[John Dalton]

I have a Panasonic SDR-S7 camcorder. Every now and then a blue cast appears on my recordings.

The latest occurrence was on a 7 second clip. It started off with a very marked blue cast which faded to a normal colour within about a second. The subject was a grey concrete building with water in the foreground - the town hall in Reykjavik to be precise. It was mid-morning in early August and the sky was overcast.

Any suggestions as to why this happens, and is it worthwhile emailing Panasonic tech support?

[A n d r e w]

Had you just switched the camcorder on, or was it the first shot you took in the area or in the particular lighting conditions? The automatic white balance takes a few moments to adjust - which probably explains the change in colour during the shot your describe.

[John Dalton]

Originally Posted by A n d r e w

Had you just switched the camcorder on, or was it the first shot you took in the area or in the particular lighting conditions? The automatic white balance takes a few moments to adjust - which probably explains the change in colour during the shot your describe.

Thanks for the reply. It wasn't the first shot in the area, but I do try to switch off the camcorder and close the lens cap between shots so it was almost certainly after switching back on. The previous shot was a few minutes before.

I've just found another example where the first clip of the day had a blue cast that took a few seconds to fade. The following clips, however, were OK.

So, it could well be a limitation of the camcorder rather than a fault. Is this general to many camcorders or is my model known to have a particular problem in this area?

[A n d r e w]

Yours won't be the only model that does this. The AWB takes time to respond to any change in lighting conditions between clips - it's possible that it may reset when switched off, rather than recalling the previous calibration. I doubt it's a fault, but it's always difficult to diagnose without seeing the clip in question.

[chrishull3]

My HV30 is best left on the outdoor sunlight setting for all outdoor daylight filming,my FX7 the same not only is it the most accurate on these cams but i have found awb at times loses acuracy in instances like intermitant sun,i cant comment on which form of wb works best on panasonic hd cams.