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White Balance wrong for fuji cameras


Sandro_gsp

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Currently I own an X-S10 , but in the past I had several different Fuji Apc-s cameras.
Every camera showed a noticeable WB shift .
I.e.  in Post production I have to lower down the Kelvin temperature by 200 al least, often down by 500 , to get a natural look.
The worst was the X-Pro2.    Also the X-H1 had the same problem, although less blatant.

Before you tell .... no ... it isn't my monitor .    I have a Flickr subscription  and I see a lot of pictures made by other fellows around the world.
No other brand show the same WB shift (towards the yellowish area).   But a lot of Fuji cameras do show a lot !!!!!
To the point than I can tell if the picture has been taken by a Fuji camera just looking at the (wrong) white balance.

Has anybody ever noticed this effect ?
btw : no big deal .... I can live with it.  I'm still an happy fuji user.


 

Edited by Sandro_gsp
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I wouldn't go as far as to say that I recognize the Fuji images on Flickr, but Fuji is definitely tuned towards somewhat 'warmer' tones in their auto WB than most others. This is called 'consumer-aimed colors' often combined with a somewhat higher color saturation. It's aimed to produce pleasing colors and a warmer image which generally consumers prefer. Note that I'm talking pure RAF-files here (with profile set to linear), not the film simulations for jpegs.

Many brands have an Auto WB Cool setting that shifts the WB a bit lower. Unfortunately Fuji doesn't have that so there are two options: (1) do it in post (2) use a grey + color card. The SpyderCheckr or ColorChecker are great tools. We use a color spectrometer to set the correct WB, but that is quite expensive for casual work.

Edited by Herco
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  • 2 weeks later...

I have the X-S10 and the X100v and find the WB depends on the time of day and the weather (sunny or cloudy). At sunrise and sunset I find the AWB a touch cool for my liking so I set the WB to Daylight or Cloudy. During the day I set the WB to Daylight.

At night (dark with street lights) I find the AWB perfect.

 

 

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>There is no such thing as wrong white balance,

Not really. try this :
1 - take a picture of something outside your window, in different conditions and at different days and hours.
2 - put the pictures in your computer and compare yourself what you see.
i.e. : look at the picture and look outside the window.

---------------
my point is ; the fuji white balance is way too often wrong, because it's different from the reality I see.
I don't say "bad" , or "unpleasant" , that would be subjective.
I say : different from the reality.

 

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52 minutes ago, BobJ said:

There is no such thing as wrong white balance, just one which you prefer. It's subjective.  Every person sees colour differently. Not only tht but auto white balance can be fooled with scenes containing a dominant colour. 

Actually, WB can be wrong. I'm a fashion photographer by profession and for all my assignments it is crucial that we have the correct WB set. White really has to be white and not some sort of off-white, beige or blue-ish white. That is why we use a color spectrometer for every shoot and we set the WB manually, not on Auto where it also changes with the content of the frame. Now Fujifilm and Sony cameras are usually 200-300K warmer than a calibrated spectrometer reading. Leica and Nikon are usually very close and Panasonic and Canon are mostly in between. It can vary per type of camera. Of course I'm talking about raw here and not the jpegs which are graded and colored at will. In itself it is not a big issue because you can easily correct this in post, but in order to do that properly you have to have a reference. In that case a SpyderCheckr or ColorChecker can come in handy. Alternative can be a sheet of white print paper or a white painted wall (assuming it is really white). Of course, you only do this when correct WB is essential for your images. For my holiday snapshots I rely on Auto WB 😉

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Here are some decent articles:

https://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/white-balance.htm

https://fujifilm-x.com/en-us/stories/advanced-month-2-exposure-8-custom-wb/

If you are going into a crazy mixed lighting setup and forgot to bring your Gretag Macbeth color gear with you, and the copier supply store is closed (no bright white paper available), you can usually find a grocery store open that sells bleached white coffee filters. Put one over the lens, point the camera at the sky or a uniform light and you have a pretty close white balance source.

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23 hours ago, Herco said:

Now Fujifilm and Sony cameras are usually 200-300K warmer than a calibrated spectrometer reading.
 

that's exacly my finding, without a spectrometer.
In my Raw processing routine, I always have to lower the Kelvin temperature by 200 or 300K .   SOmetimes even 500K !!!!

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