Video looks kind of 'orange' after a repair. Help!

[Nick Mora]

Back in September I tripped over a dangling AV wire and messed up the AV jack on my A1. Luckily, the camera still worked fine and I was able to finish the project. Several months later I decided to have the jack repaired. I brought it to the nearest Canon Service Center which caused me nothing but hell for the last few months. I’ll go into details in another post but basically they messed up the focus/zoom rings, the power supply, and the external microphone system while trying to fix a simple AV jack.

Anyway, they eventually fixed all that and I brought the A1 home and did some tests. Everything works now but the video quality is just not the same! Its more orange, or warmer, like the white balance is screwed up. It looks really bad, a bit like old home video cameras.

I’m using manual white balance, and all the same camera settings and custom presets as before (I had it all documented). I’m filming in the same studio, with the same exact lighting setup, with the same backdrop, with the same talent whose wearing the same exact clothing… So what’s going on?

Here are some possibilities:
-Maybe Canon upgraded or messed up the Firmware when they did the repairs. They said they had to reprogram it to fix the zoom/focus ring problem. Currently, the camera is using version 1.0.1.0 but I don’t know what I had before. I called them and they said they had no record of Firmware changes.
-Maybe Canon screwed up the cameras hardware.
-Maybe there is some setting I forgot to set. I checked a million times so I doubt it.

Any ideas on what hardware or firmware issues could be causing this?

Sorry for the long post but any suggestions would be awesome.

[Nick Mora]

I forgot to mention that I also tried automatic white balance and the indoor/outdoor wb presets.

[Trish Kerr]

I don't think i have any wise ideas for adjusting the actual camera but I'd be marching right back there with the new footage and an example of the 'pre-fixed' footage that should be matching and demand an explanation.

theoretically you could probably adjust a preset that sucked some of the reds out or messed with a white balance temperature that cooled the video but you certainly shouldn't have to!

They should be giving you a new one after all this stress.
Trish

[Phil Kay]

Have you tried the RESET? It's at the front of the screen recess, sometimes called the 'shit or bust button'. Just poke a mini screwdriver or something like that in and ALL the settings will be restored to the out of the box factory defaults.

Good luck!!

[William Boehm]

I had a very bad experience with the repair of a canon GL-2 several years ago, and it was not the repair, but poor packing for shipping back to me from NJ...east coast facility. sent back and fourth 3x, the final smashed the lens assembly etc. contacted canon cusomer service in NY and took it to the top. they replaced it with a new camera. might have to go that far...but it was worth it.

bill, bothell, WA

[Nick Mora]

Phil, I tried the reset but it still looks the same. Thanks for the suggestion though.

Right now I trying to make a preset that matches the old footage...

[Nick Mora]

So I finally took my A1 back to the Canon Service center. They said there was nothing wrong with it, but they re-calibrated the color just to make me happy.

Well, that made a huge difference. Although some colors are still not exactly as before, they look good.

Unfortunately, I'll never able to match my old footage. As Trish suggested, I may go back to Canon with before and after shots, but I think I can live with what I have.