The zylight I was using to make observations with lets you shift the green/magenta balance independent of the color temperature. I was pointing it at a white wall. It was cloudy or rainy that day, and I thought I was doing the right thing gathering data under a controlled setting, but I was not actually moving the camera.

What I remember was that when the green level was boosted, the ATW was able to function in either direction, from daylight to tungsten AND from tungsten to daylight. If the green was reduced, it would go one way but not the other.

Bottom line as others have noted, in the practical sense ATW seems broken.

Tom--my test was done moving the camera back and forth from window to lamp-lit area. When the brightness level was below a certain threshhold (i.e, when the lamp was too far away from the area I was filming), the atw from day to tung wounldn't change, but once brought up to a certain level, atw would change in both directions, albeit with always the 5 second delay minimum.

Mike, if not broken at least not dependable.

Agreed. Time for a firmware update.

yes, with fw 1.13 (EX1) ATW solved, my friend has new firmware and befour (fw1.11 or lower) got slow reacting time ATW or dont reacting ATW for change light but now with 1.13 reacting time from daylight to tungsten light and back is 5s max... i contacted my service center for update, another think with this fw is more speed AF and booting camera.

The problem, Zenes, is that a 5-second delay is way too long to be of any practical use.

Then change ATW Speed to 1

atw speed is change speed between change white from 1 (slower) to 5 (faster)
i think, reaction of ATW affects shock white setting.. this setings now works very well, befour no

That does nothing to adjust the time it takes for atw to kick in, merely the ramping once it does kick in.

While I agree that with a $6K+ camera ATW should be better than a Best Buy-purchased camcorder...professionals should NOT be using this "feature"!

I always either white balance to Warm Cards (with my setup I'm just using the 100IRE White side of the card set most of the time) or set my color temperature with Preset. Indoors I am 3200K or 2000K and outdoors anywhere from 5600K on a cloudless day, 6300K overcast and 8000-9000K in the shade.

I use my still camera the same way. I NEVER use auto white balance because color correcting footage is a b*tch. I'd rather want 50 pictures or 5 minutes of footage that is a little off-white balance and is consistent than 5 minutes of footage that is off-white sometimes, perfectly white balanced another percentage off-white on the other side the other. Color correctors will agree with me whole-heartedly there!

Just like I never use auth-iris on the EX1! I wish there was a way to disable pretty much all auto features on the EX1 so that I don't accidentally bump a switch!

So...like others before have said, start using your camera the way it was meant to.

And? That's what the firmware fixes.

No, what's needed is to have menu settings be part of the picture profile.

David--I can't speak to the ex1 firmware fix, as I'm using an ex3, and while I have v1.03 firmware, my understanding is that 1.04 changed only the flicker reduce setting and didn't deal with atw. But based on what Zenes wrote...
...I don't think the ex1 has been fixed much either. 5 seconds was what I was getting on average for the day to tungstgen delay on the ex3, (sometimes 6 or 7 depending on brightness,) which is still unacceptably slow.

There are times when auto features can help, and walking from exterior to interior without having to stop shooting could be one of them. That it is a feature useable on some cameras , but not this one, is too bad. I don't mind using the servo to zoom with, and I wouldn't mind having this feature either.

EX1 has flicker reduce setting firmware update too as EX3, this fw is 1.12.. But i think 1.13 corrected speeded booting camera and working with ATW, no reply from sony service what 1.13 realy has new or bug corrected.

Then maybe there's a firmware coming for the ex3 that addresses atw?