Handycam White Balance

[Gruffa]

Can i use a purpose made Grey Card to set White Balance on Handycam HDR-XR160E as i do with my DSL still camera. It does say in instruction book to use white paper. I have a Whi-Bal card which i use to set white balance with stills camera with very good results so would like to use with Handycam if possible. Anyone used a grey card.

[blaireau_photo]

Hello Gruffa,

I am just looking into this with a few colleagues - in the meantime if anyone else has any experience with setting the white balance using this method then it would be interesting to hear some thoughts.

Thanks

Simon

[Mick2011 · Accepted solution]

Hi Gruffa - you should be ok with a grey card.

All the camera does with the white paper is set equal values for red green and blue and it will do this for any shade of 'white', including your grey card. If you were setting a white point it would be a different matter, as you'd be setting an EV value as well as tone neutrality.

You can do no harm giving it a try, anyway

Cheers

Mick

[Gruffa]

Hi Mick,  I have always used a WhiBal card in still photography as a way of getting the white balance right using the white balance tool in camera raw and clicking on the card. The tool works with white or grey. So i have tried a few test clips and it does seem to work quite well. I am glad of this because the card is quite easy to carry around with Handycam and it wasnt cheap to buy.

Thanks again for input.

                                    Gruffa  

[Mick2011]

That's good to hear Gruffa, thanks for reporting back