white balance erratic

no pro

New member
Shot some football under the lights tonight and had the white balance changing with every photo. Sometimes the photo would be half warm and half cool! I tried every auto white balance setting and several preset ones and no difference. I slowed my burst rate from 10 to 5 and no difference. Even single shots were changing. I thought maybe the green field? So I shot people in the crowd, no difference. Finally I lowered the iso down and at 3200 andless the problem went away. Seem to have no control above 3200. Here are some undited examples. These are from the same burst. The first pair recorded WB 5050 and the second pair was 3800
 

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480sparky

Senior Member
It's a function of the 60 Hz alternating current driving the lights. It causes the lights to flicker slightly 120 times a second. As such, the color temperature of the light flickers 120 times a second.

Shoot in raw so you have unlimited WB choices in post.
 

no pro

New member
Thanks! I never would have thought of that. I see the effect with my D810, but not nearly so bad. And yes, I shoot them raw
 

Daniel Aegerter

Senior Member
Have you turned flicker reduction on? It seems that this should help (according to the manual, haven't had any issues yet and therefore no experience).


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 

no pro

New member
Didn't know I had flicker reduction, apparently something new! on/off is not on my other cameras. It was turned OFF. My other camera Is always on auto,you choos 50 or 60 hertz. It has a flicker indication icon that shows up in the viewfinder when you point it directly at a lightbulb, how'bout that.
 
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