Adjusting The Black Balance And The White Balance; Adjusting The Black Balance - Sony PMW-500 Operation Manual

Adjusting the Black
Balance and the White
Balance
To ensure excellent image quality when using this
camcorder, conditions may require that both the
black balance and the white balance be adjusted.
Black balance and white balance adjustment
values that are automatically set by the camcorder
and the various settings are stored in the
camcorder memory and retained even when the
power is turned off.
Black balance adjustment
The black balance will require adjustment in the
following cases.
• When the camcorder is used for the first time
• When the camcorder has not been used for a
long time
• When the camcorder is used under conditions in
which the surrounding temperature has changed
greatly
• When the GAIN selector (L/M/H/Turbo) values
have been changed by using OPERATION
>Gain Switch in the setup menu.
It is not usually necessary to adjust the black
balance when using the camcorder after it has
been off.
White balance adjustment
Always readjust the white balance when the
lighting conditions change.

Adjusting the Black Balance

In automatic black balance mode, adjustments are
performed in the following order: black set and
black balance. Manual black balance adjustment
can be selected from the setup menu.
Automatic black balance adjustment is disabled
in the following case.
• During recording
• In a special recording modes (Picture Cache
Rec, Interval Rec, Frame Rec, Slow & Quick)
• When the shutter mode is SLS
1
Set the OUTPUT/DCC switch to CAM.
52

Adjusting the Black Balance and the White Balance

2
Push the AUTO W/B BAL switch to
BLACK and release the switch.
The message "Executing..." appears during
execution, and changes to "Done" when the
adjustment finishes. Adjustment values are
saved to memory automatically.
Notes
• During the black balance adjustment, the iris is
automatically closed.
• During the black balance adjustment, the gain
selection circuit is automatically activated so you may
see flickering on the viewfinder screen, but this is not
a fault.
• Output from the i.LINK connector stops temporarily if
you execute black balance adjustment during i.LINK
output. Output from the connector resumes when black
balance adjustment finishes.
If automatic black balance adjustment
cannot be made
If the black balance adjustment cannot be
completed normally, an error message will appear
for about three seconds on the viewfinder screen.
Possible messages are listed below.
Error message Meaning
NG: Iris Not The lens iris did not close;
Closed adjustment was impossible.
NG: Timeout Adjustment could not be
completed within the standard
number of attempts.
NG: Out of The difference between the
Range reference value and the current
value is so great that it exceeds
the range. Adjustment was
impossible.
If any of the above error messages is displayed,
retry the black balance adjustment.
If the error message occurs again, an internal
check is necessary.
For information about this internal check, refer to
the Maintenance Manual.
Note
If the lens cable is not firmly connected to the LENS
connector, it may not be possible to adjust the lens iris. If
this happens, the black balance will be incorrect.