They "bin" leds by color temperature, so a multiple led unit will have a consistent "K setting".

The early ones and the cheap ones even today project a light with a yellowish center and a large blueish surround. Their color temp was typically over 6500K.

The white led color is gotten from a blue led combined with a yellow fluorescing coating. Blue + Yellow = white.

So a single led can only produce one color temperature which cannot be varied.

Since a single LED is fixed in color temperature, the only way to have adjustable color temp would be to blend 3200K leds with 5600K leds, neat trick if that is what is done.

They do not list the lumins output which might be an important limitation depending on how big a scene you are trying to illuminate.

The three reviews were very positive. Let's hear back from anyone who buys this unit.

Is this live view histogram capability in the Canon T1i and 5Dii not available in Nikon cameras?

If true that would be a distinction worthy of note. It would appear to be handy to adjust exposure on the fly in live view for r, g, and b so that none of them clip. Rather than the iterative procedure of taking the shot, reviewing the resulting histogram, adjusting, take another shot etc.

Is this an example of a feature Canon's have but Nikon's do not?

Does this mean that the Histogram can only be viewed during playback?

If so, I wonder why it could not be made to appear for exposure adjustment when shooting in screen mode?

No need. Cecilia has said: "I've been uncertain which would be better for extreme cropping" Everyone knows that extreme cropping and blowups will reveal the superior sharpness of 12 mpix vs 6 mpix. That's a no brainer.

One more thought. The best image if you have an adequate lens is to zoom in with the full format camera to cover the same image area to take advantage of all of those larger pixels with their greater dynamic range. That's what you paid the big bucks for, not to throw half of them away.

Michael

Repeating:So on balance viewing a large blow up of both images will reveal less detail from the full frame camera but better range of tones and color due to the greater pixel dynamic range.

Which image will you like better? If the scene has a lot of important detail the crop sensor will do better and look sharper. If the scene requires less detail, but has a large range of light to dark colors the full frame sensor's image will look better.

Because you are doing extreme cropping the greater number of pixels in the crop sensor will be preferred for the greater sharpness. The advantage of the greater dynamic range contained in the full frame image will be less noticeable and not make up for the lower resolution due to half the pixels.

Michael

This is an excellent question, especially in the way you have carefully worded it. I'll take a shot at it.

Perceived image quality has to do with the pixel density and the "dynamic range" or amount of bits of information in each pixel. The full frame's larger pixels with greater dynamic range contain more information per pixel, but there are a lot fewer pixels.

So on balance viewing a large blow up of both images will reveal less detail from the full frame camera but better range of tones and color due to the greater pixel dynamic range.

Which image will you like better? If the scene has a lot of important detail the crop sensor will do better and look sharper. If the scene requires less detail, but has a large range of light to dark colors the full frame sensor's image will look better.

In general, liking sharpness, I suspect the greater number of pixels in the crop sensor will be preferred over the somewhat greater dynamic range contained in the full frame image.

Michael

I'm going for it.

I am watching a video of the new version of controlmynikon3.0 at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Na6fFaVATjw

I can't believe my eyes, this is sooo cool and a must have. At $20 it looks like the steel of a lifetime for me. I have been using LR's tethered capture which is brain dead by comparison.

I think it is so cheap because it is the new kid on the block and there is free capture software at DIYphotobits.com. It is said that as long as you are running a windows machine it works, and best of all it is free.

But when you see this video, you may think like me that controlmynikon is worth a quarter tank of gas.

Michael

Is ControlMyNikon software from Nikon? Seems I remember that there remote control software was a lot more expensive?

I have been using tethered capture in Lightroom which works fine to take the shot and instantly have the image raw or jpg in LR. But that is all, I'd like to be able do more from the computer, and wonder if ControlMyNikon will do more?

Re: Quite honestly, I'd not place all that much trust in the quote from Darrel Young. In fact, he's flat wrong. It is NOT measuring "the source light's Kelvin temperature." It's measuring a reflection from whatever that light hits, which as another poster has pointed out, is not necessarily the same thing at all.

Calling someone like Darrel Young "flat wrong" when he isn't kind of rubs the wrong way.

The standard white balance technique using a neutral white or gray card, which this discussion is all about, is measuring the reflected light source's color temperature, and it is the same as the incident light. You can cover the lens with a neutral white translucent filter and turn the process into an incident light meter/balancer as well and get the identical result.

