Does the auto white balance require calibration from time to time?

13 years 4 days ago #51387 by Mah and PaH
I was wondering if the camera's automatic white balance settings ever require calibration adjustments?


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13 years 4 days ago - 13 years 3 days ago #51411 by effron
I leave my cameras on AWB 99.9% of the time. Never calibrated, and not sure how I would do that. .....;)


Also, see this.....
www.kenrockwell.com/tech/whitebalance.htm

Why so serious?
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13 years 3 days ago #51514 by Henry Peach
I've never heard of anyone needing to get it re-calibrated. The feature is dependent on hardware and software, so I suppose it's conceivable it could get out of wack. It would be handled by your camera manufacturer's repair service.

Like all auto functions there are plenty of real world situations where it's going to get fooled. I leave my digital cameras on auto wb most of the time, but I almost always end up adjusting it in the raw processor. It tends to go a little warm indoors, and a little cool outdoors.
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13 years 3 days ago #51717 by nanhi
Can I answer this question with a slight deviation? What my honored friends have said above is quite right. On some high quality DSLRs like the Pentax K20D / K-7/ K-5 (I have the K20D) the White Balance (even Auto WB) can be tweaked endlessly to your liking and set to this value. You can see the results on your LCD via a color spiral indicator or on an actual picture you have taken. This is just one method, and there are (3) other methods to tweak WB in-camera.
And my K20D cost only $ 770 with the 18-55 ALII Kit Lens (the sharpest of the Kit lenses in the world), from B&H New York in May 2009.


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13 years 3 days ago #51938 by Joves
No it shouldnt ever need calibration. Al the WB meter does is read the light temperture but, in mixed lighting condions they can get confused so then they are not accurate. This mostly happens with indoor lighting and more specifically flourescents in arenas and school gyms are the worst offenders. My D300 allows me to tweak my WBs which for the factory presets is great.


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13 years 2 days ago #52175 by Lucky One
Yep, :agree: no updates or calibration is needed.


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