FZ50 Color in Manual Mode

[scheinon]

Hello,

I'm new to the forum because I need help.
I have had my FZ50 for a while but not used it much. I prefer going totally manual, but when I do things do not work out right. The colors look wrong and so does the brightness. If anything I would say there is a blue cast to all the photos. The auto shots are OK.

I then tried the fix-by-software cop-out and that didn't work other.

I have tried different lots of different combinations of apeture, shutter speed, ISO, RAW & jpg, etc. I know I am missing something (obvious) here, but can I be doing wrong?

Also, the "dials" that adjust apeture and shutter do not always seem to work. I can turn them several times and the setting doesn't change. Other times, it changes easily.

Thanks.

[Paradox]

You probably will have accidentally changed the white balance to tungsten or something similar in manual mode - when shooting in manual, click the function button, scroll to the third option from the left, and change it to auto. That will make the camera determine the white balance, just as it does in automatic mode. Alternatively, you can change the white balance settings to something else, to change the effect on the photo. I find auto works well though.

As for the dials, you might have reached the maximum or minimum shutter speed and aperture? The min aperture is F2.8, max is F11. Min shutter speed is 1/2000 (At narrow apertures), max is 60 seconds.

[genece]

The exif says you have the camera set to Tungsten WB......If you are going to shoot in manual you must check these types of settings.

[scheinon]

Thanks for your quick replied, but I still am dubious.

I seem to have it set to the White set 2. This hasn't to my knowledge changed from the beginning. In any case, I'm not sure if this would change the color adjustment that much since white seems to be the default.

I don't see any (auto) tungsten setting. What manual are you using? The manual doesn't really give you the ranges for the presets. (It doesn't give you much of any real info) I changed it to Auto, however, and now need another sunny weekend day to test it.

If the WB is set at one setting other than Auto or the default, why would the picture be OK in Auto picture mode and not in Manual.

Does Auto reset all the settings? This makes no sense to me. I've been using a totally manual film camera until now, so I haven't had to deal with computer chips making decisions. I had assumed that Auto meant that the ISO, F, shutter settings and focus were automatic and that the rest stayed as set. Am I wrong here? If so, then the automatic features are way out of control on a higher-end cameras. All those features for nothing.

Paradox: I didn't go outside the max/min F and shutter ranges.

[Paradox]

The FZ50 is pretty much fully manual (Unless obviously it's set to Auto mode on the mode dial). Changing the white balance to auto just makes the camera adjust the colours as it sees fit, it doesn't alter any other settings. White balance is roughly akin to using specialised tungsten films etc in a film camera. You can manually adjust the ISO, again by clicking the function button and scrolling through that menu till you find the setting.

As for the wheels not always changing settings, I haven't noticed it on my FZ50.

[genece]

I almost never mess with the WB settings I find the camera much smarter than me at determining the correct WB . And I would say about 75% of the time the camera is better at determining the exposure also. I do understand at times you want to expose for a certain part of the photo and the camera can not do that, but for overall use its very good.
But the exif for your bad photo....says WB setting Tungsten (incandescent),
on my FZ30 that is setting 7.......
It seems you are miss understanding how to set the WB. And I can not help with that as I very seldom make any changes to the WB.

Do you have an exif reader? if not get Opanda Iexif , its free and the answer to most bad photos can be found with its use.
http://www.opanda.com/en/iexif/index.html

[debu_17]

I have been using the FZ 50 for some time now.

to be sure to get back the seeings which u set at one time for a shot , again
and again, save the settings to the "custom" mode(c1,c2,c3) .
there are 3 such independent settings.
when u want them back, go to "custom" and set the cam. to ur desired c1/c2/c3.

as genece has rightly said, the camera knows best what to do with WB.
I generally set "sunlight" for all daytime shots and get good results.
at best one may try out the graph based "WB- adjust", on a very bright
day and in late afternoon i may set it such that i reduce the effect of yellow.
i take a test shot, view it in playback and then go ahead.

WB auto also works very well, but i feel that it does not provide the warm cast that "sunlight" gives.

While the Wb setting for the "blue arch" shot was an incorrect setting,
it must be remebered that the WB setting and tweaking is more a matter of personal choice.

[scheinon]

Thanks folks. I think one way or another this will fix the problem. I downloaded Opanda Iexif which is a great little utility. (Why doesn't it come with the camera, and why isn't exif mentioned in Operating Instructions?)

I went back and checked the settings from the beginning. The WB was always manual and the light source Tungsten. I wouldn't have changed this as I don't really take indoor photos, and I don't think I would have changed that instead of the setting to the right or left. So I still think it was the default with my camera. Odd, indeed.

Anyway, thanks again.

[scheinon]

Just to let you know, setting the WB to Auto or daylight did the trick. The colors are right on. Thanks all.