After taking my 602 on holiday to Greece i came to print some and
found many that were taken in overcast conditions (it was October)
had a definite blue cast to them. I assumed this was due to the
print cartridge cyan ink being a bit too strong (it is an Epson 900
with cheap non epson cartridges in it) so knocked the cyan levels
down at print time. On further examination in PS i found that the
white balance was wrong in the originals and areas that shoul have
been grey had blue levels higher than should be.
Photos taken in very good light were OK but there was still a
slight imbalance
Now I do know how to correct this but i don't particularly want to
have to evaluate every shot to establish what correction should be
necesary and yes I do know how to automate this with
actions/droplets. So I started taking some photos of white paper
and the results were quite enlightening. I dull daylight they were
blue, in fluorescent they were yellow. So i took my camera in to
Jessops in Nottingham where i bought it from and took some with a
brand new S602 (the PRo this time) and the results were the same. I
should mention that (obviously) i had the white balance set to auto
all through these shots and the tests as I thought the camera white
balance would be set in camera automatically.
I telephoned Fuji tech support and their comment was that the auto
white balance was not very good and it was best not to rely on
it!!!!.
SO it looks like I will have to carry a piece of white paper with
me where ever I go just to check the white balance.
I would be interested to hear about other experiences regarding
white balance and what the lighting conditions are that it is OK to
rely on auto and those (natural) light conditions where it is
essential to compensate either before or after the shot.
I do like the manual options available with the 602 but sometimes
like on holiday I would prefer to just point and shoot.
Thanks
Hywel Harris
