Sunday 5 June 2011

Contour HD 1080p Wearable Video Camera - White Balance

Readers of this blog will have seen the previous posting about a long hilly ride I did through Northumberland and I have published a number of short video clips on YouTube to show some sections of the ride just as a record to look back on when I am even older :-)

Anyway, looking at the footage I have noticed that in spite of the clips being made with the same camera, with the same settings, on the same day sometimes minutes apart, that there is a shift in white balance. The camera is using the most up to date version of the firmware available for the camera, which is currently v1.15.

If you look at the video clips in the previous posting you will see that some of them are fine (nice white clouds and a blue sky) but others exhibit a definite slightly green/muddy hue which does detract from the footage and is definitely not true-to-life colour.

I did some searches using Google and have been able to track down reports of white balance problems experienced by other users, you will be able to find them yourself very easily but one in particular is in this review.

The funny thing is that had I produced these clips weeks apart I may have put the different white balance results down to weather/lighting conditions or whatever but that's not an explanation when they are all produced so close together using the same settings. For the record the camera does not allow any user adjustment of the white balance which is supposed to be automatic, even using the Contour StotyTeller software.

I'd be interested in any thoughts you may have on the subject, especially if you work for the makers of the Contour camera, vHold. I would VERY much like to test and review the latest Contour+ camera during my forthcoming trip to ride the Raid Alpine but unfortunately I cannot afford one, open to offers ;-)

No comments:

Post a Comment