Re: "what the hell do you need this info for? If your shooting a lot of mixed light source scenes and really want to do it right I suggest you become an apprentice to an architectual photographer who knows how to balance lights - cus this is complex stuff and way beyond most of us and of no use whatsoever for those shooting primarily in daylight.

In experimenting with many different LED lights to investigate their usefullness in accurately rendering color in the photography of jewelry and gemstones, I find a wide variance in color temperature from yellowish through 5000K neutral to bluish, 6500K and greater.

I was hoping to use the white balance information to pick LED lights close enough in color temperature to avoid different color casts caused by mismatched light sources.

Additionally, the stated nominal color temperature of incandescent and fluorescent lighting varies significantly with manufacturing variations, age, voltage variations, etc.

It would be cool if the D7000 would display its white balance measurements in the form of Kelvin color temperature, so users could check the cameras very accurate measurements against the various stated temperatures of each of the light sources illuminating the composition.

Alas it is not to be. After hours of research by three separate Nikon reps, who initially told me it should be available, they all reported that it is not. Nikon has not bothered to convert the white balance data to an equivalent color temperature for either display or metadata storage.

Oh well. Next question. If I photograph a particular light source by either reflectance from a gray or white card, or incident light photographed through a neutral translucent white filter, is there a way in lightroom or PS to determine the equivalent Kelvin color temperature? As you see I am nothing if not tenacious. :-D

Thanks to everyone for all your thoughtful responses.

Michael

The current 3-colour Gossen colour temperature meter measures incident light, and will not only tell you the Kelvin temperature, but recommend other filtration as well for non-continuous spectra (e.g. for fluorescents). Pure colour temperature readings are a pretty blunt instrument, especially if they are not incident or, at worst, not taken from a truly neutral white, grey or black. Roger Hicks

Of course you have to use a truly neutral white or gray card so the reflected light is the same color as the incident, but the D7000 PRE white balance is in essence a 3-color meter which clearly like most good DSLRS "allows you to measure ambient light values. ...It's very accurate since it's an actual measurement of the source light's Kelvin temperature." (Darrell Young's "Mastering the Nikon D7000")

How hard can it be to simply display or allow access to that measured Kelvin temperature?

The D7000 with its three color sensor is the opposite of a blunt instrument.

Michael

Thanks for this review. There are a number of things said that may add confusion and do not go to answering the inquiry which started this thread and which has now been restated three or four different ways.

1.When you have a variety of light sources, (both natural ambient light and photographer introduced,) they need to be color balanced to the same Kelvin temperature assuming you do not want to introduce different color casts into the composition.

2. You can do a separate white balance measurement using a white or gray card illuminated by that particular source for each source of light illuminating the composition. That measurement is stored as the equivalent Kelvin temperature of an ideal black body radiator closest in comparative color.

3. Re: "I can't help wondering how many people are still going to go on looking for a precision that doesn't (and can't) exist, using tools that don't (and can't) measure what they're after, for precisely the reasons you give."

When light sources match in color temperature as measured either by a color temperature meter or the white balance feature in your camera (using reluctance from a white or gray card), they will illuminate a composition in a similar manner avoiding unwanted color cast. This is something I can measure (the white balance feature in your camera and mine does measure it.)

What I am after is to get Nikon to publish the results of white balance in terms of equivalent Kelvin color temperature.

Does anyone disagree with:

When you have a variety of light sources, both natural ambient light and photographer introduced, they need to be color balanced to the same Kelvin temperature assuming you do not want to introduce different color casts into the composition.

The ability to measure the color temperature of each contributing source of illumination would be of tremendous value when matching the color temperatures of various sources of light in a composition.

Michael

I too am a big fan of Xrite's colorchecker passport and software that integrates with LR to color correct camera raw shots. I also use their Color Munki to calibrate my monitor.

When you have a variety of light sources, both natural ambient light and photographer introduced, they need to be color balanced to the same Kelvin temperature assuming you do not want to introduce different color casts into the composition.

The ability to measure the color temperature of each contributing source of illumination would be of tremendous value when matching the color temperatures of various sources of light in a composition.

This is why I say: "The frustrating thing is that although the camera measures the color temperature of the light reflecting from the white or gray card, it apparently does not make that Kelvin temperature available to the photographer.

Considering that meters which measure color temperature are expensive, and the D7000 is an extremely accurate measurer of color temperature, why in heaven's name do they not make it available as a read out?"

Michael