Problems with E-PLR Custom White Balance.

[smoore]

Actually if you look on page 80 of the pdf I linked it says that once in the macro or wide angle underwater mode you can set underwater white balance. So, it seems possible.

but it also seems convoluted. Would have been much easier if they had just put underwater WB under the normal WB menu like the other PENs have.

I assumed there was no underwater modes because I could not find them in the white balance settings but Chris is absolutely correct. One has to assign this mode to a function button to access it. This convoluted approach may be needed as the flash can be fired without raising it in the underwater mode. I think the same is true of the OMD-EM5. I have the EM5 Mk ii and I can access the underwater mode from the white balance menu.

 

[timz]

I don't think the EPL-5 has underwater modes. I looked at the manual and I could not find them listed and they are clearly listed under the white balance modes for other Olympus cameras. Hopefully, using one of the automatic exposure modes to set manual white balance, as suggested by timz, will overcome the problem.

You can get the underwater mode by customizing a button to switch it to underwater mode.

It's actually meant for EZ lenses that u either fully tele or fully wide by pressing one button because there's no zoom gear made for the EZ lenses.

But if we are using the macro or kit lens, the e-zoom won't work.

 

[ffuser1]

i'm using my e-pl5 right now in the philippines and having a terrible time with custom white balance. Was hoping for some help but it seems you're having issues to. Here's what i know and what i do. - there is a custom white balance for underwater shots. i'm not sure what the default setting is and whether i should trust it, so I try to do my own. In any mode you can get to the white balance menu (enable super control panel, press ok, go to white balance, then scroll to custom 1 or 2, then press info to take a shot). i'd say 90% of the time it doesn't work and i have to spend multiple minutes trying to get it to work off a white plastic board. if it does, it's great. especially for video. you need to set the custom white balance in a photo mode and then you can use it in video. the option for the olympus preset underwater white balance is not available under video, but like i said, i'm not sure what that exactly is, as underwater white balance is not the same at all depths. that's my biggest issue - that you need to set it for underwater video to look good. but when you do, the video looks so much better.

as for regular underwater pics, there are 2 underwater modes. and you can set the fn button to go to the underwater modes. i haven't played with them too much but the 1 fish setting (the other has 3 fish, not sure what they actually stand for but i'm sure it's something) set the shutter speed to 60. I haven't played with it much as I try to do custom white balance . man custom white balance is a pain in the ass. i'm going to have to play with it a bit more and see if it's easier in a different mode - i usually use shutter priority. unless anyone has any other ideas

 

[Ryan B.]

I still haven't found the two underwater modes (i think the one fish icon means close up, while the three fish icon signifies wide angle--unless they're minnows...) in my E-PL5, but I've come up with a kind of run around the white balance problem.
Once in the Super Control Panel (SCP--which you can't get to in Auto mode--d'oh!)) I go to the White Balance square, press 'OK', and then roll through the options on the bottom of the screen until I get to 'CWB', Custom White Balance, then click 'OK' again.
At this point it takes me back to the regular screen. I press 'OK' again to get the SCP graphic, and 'CWB' is illuminated, in green. I press the lightning bolt symbol to move over one square and that puts me in the kelvin scale square, which should display a number between 2000 and 14000. This is the kelvin scale, where 2000 is way blue and 14000 is way red.
Once in this square I can either rotate the arrow pad/Control dial to move up and down the kelvin scale in steps of 100, or, click 'OK' again, which allows me to adjust it left or right (blue or red) using the arrows at the bottom of the screen. The monitor show the shift, becoming more or less red with different settings, until I find one close enough to what I want. It's still a bit fiddly, but at least its not the camera throwing up its hands and saying 'can't'.
Have I tried this underwater? Sorry, not yet, damnit, but will post results when I have some.

 

[ffuser1]

go into the settings and configure the fn button to switch between the underwater modes. certainly you can play with the kelvin scale manually but i can't find info on and don't have the knowledge to do that properly underwater. and i've been playing with different shooting modes +- flash enabled and still can't get the white balance to be set easily. oh well... will keep trying

 

[Reefwalker]

I started writing some tips on setting white balance manually and then decided it was better as a new thread:
Setting White Balance on PEN & OMD - How to