Manual White Balance Question - Sony TRV27 vs. Canon 50MC

[Guest]

Hey everyone.

I'm looking into buying a new MiniDV camera, and a good manual white balance is a feature that I definitely want on my camera. I'm planning on transfering many of my super 8 films with this camera, and I'll even try transferring some of the Vision 200T I've shot and had processed, so a good manual white balance will be a necessity. I've looked at a few models, including the Sony DCR-TRV27 and Canon ZR-50MC. At this point, I'm leaning toward the Sony TRV27, but I have a question about the manual white balance on the Sony and Canon cameras.

When I tested the manual "hold" white balance feature on the Canon 50MC, it seemed to work very well. Whenever I would activate the "hold" manual white balance, I could really see (on the LCD display) that the camera was adjusting the white balance. I could even aim the camera at something yellow or orange, activate the "hold" manual white balance, and I would see the camera adjust the white balance accordingly. On the other hand, when I try the "hold" white balance feature on the Sony DCR-TRV27, the camera doesn't seem to make nearly as much of a white balance adjustment as the Canon ZR-50MC. If, for example, I aim the Sony at the same yellow or orange subject as I did with the Canon, and then activate the "hold" manual white balance, the Sony doesn't seem to make nearly as much of a white balance adjustment as the Canon, if any adjustment at all.

I realize that unless you've compared the manual white balance functions of these two cameras (or similary Sony and Canon MiniDV cameras), you probably can't comment on this, but hopefully there's someone out there who has noticed this as well, and maybe you can comment on or explain why the Canon is seemingly doing a much better job of manual white balancing than the Sony.

Any other MiniDV suggestions or reccomendations would also be appreciated!

Thanks!

-Karl