Custom White Balance on XL1S

[John Timmis]

Hello,

I just moved and buried somewhere in the dozens of unpacked boxes is my owners manual for the XL1S.

I shoot wildlife and never shoot indoors, but tomorrow morning I have to do a favor for my brother in law and shoot something indoors for him. I went there to look at it today and they have some horrible mercury lights.....auto WB and the incandescent preset are very very yellow...

Can someone please explain to me step by step, how I would go and set the custom white balance in the XL1S?

Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

John

[Don Palomaki]

Can't speak to the details of the XL1s custom white balance scheme, but You can download the XL1s manual from the download library section of: http://www.canondv.com

[Waldemar Winkler]

Originally Posted by John Timmis

Hello,

I just moved and buried somewhere in the dozens of unpacked boxes is my owners manual for the XL1S.

I shoot wildlife and never shoot indoors, but tomorrow morning I have to do a favor for my brother in law and shoot something indoors for him. I went there to look at it today and they have some horrible mercury lights.....auto WB and the incandescent preset are very very yellow...

Can someone please explain to me step by step, how I would go and set the custom white balance in the XL1S?

Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

John

Real Easy! But a bit tedious. The XL1s has three customizable white balance settings in addition to the preprogrammed daylight, incandescent, flourescent, and auto settings. It is the little pop-up button next to gain.

Use anything that is close to pure white that you can use to fill your viewfinder. I use a 6" x 6" card with a fold so it fits in a pocket, but anything white (not off -white) will work. Look for three distinct areas within a room. One location is next to windows. Another is farther away from windows that has predominantly electric lighting. A third is somewhere in between. Place the card so it reflects the ambient light in a specific area. Turn off auto focus and fill the frame of your viewfinder with the white of the card. Set the WB button to "1", press the WB set button, wait for the WB icon in the viewfinder to stop blinking, and that setting is set. Move to the 2nd location and repeat the process, but set the WB knob to # 2. Repeat for # 3.

For a half hour or so you will be all right with white balance. As the sun moves across the sky towards afternoon and evening the WB will change, so repeat the process.

[Jeff Mayne]

I use the Expodisc on my EOS 20D and my Canon XL1s to set auto white balance... Check it out at www.expodisc.com OR
http://www.expodisc.com/products/pro...ExpoDisc_Video
Let me know what you think...