Canon EOS 5D Mark II

	White Balance Summary
• Automatic white balance system highly accurate under daylight and fluorescent lights. • Incandescent illumination posed problems for auto WB • Custom white balance produced dramatic improvement • Only Nikon D700 produced higher overall white balance results
	Resolution	Page 6 of 21	Sample Photos

White Balance (14.27)

For our white balance testing, we compare images shot under different lighting conditions against the actual color values of the X-Rite ColorChecker chart. We use a Macbeth Judge II lighting box to maintain precise color temperature control, shooting under daylight, tungsten and compact fluorescent illumination. We test both the performance of the automatic white balance and custom white balance systems. Click here for more on how we test white balance.

Automatic White Balance (13.26)
When set to automatic white balance, the Canon 5D Mark II handled daylight and  fluorescent illumination with great skill and dexterity, but faltered when faced with incandescent illumination (the kind produced by common household bulbs).

Auto White Balance

Shooting in daylight with all five of our test cameras set to auto white balance mode, all produced slightly cool images, though the 5D Mark II was the furthest off the mark.

Auto Daylight White Balance Performance Comparison

Incandescent lighting produced problems for the auto white balance systems of all five cameras across the board, with the 5D Mark II slightly less red-tinged than the Nikon D700 and Canon 50D.

Auto Incandescent White Balance Performance Comparison

The Nikons and the Sony A900 all shot significant too warm under fluorescent lighting when set to auto white balance, while both Canons were very close to the mark, erring only slightly on the cool side.

Auto Fluorescent White Balance Performance Comparison

Custom White Balance (15.28)
The most important lesson to be gleaned from our custom white balance testing is the degree to which it solves the problems inherent in the automatic white balance system. Incandescent lighting in particular created significant difficulty for the 5D Mark II when shooting with automatic white balance. After setting a custom white balance, the measured color error was just 1.6% of the original reading.

This improvement holds true to a greater or lesser degree for all the cameras in our test suite, but the 5D Mark II proved particularly accurate after taking a custom white balance reading, trailing only the Nikon D700 in our scoring.

Canon 5D Mark II Custom White Balance

In our overall white balance scoring, combining the results for both automatic and custom white balance testing, the Canon 5D Mark II comes up in the middle of the pack, trailing its brandmate 50D and the Nikon D700 due in large part to their superior results when using the automatic setting.

White Balance Score Comparison

White Balance Settings (8.75)

The 5D white balance system includes automatic white balance, custom white balance (set by shooting a neutral card under current lighting conditions), direct entry in degrees Kelvin and the following six manual presets:

White Balance Types
Display	Mode	Color Temperature
	Daylight	5200
	Shade	7000
	Cloudy, twilight, sunset	6000
	Tungsten light	3200
	White fluorescent light	4000
	Flash use	6000

Canon chose to maintain its clumsy two-step custom white balance shooting procedure with the 5D Mark II. First you shoot a photo of a white or grey card, then you bring up the Custom White Balance utility from the menu system, then you select the reference photo you've just shot, then you press the custom white balance button on top of the camera and select it. Are we having fun yet?

White Balance Adjust

Fine manual white balance adjustment is provided along two axes.

Manual white balance correction, with fine adjustments along the blue-amber and green-magenta axes, is available, though there is no image preview to interactively indicate the effect of changes made. White balance bracketing is also available, along the same two axes. Rather than taking multiple exposures, the same shot is saved with three different white balance settings applied.