A Simple, Cheap Solution for H5D Too Magenta Rear LCD Issue

[Conner999]

We have a new to us H5D-40.

Love the camera, but the rear LCD is $%^.  Low resolution aside (which we all know), some units also have a too warm & too magenta tint to the rear LCD.

When you take a capture, the immediate preview flips-up up fine, but then picks-up a too magenta tint at the end of the write process. It appears as if the camera is baking-in a too magenta tint when it sets the WB for the preview Jpeg.

None of this effects the captured images, but it's annoying.

Changing the WB on camera between various presets (daylight vs ____ ) can change blue/yellow & green/magenta somewhat, but never gets it neutral. Dialing-in a Kelvin setting on the camera ONLY ALTERS  Blue/Yellow.

HOWEVER, on a hunch, I discovered that setting a grey-card WB with the camera changes ALL aspects of WB, incl. Green/Magenta.

So, I set a grey card up, clipped various strengths of Lee magenta gel on it (too have the camera add green), took grey-card WB setting shots until I found one that balanced the rear LCD perfectly.

In my case it took two layers of 1/4 Magenta, YMMV. If other tints bother, you, just combine say 1/3 Magenta and 1/4 Blue gel sheets until happy.

The raw images will show up initially a tad green when tethered, but a manual WB or grey card shot on the first image or a preset will set the proper WB for all captures as they come in.

Not a big issue, but saves an explanation if showing a client the back of the LCD - and a frustration for we OCD types.

I just cut a couple of small, grey-card sized sheets of 1/4M gels to have in the bag in case I lose the setting on location.

Cheers

Rob   

[DavidH]

Thanks Rob for the tip!
I've got one camera monitor that also is too magenta.
I'll give it a try.

David

[Conner999]

No worries. Was driving me nuts.  I also ordered some 1/8 strength gels in M, G,B, Orange so I can fine tune-it in future.

The images come in a bit too green when tethered, but I setup some profiles for various situations (outside overcast, sunny, etc) using the great built-in Colorchecker profiling in Phocus, so no one ever notices. The Camera Calibration in Phocus is very easy, fast and accurate.

BUT - if you use Phocus mobile, the images on your iPad/iPhone that show captures in real time will come in biased based on what gel(s) you used to set the custom balance to get the LCD neutral (in my case they look too green). The jpegs transmitted as captured do not go through the Phocus color correction pipeline first.