March 3rd, 2009 by 
smartwombat
Sometimes I come across a product and wonder what it’s for, or why I’d want to use it even knowing what it’s for.
Here’s the first, a set of colour balance cards from Photo Adapter.
First off, they are for adjusting the white balance of the camera, using the cards to set a custom white balance. Which means the blue cards will warm the image, and the orange cards cool the image.
That’s the opposite of a CTD filter on a tungsten light or CTO filter on a flash.
Secondly, they are used with the camera’s custom white balance function. That seems odd, since if there is a custom balance to adjust why do I need the cards … why not use the in-camera settings to set it warmer or cooler ?
Related Content:
More 2009 PMA Tradeshow News
March 3rd, 2009 at 8:29 pm
Thanks for the post, Paul. I think there’s at least one thing like this at every tradeshow. And I agree with you on this one. I expect that someone who doesn’t really understand white balance could be sold this product pretty easily. Which doesn’t make it right. You could just as easily set the white balance for tungsten or shade or even set the kelvin settings. This just adds an extra step and relieves the user of some cash that could be better spent elsewhere.