X-T10 White Balance

[Rieke]

http://fotopolis.pl/ found in their X-T10 test, regarding white balance the following „defect“:

- „Unsuccessful predefined levels of white balance modes. The use of any mode (except Auto) associated with abnormal color reproduction.“

- „Slight tendency to hot color rendering“.

May this perhaps already be „repaired“ in the cameras delivered?

Regards Rieke

[Max_Elmar]

I've always found (with both my Nikon and Fuji cameras) that WB presets are rarely correct without adjustment. Auto WB is considerably better, but only within a certain band or relatively "normal" lighting temps. It's OK by me - I believe that, like exposure, the photographer should be in charge of this, not some algorithm. The solution is simple - shoot jpeg, but determine the color temperature before the shot - or shoot RAW and determine it after the fact. For snapshots in normal lighting, the Auto White Balance performs quite well. 

[Rieke]

Hi Max_Elmar,

thank you for your opinion! Please tell me, did you find anything "abnormal" when shooting at artificial light or with flash, when using Auto WB?

[Max_Elmar]

Flash always worked well for me in Auto WB. I believe the camera is inclined to choose something close to flash color temp when the flash is deployed. Some types of artificial light are another matter - older florescent lights can be very challenging. A room full of old fluorescent tubes - all different brands and ages is a multicolor light show - and they flicker at line frequency! I find modern LED lighting to be vastly superior. A mixture of lighting types can be extremely challenging as the camera can only be set for one color temperature. This is one reason why some photographers love studios where all of this can be controlled. And black & white.

 

Anyone who uses flash on a regular basis will have a set of filters to "correct" the flash to the same color temperature as the other lighting.

 

I have gone as far as to shoot raw, and process layers based on color temp, then combine the layers to get rid of odd color shadows in a photo lit by multiple types of lighting!

[Rieke]

Thank you so much, Elmar, for sharing your findings regarding WB at different artificial lights and flash! We suppose, this will be an issue for digital cameras in general, not expressively for the X-T10.

Regards Gert and Rieke

[aceflibble]

I've been doing some colour testing today (mostly looking at in-camera rendering vs Lightroom) and I found the X-T10's daylight white balance is noticably 'off' compared to what Lightroom thinks it should be. (Note: Lightroom's WB is matched by Canon and most Nikon and Sony cameras and is based on the decades-old standard that 5,500k is daylight.)

The in-camera files that were set to daylight balance which reads as 5,200k w/ +7 tint towards magenta, whereas Lightroom's daylight balance is 5,500k and +10 towards magenta. Interestingly, using Lightroom's auto WB gives a reading of 5,350k w/ +28 tint towards magenta and using the WB picker on a grey patch gives me 5,150k and a +35 tint towards magenta. This is a ColorChecker target under daylight balance InterFit lights which I use for product photography. I tested with the 14mm, 35mm, 56mm and 60mm lenses. The 60mm came out warmer, but the other three all hit these same white balance numbers.

This would suggest that Fuji—or at least the X-T10—actually have their predefined white balances set with a very heavy green cast, and very slightly cool compared to industry standards.

I must say, even when I first got my first Fuji camera—the X100S—and I didn't intend to use Fuji for serious work and didn't bother to test the colour properly, I always though the white balance, regardless of whether I picked a predefined one or left it on auto, always ran a little cold and so even for casual shooting, I left auto WB with +1 towards both yellow and red/magenta, and I tweaked the daylight and shade balances slightly warm, too. That was just by eye back then, but my recent testing of the X-T10's colour seems to suggest I was right to do so.

edit: oh and if anyone wants further reading on the X-T10's colour, I've made a thread HERE.

[Rieke]

@all

Thank you for all your findings regarding WB! 

We are "happy hobby jpg shooters" . We do care for image colors, which we feel are ok at daylight with Fuji Provia. 

Regarding WB at different artificial lights and/or flash I found Classic Chrome very helpful, when testing my brand new X-T10!

Kind regards 

Rieke