White balance
White balance is the camera’s ability to make different types of lighting appear neutral. The effect is similar to selecting daylight or tungsten film, or using color compensating filters in conventional photography.
One automatic and four preset white-balance setting are available with still image and movie recording. When one of the preset white-balance settings is selected, an icon will be displayed on the LCD monitor to indicate the active white-balance setting. White balance is set in the basic section of the recording-mode menu (p. 28). When auto reset (p.40) is active, the white balance will be reset to automatic white balance when the camera is turned off.
Automatic white balance
The automatic white balance compensates for the color temperature of a scene. In most cases, the auto setting will balance the ambient light and create beautiful images, even under mixed-lighting conditions. When the built-in flash is used, the white balance is set for the color temperature of the flash.
Shooting tips
White balance cannot correct high-energy vapor lighting: sodium-vapor (yellow highway lights), or mercury vapor. For portraits under these lighting conditions, the flash can be used to overpower the ambient light. With landscapes containing these types of lights, set the white balance to the preset daylight setting.
Preset white balance
Preset white-balance settings must be set before the image is taken. Once set, the effect is immediately visible on the monitor.
To record the ambient light, set the flash mode to flash cancel (p. 26). The built-in flash can be used with preset white-balance, but will create a pinkish or blueish cast with the fluorescent and tungsten settings. The flash is daylight balanced and will produce good results with the daylight and cloudy settings.
Daylight - for outdoor and sunlit subjects.
Cloudy - for overcast outdoor scenes.
Tungsten - for incandescent lighting: household filament light bulbs.
Fluorescent - for fluorescent lighting: office ceiling lights.
