Hi Alex (@Alex) , could you look into the White Balance issue further? Speaking with the team, we would love to be able to have the Canon camera set to a specific WB and not have the iGuide software override the settings. As in have the option for the operator to be able to either set it in iGuide software as we are currently doing, or change it on camera and set it to whichever setting or specific Kelvin temp the Canon camera allows us to manually set it at (i.e. 4750k) without the iGuide software overriding the camera settings.
Is this something you could easily implement on your end? It is truly the biggest issue we have with not being able to deliver a quality 360 image every time.
Canon allows setting Custom WB and then it can be chosen from among other presets. We will add a new option called Custom to WB drop-down list in Survey and it will look like this:
When that option is selected, Canon Custom WB setting will be used, whatever it happens to be.
Canon does not allow entering color temperature directly. To define Custom WB setting on Canon, you will need to have an SD card inserted and will need to take a reference image and then select it using Custom WB menu from Canon Settings screen. If you plan on using a paper reference target, you may need to wrap it into a cone to cover more of the fisheye field of view.
After Custom WB is set, you can define a WB shift relative to that image if there is a need.
You also can use any image to let Canon set WB from it, results may vary. This was was done in the sample below - image of the office was used to let Canon figure out WB. As you will see, the result differs slightly from Canon Auto setting.
Custom WB (created from that same image):
Auto (not recommended, as it may not work well when the camera is rotated for next shot):
I would prefer being able to change the kevin instead of the drop down list and I would also like to have the ability to change the right and left brackets instead of choosing presets on the main page. These two changes would help us to take better photographs
Bracket values can be changed from the Manage tab of Survey:
Values set on Manage tab will apply to HDR Custom option:
We can only control the camera settings that Canon exposes to external apps and setting color temperature is not one of them, nor is it possible to set it from Canon menus.
I understand where to change the bracketing, it’s just painful. Changing the bracketing setting to fix the HDR problems every 3 or 4 images gets really old. If I was able to change the brackets on the main screen there would be no need for the Braketing pull down. My speed would increase, my happy place would be larger.
Brackets used to be on the main page, but we found many users did not use them and/or were asking for presets. Since screen space is limited for UI elements, they had to be moved. Once you experiment with HDR, you will most likely find that existing presets together with one custom preset cover most situations.
@Alex, maybe you should investigate offering a second line of IMS-5 called the IMS-5 Pro and put a 80D body on there for those who want it. That would allow us to have a more robust body (weather sealed and longer lasting shutter), better image quality and White Balance with Colour Temp setting option.
WOW, you can really see in this example of all the different frames @Alex took, what we have to deal with on a daily basis. The Auto and Custom are obviously the best setting and are well balanced. All the others are way off!
Hopefully we can use the Custom setting and set it to an “in-between WB” between Daylight and Tungsten and it will remember that setting from home to home.
We will expose all Canon WB options in Survey (all 8 of them):
Once created using an image off SD card, the Custom preset should still work after the SD card is taken out. Saving to SD card when pressing the shutter button while IMS-5 computer is running will require disconnecting USB cable from Canon, which is a pain, so Custom WB will be difficult to adjust frequently.
That all sounds like it may work well Alex. I think if I could create a custom WB that were between Daylight and Tungsten, as philmaurion suggests, that I would use it often. It seems necessary to get the WB as close as possible in camera, as jpeg doesn’t have as much flexibility in post.
Does anyone do much editing of the panos after they are stitched? Can we even edit after stitching? I don’t really want to be bothered, but sometimes one passageway will have such a different lighting that I wish I could go in with an adjustment brush and just tweak the temperature of a small part of an image.
The fluorescent (5000K) setting is in between Daylight and Tungsten. You can easily remove the magenta hue associated with fluorescent by using the eyedropper tool in Stitch. The next time you have a mix of indoor and outdoor lighting try fluorescent.
So fluorescent is in between. From practical experience I would have guessed the fluorescent were closer to the daylight setting. I may create a custom at say 4600, and then I would have the full spectrum covered quite well. I use copy and paste for my stitch edits with the exception of the eyedropper, which I do individually for each pano. I’m sure the jpeg can easily accommodate the small tweaks between those presets.
I’d never given this as much thought before, but now I’m thinking about my lightroom editing of the regular stills. I’m often in that 4000 range for living space interiors, especially right now with the short, dark days outside.
