Lieb Loc: Idaho

I'm considering purchasing a Canon 80D and am concerned about critical reviews by photo experts which say that the auto white balance setting is worthless and that I would have to manually set white balance. Is this true?

It seems strange that a prosummer camera in this price range would have that problem.

Airwatcher

I have an 80D and have not experienced any problems with auto white. On the contrary, I've been impressed by its relative accuracy.

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

Auto WB can be fooled in some lighting situations. If I am in a situation where I have time to set a custom WB, I will do it. But it's not always feasible, so then I go with Auto WB. As long as you shoot RAW, you can adjust it in post.

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

Sounds like a lot of bull to me!!

Plieku69 Loc: The Gopher State, south end

Mine has no white balance issues, shoot in RAW for better PP flexibility.
Ken

abc1234 Loc: Elk Grove Village, Illinois

If white balance is important to you, use an appropriate accessory. These are gray cards, ExpoDisc, X-Rite ColorChecker or a meter. Otherwise, you are simply guessing when shooting or later in post-processing. I have used the ExpoDisc with a Canon 60D and 80D and find it easy to use and very reliable. Whatever you do, do not rely on tables, your eye or your memory.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

I don't have 80D, but have used about a dozen other Canon DSLRs... often with Auto White Balance... and never saw a problem with any of them. Can't imagine that 80D is any different. I've also never seen any reviews criticizing the 80D in particular for Auto WB problems.

With any DSLR, you will get best results if you set a Custom WB. (Which is very easily done.)

The various "presets" such as "tungsten", "shady", etc. are just guesses. Auto WB can only do so much. For example, I think with AWB all Canon tend to produce a bit too "golden" tungsten or "warm white" indoor bulbs.

Fluorescent lighting fools a lot of cameras... not just Canon. The 80D (and 7D Mark II, 5D Mark IV and other recent Canon) have a "Flicker Free" feature which solves an awful lot of that and makes for far better exposures and colors than earlier cameras without it (regardless of manufacturer).

If you shoot RAW, it doesn't matter, anyway. White balance is very easily changed with no loss of image quality (the way there can be if shooting JPEGs and adjusting the color & tint later).

fullyexposed Loc: Illinois

I have never had a problem with auto white balance and I have the 80D. I have shot inside and outside. LED lighting, fluorescent (thank you spell check and fix), and full sun and cloudy sky. Never had a problem, but shoot in raw and do minor edits in post and you won't have to worry about it at all. I like my 80D, glad I bought it. Price was right, I have used Canon most of my life and am use to it. If price wasn't important to me would I have still bought the 80D? No, I would have gone full frame. But for the price I think the 80D is a nice camera and I am happy with it.

abc1234 Loc: Elk Grove Village, Illinois

Here is the issue with color balance. Do you want the final balance to reproduce the scene's or not. If you want it to be faithful to the original, then you absolutely must have an objective standard. Otherwise, you can do whatever you want. As I wrote previously, adjusting to what you like in post-processing is merely guessing but if you like the result, so be it.

MikeC

I own a Canon 80D and I say forget about what you read.

Lieb Loc: Idaho

Thanks. Great advice. I hadn't thought of using a gray card.

What program or app would you recommend for post processing?

Lieb Loc: Idaho

What is an Expo Disk? Would you please explain that?

Lieb Loc: Idaho

Thanks for all your comments. You've been very helpful.

I think I'll go ahead and buy the Canon 80 D.

I'm trying to decide if I should buy it from COSTCO with the kit lenses or look at some other options.

I travel a fair amount and like wildlife photography as well as city photos. I'll be going to Peru this fall.

Right now I'm using a bridge camera, the Canon SX530 HS. It drives me crazy not to have a viewfinder and I'm ready to move up to a better camera. It worked fairly well in Africa, but I think I will get better results with the 80 D.

What do you recommend?

abc1234 Loc: Elk Grove Village, Illinois

You have two things going on here: white balance and camera. I have the 80D and think the world of it. Based upon the little you have said, I think this camera or a similar one in another brand will work out very well for you. A significant step up from a bridge camera. No need for you to go all the way to full-frame. I use a Canon 18-200 kit lens for general shooting (I am evaluating a Sigma 18-300 right now), a Sigma 70-200 f/2.8 for interior sports and a Sigma 150-600 for birds. I recommend your starting with a 18-200 or 18-300. You do not have to stick with Canon glass and might look at Sigma or Tamron. Comparable quality and no lens creep for less cost. And consider buying a tripod too.

Turning to white balance, the ExpoDisc is a calibrated filter-like device that fits over your lens. You take a calibration shot and then set your custom white balance to that shot. After that, the color balance will match that of scene's rather closely. Gray cards and ColorChecker are a bit less convenient to use. If you need the best matching of the picture's colors to those of the scene's, then the ColorChecker is probably the best way to go. As a practical matter, you do not seem to need that based upon what you said. For more information, go to the respective websites or youtube.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

PS Try the respond with quote in answering. Helps to keep things straight.

Merlin1300 Loc: New England, But Now & Forever SoTX

I have an 80D and have Not had any problems with Auto WB
If you are worried though, shoot RAW+JPG and you'll have all options covered.
Of course the 80D RAW format is NOT covered by ACR,
So you'll either have to use the Adobe DNG converter, or Canon DPP to work with the 80D CR2 Format images.