OK, guys, I just got my 10D and I'm trying to figure out how to set multiple custom white balances.
The instructions say to shoot something white and get a "standard exposure". Now I'm not sure what Canon thinks is a standard exposure here. For instance, in full sunlight is it with the histogram peak in the middle, or maybe with the histogram peak where it should be for white - way over on the right side? In heavy thunderclouds and imminent rain, should the standard exposure of the white card actually be somewhat to the right side of the histogram?
I just shoot a piece of white paper at standard exposure and it works fine.
Then the instructions say to go into Menu and select Custom WB, rotate the round wheel to the image I just shot of something white, and use the set button to select that image and have its profile saved as my Custom WB.
Then the instructions say that I can store a number of Custom WB settings in the camera for different lighting situations.
You can't store multiple settings, what you can do is make sure the card you are using has multiple reference shots for custom WB. Then you can go to the menu and use the reference each time you change lighting conditions. I don't see a lot of value in this as you can almost always take ten seconds to shoot a piece of paper and set WB to that shot.
Now, I don't believe that when I hit set after I've selected the white shot, that the camera is setting anything, because as soon as I hit set, the menu immediately goes back to the master menu list. But maybe the processor chip is blindingly fast.
This is normal behavior. Kind of surprised me at first also.
However,if you are concerned about the white balance, I think it's better to shoot in RAW and adjust it afterwards.
Jeff Spirer
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