Which gray card should I buy?

[dufrenbk]

I am in the market for a gray card. I would like to buy from B&H. What does everyone else use out there? I would like it to be able to set exposure and white balance, and be somewhat small but not too small to where I can't take a picture of it and have it fully fill the frame (or is that even necessary?).

[Grentz]

It does not need to fully fill the frame if you adjust the WB in post processing.

Lightroom for example has an eye dropper that you can select any small part of the frame to set the WB to.

[Jason Kim]

I have 14" Pocket Digital Calibration Target from Photovision. Collapses to 6". It is good at what you are looking to do(set white balance and exposure). However, it is cumbersome to use by yourself outdoors. It has tendency to fly off by itself. :confused:
I prefer WhiBal or Expodisc plus light meter. :cool:

[Bill Roberts]

I prefer WhiBal too. Link_here (http://www.rawworkflow.com/whibal/)

No connection other than as a satisfied customer.

[ben_r_]

I have 14" Pocket Digital Calibration Target from Photovision. Collapses to 6". It is good at what you are looking to do(set white balance and exposure). However, it is cumbersome to use by yourself outdoors. It has tendency to fly off by itself. :confused:
I prefer WhiBal or Expodisc plus light meter. :cool:
Same here, and I like it a lot.

[Wilt]

I prefer WhiBal too. Link_here (http://www.rawworkflow.com/whibal/)

No connection other than as a satisfied customer.

WhiBal web site says "The Gray Luminance value must be in a range that is good for digital cameras. WhiBal® rules! "

Marketing hype...Unfortunately the gray luminance value is NOT same as 18% gray card, so you cannot directly take a reading for exposure purposes. I wish somone would make a product that does both WB and exposure calibration. I'll have to look into the Photovision product to see if it is suitable for both, or simply hype.

[SkipD]

My recommendation is two cards, kept in the same sleeve. One would be the age-old Kodak gray card for use primarily as an exposure calculation tool. The other would be a WhiBal card for a white balance reference.

Actually, I carry all three sizes of WhiBal cards and a full sized Kodak card in my case, along with a ColorChecker. These take the space that was designed for a laptop in my camera case (a LowePro Stealth Reporter 650 AW).

[Wilt]

I just checked out the Photovision information, and the center section is 18% gray, so this appears to be one of the few products that can serve both for WB and for exposure. The issue with this product might simply be that it is somewhat large (if you want enough area to meter the center 18% section for exposure purposes) and folds down to 50% of its unfolded length, leaving it still somewhat large.

14" calibration tool, 4.7" wide gray zone, folded is still 7"
24" calibration tool, 8" wide gray zone, folded is still 12"

...and not as thin as carrying three cards, like Skip suggests.

[dufrenbk]

So anything that is 18% gray can be used for WB and exposure?
I suppose I could be confused and lost...
EDIT: I think I understand the photovision thing, it has the black and white for exposure and gray for WB right?

[Wilt]

So anything that is 18% gray can be used for WB and exposure?


No, you need 'neutral', not merely 18% gray. By neutral, it would need to have R-G-B balance of 128-128-128

[dufrenbk]

That Photovision thingy seems pretty good, I just checked it out myself. I think I'm going to order one.