White balance shift

I understand that lighting is subject to small shifts in color temperature but I think what I have is ridiculous. I had my 5D II set on the flash white balance and I took numerous pictures. Randomly, the photos would be blue on the LCD. When I pulled them up in Lightroom the "good" photos were at 6150 degrees and the blue ones were all at 2350. Any ideas why the camera switched? It's a new camera and I never had this issue with my 1D Mark IIN.

Equipment was a Canon 5D Mark II, a White Lightning 1600 and 800, Pocket Wizard TT1 and 2 TT5s.

Thanks.

Show us some examples.

What was the ambient lighting source? Was it totally overpowered?
How rapidly were you firing the shutter?

I've had the same problem with my 5DMKII recently... I posted in the camera forum, but no one seems to know what's going on... Mine will actually randomly set the white balance to zero... with flash or no flash... doesn't matter. It's happening every 30-40th frame now.. Guess I'm going to have to send it into Canon, and it may be a costly repair...

Images would be nice so EXIF could be read.
Software is what applies white balance, so it wouldn't be a costly repair. If it is indeed writing the wrong white balance, then a firmware update or reflash would probably solve it.

Make sure Lightroom isn't applying a AWB on import. 6150 seems on the high side for me for a Canon flash in camera white balance. Mine usually imports at a lower number, like around 5200 if I recall right.

Here's an example of an image that was correct. I already deleted or WB corrected the other ones. I looked through the EXIF on them and the settings were exactly the same but the color temperature was at 2350.

bdillon: The white balance is set to import as shot. For some reason the camera is going screwy on shots. I suppose I should have posted this in the camera section but last night I thought it was possible the lights had something to do with it.

delsol: Have you heard of anyone else having this issue? I'll check my firmware to see if it's the most up to date. I just got the camera last week.

You skipped the most important question - what is the ambient light source?

From EXIF:

Manual exposure, 1/200 sec, f/6.3, ISO 100

Might be safe to say ambient is not a factor unless it was full sun or there was some serious lighting going on indoors.

Could it have something to do with the Pocket Wizard's HyperSync Offset value? Have you tried taking some test shots with just the sync cable and optical slaves on the strobes to see if you can replicate the problem?

No indoor lights but the modeling lights were on.

I haven't tried running without the PWs but I will tonight. I'm also going to see if I can replicate with my 1D Mark IIN. I doubt it though. If "delsol" had the same issue with his 5D Mark II in ambient and studio settings, I'm thinking it's a 5D problem.

SurfKahakai wrote in post #12912371
No indoor lights but the modeling lights were on.

I haven't tried running without the PWs but I will tonight. I'm also going to see if I can replicate with my 1D Mark IIN. I doubt it though. If "delsol" had the same issue with his 5D Mark II in ambient and studio settings, I'm thinking it's a 5D problem.

delsol9400 is also using PWs, I believe. I'm thinking it's a sync issue resulting in only the tail end of the flash to be recorded, which will have a different color temperature. I don't have PWs, but that's my best guess.

With the problem I'm having... It doesn't matter if I'm using flash or not, or pocketwizards or not. I could be using natural light... and the camera will set the white balance to something less than what it's set at... randomly. It can be in the 2000's all the way down to zero... but more often.. as low as it can go. I'll try to reflash my firmware when I get a chance and see if the problem persists. Again, not a huge deal if I'm shooting raw.. but when shooting JPEG, you're pretty much screwed. For me it's been every 30th frame or so... sometimes I can go a couple hundred frames without it happening... It's totally unpredictable.