F717 blue-hue pics (white balance glitch?)

[Michael Hewitt]

I've been using an F-717 for a couple of weeks and am very pleased with the camera. Previously I had a 505V and I'm really enjoying the speed imrovements, faster lens, zoom on lens ring, excellent picture quality, and long decent quality videos.

On a hiking trip this last weekend I encountered a strange behavior while shooting two pictures zoomed in on the shadowed side of a mountain on a bright sunny day. Both pictures, taken about 10 minutes apart and of very different subjects had an intensely blue hue to them. I'm trying to figure out what caused this phenomenon so that I can avoid it. If anyone has any ideas as to what might be happening, please let me know. I've taken over 300 pictures so far, and I've only encountered this problem twice. Also, I took many other pictures that day, and only those pictures that were zoomed way in pointing at the shadowed side of the mountain seem to exhibit the blue effect. Two sample pictures are included below.

• Mike

 

[Steve Cavigliano]

Michael,

I've seen pics like this before. Somehow you, or the 717, had Indoor white balance selected. Were you using Auto wb, by any chance??

Steve

I've been using an F-717 for a couple of weeks and am very pleased
with the camera. Previously I had a 505V and I'm really enjoying
the speed imrovements, faster lens, zoom on lens ring, excellent
picture quality, and long decent quality videos.

On a hiking trip this last weekend I encountered a strange behavior
while shooting two pictures zoomed in on the shadowed side of a
mountain on a bright sunny day. Both pictures, taken about 10
minutes apart and of very different subjects had an intensely blue
hue to them. I'm trying to figure out what caused this phenomenon
so that I can avoid it. If anyone has any ideas as to what might
be happening, please let me know. I've taken over 300 pictures so
far, and I've only encountered this problem twice. Also, I took
many other pictures that day, and only those pictures that were
zoomed way in pointing at the shadowed side of the mountain seem to
exhibit the blue effect. Two sample pictures are included below.

• Mike

--
http://www.pbase.com/slo2k

 

[Ulysses]

Michael,
I've seen pics like this before. Somehow you, or the 717, had
Indoor white balance selected. Were you using Auto wb, by any
chance??

At least from the EXIF info, it looks as if he was using either the Automatic WB, or else he had miscalibrated the One-push (perhaps he had last calibrated for an indoor setting and didn't adjust for going back outdoor in a bright sunlit snowfield).

If in Auto, this can happen easily. As Phil says, he sometimes needs to let his cameras during testing sort of "settle down" so that they pick up the WB accurately.

Either way, I'm wondering why he didn't notice the bluish tint in the LCD? It would surely have shown up this way when he took the shot. It doesn't just appear there in the final image only. It looks that way in the viewfinder too. So catching it at shot-time would have allowed for adjustment one way or another.

--

Ulysses

 

[Jimmy Chen]

I've seen pics like this before. Somehow you, or the 717, had
Indoor white balance selected. Were you using Auto wb, by any
chance??

EXIF indicates auto wb was on.

--
jc
Sony F707
http://www.reefkeepers.org/gallery/f707
http://www.reeftec.com/gallery

 

[Michael Hewitt]

At least from the EXIF info, it looks as if he was using either the
Automatic WB, or else he had miscalibrated the One-push (perhaps he
had last calibrated for an indoor setting and didn't adjust for
going back outdoor in a bright sunlit snowfield).

If in Auto, this can happen easily. As Phil says, he sometimes
needs to let his cameras during testing sort of "settle down" so
that they pick up the WB accurately.

Either way, I'm wondering why he didn't notice the bluish tint in
the LCD? It would surely have shown up this way when he took the
shot. It doesn't just appear there in the final image only. It
looks that way in the viewfinder too. So catching it at shot-time
would have allowed for adjustment one way or another.

Thanks for the quick replies! I did indeed have auto-WB on. So, it sounds like I just need to be aware of this issue and look carefully at the image through the viewfinder to see if it looks particularly blue or not. Since I mostly use the viewfinder for framing at the moment, I probably just didn't notice the blue tint at the time, but now I will pay closer attention.

Thanks again,

• Mike

 

[Ulysses]

Yes. When you do the half-press, you are looking at three things primarily:
1) Focus
2) Exstimated exposure (along with histogram)
3) White balance

If one of those three doesn't look right, don't take the shot! Just release the shutter button, and then half-press again. You can do all of this in under 1.5 seconds.

Enjoy!

At least from the EXIF info, it looks as if he was using either the
Automatic WB, or else he had miscalibrated the One-push (perhaps he
had last calibrated for an indoor setting and didn't adjust for
going back outdoor in a bright sunlit snowfield).

If in Auto, this can happen easily. As Phil says, he sometimes
needs to let his cameras during testing sort of "settle down" so
that they pick up the WB accurately.

Either way, I'm wondering why he didn't notice the bluish tint in
the LCD? It would surely have shown up this way when he took the
shot. It doesn't just appear there in the final image only. It
looks that way in the viewfinder too. So catching it at shot-time
would have allowed for adjustment one way or another.

Thanks for the quick replies! I did indeed have auto-WB on. So,
it sounds like I just need to be aware of this issue and look
carefully at the image through the viewfinder to see if it looks
particularly blue or not. Since I mostly use the viewfinder for
framing at the moment, I probably just didn't notice the blue tint
at the time, but now I will pay closer attention.

Thanks again,

• Mike

--

Ulysses

 

[lck0925]

Steve,

I'm currently seriously considering an f717 but wondered as to why some of the pics you posted up on ur pbase account seem different from phil's sample pics. Take this one as an example:

http://www.pbase.com/image/2174332

This pic looks more like a painting (very digitized) to my eyes. Could you let me know if it's just me? Or was there maybe some post processing done.

I particularily liked this(looked very natural):

http://www.pbase.com/image/2153416

Thanks in advance.

T

Steve

--

http://www.pbase.com/slo2k

 

[Steve Cavigliano]

lck,

That first image was juiced up a bit in PhotoShop. The flower is right out of the camera. These were taken with a 707. I don't have my 717, yet.

The color out of the 717 looks to be toned down a bit. The 707 has a tendency to over-saturate, highly saturated reds and greens. But it does orange and other colors, including less saturated reds and greens, very nicely. I'm keeping my 707 for awhile, just in case the 717's advantages don't outweigh it's image quality. I kinda liked the bright colors of the 707...lol

BTW, most of my images are processed. The later galleries are processed less (and better processed too, I hope). You don't need to post process your shots, but you can turn a nice shot into a really nice shot with a little cropping and some adjustments.

Steve

I'm currently seriously considering an f717 but wondered as to why
some of the pics you posted up on ur pbase account seem different
from phil's sample pics. Take this one as an example:

http://www.pbase.com/image/2174332

This pic looks more like a painting (very digitized) to my eyes.
Could you let me know if it's just me? Or was there maybe some post
processing done.

I particularily liked this(looked very natural):

http://www.pbase.com/image/2153416

Thanks in advance.

T

Steve

--

http://www.pbase.com/slo2k

--
http://www.pbase.com/slo2k