisc and M9 AWB

Posted by Paul on April 19, 2011
Posted in: Photography. Tagged: , .

expo.jpg

As I mentioned earlier, the auto white balance on the M9 is pretty poor and on this trip, it certainly did not redeem itself. While shooting in the cathedral of learning, the lighting kept switching between tungsten, daylight, florescent, and mixed. Quite frankly, the AWB of the M9 was all offer the place as well. Schizophrenic!

I had placed my very little used expo disc in the bag. I pulled it out, set the camera for manual white balance, placed the disc in front of the lens, pointed at the light source, took the photo, saw that the balance was set, and started shooting. 10 times of 10. The white balance was nailed. Look at the huge difference between the AWB and the manual WB. Astonishing.

I hung the disc around my neck from it’s cord and continued to use it. I would experiment back and forward to see how much difference there was. In single lighting sources, most times AWB did well; however, throw some colored walls, or perhaps dark spaces, or mixed lighting and it just couldn’t seem to make up it’s mind. Too green. Too magenta. Too yellow. Slightly off. I was really spoiled with my Nikon.

This is not a show stopper for me, as when shooting DNG, one can make corrections later, but must rely on memory of what things looked like and adjust sliders accordingly, or hope that there is something white or gray in the frame that Photoshop can use to adjust the colors. Personally, I’d like to get it right in camera.

Therefore, on a personal note, if you do buy an M9 and want good color accuracy, an expo disc or similar is highly recommended or else you may end up quite frustrated with all ofnthe extra work that you will have to do. As a matter of fact, any camera that may have an AWB that doesn’t work so well, getting such a tool will help immensely.

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10 comments on “Expodisc and M9 AWB”

    • Carl. Thank you for the links to the informative articles about white balance. You make some good points about ‘neutral’ light and natural light, or how the scene really looks.

  3. Wow, what a difference. Luckily it’s something that can be dealt with fairly easily in any number of ways. Still, I would have expected a little better then this from Lecia but then maybe you’re right and we’ve just been spoiled by Nikon.

    • I think that we have been spoiled by Nikon. It is interesting though how the M9′s AWB performs. No big deal, though.

  4. I agree, sometimes I wonder what my D300 was seeing. Anymore I set my WB to a fixed temperature instead of auto. I may have to look into one of those expo dics.

    • I would imagine that if I do follow the route to setting to fixed temperatures, that I will forget several times and wonder why everything is coming out so blue! :) LOL

  5. I have often thought about getting a WhiBal card, but never got past thinking about it. If I took many photos inside buildings, I might get motivated. Besides, like you Nikon guys, my Canons rarely let me down. That, plus shooting RAW, means I only rarely struggle with this. Your ExpoDisc certainly seems to be a major addition to your tool box.

    • It is interesting that I’ve had the Expodisc for about 3 or 4 years, perhaps, but never really needed it. I don’t even remember why I bought it, but I never got rid of it. :) Now, I know why. LOL

  6. Seems like a small drawback – but seems like you are enjoying the new camera.

    I still find myself correct WB with my D700. Often it is very subtle because Nikon’s AWB is generally very good, but when I use that little eye dropper tool in Lightroom, I find the adjustments I make helps the image pop a bit more.

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