White balance lens cap

[marvins_dad]

Justin...

What do you think of these? Have you heard about them...and if they work or not?


http://theawesomer.com/balens-white-balance-cap/8192/

No more ghetto white balancing with a sheet of paper: baLens White Balance Lens Cap not only protects your glass, but features a translucent dome in both warm and neutral colors.

[jdesigns]

Interesting concept. I had not seen the lens cap one yet. The problem I see with it is if you have several different sizes of front lens elements, you would need to buy several, or buy a bigger one, and just hold it onto the front of the lens while you do your white balancing. My lenses range from 39mm to 77mm. If you only have one lens size, this would be a viable option.

Its certainly cheaper than buying an Expodisc, which I have used and it works great, though I do not own one. If I am shooting an important image, like a wedding formal, I use the provided color balance settings to get close, but also shoot RAW files to insure I can get the proper color balance in post production.

My Nikon D2x has a similar option. It's got a small color balance sensor on the front of the viewfinder (it can be seen above the "K" in Nikon) that allows me to get perfect color balance without using an Expodisc or similar product.

[hestersu]

How would you use something like this?

[jdesigns]

Sorry Su, I didn't see that you posted.

You would use this on a camera that you can set a custom white balance. You would have to read your camera's manual to find out if and how you can do it.

The benefit of using a custom white balance is to ensure you do not have any weird color balance problems, ie blue skin, green light (from fluorescent lights) etc....

The problem I see with this lens cap is that it would be easy to damage the white plastic portion of the cap, which would lead to an imperfect white balance. Of course if you are very careful, I think this is a pretty good idea.

[marvins_dad]

The other product you posted seems to do the same thing, right?

But I guess the difference is that you don't actually use the other one as a lens cap.

Maybe they can make a cap for the cap. LOL

[jdesigns]

Originally Posted by marvins_dad

The other product you posted seems to do the same thing, right?

But I guess the difference is that you don't actually use the other one as a lens cap.

Maybe they can make a cap for the cap. LOL

Yes, they do the same exact thing.

The Expodisc that I posted about is only used momentarily, usually just holding it over the lens to set the white balance. If you have several different lens front element sizes, you can buy an Expodisc that would work on your biggest lens, and just hold it over the smaller lenses.

They will both do a good job at setting the correct white balance.