Camera has really bad color accuracy when at a distance, but its fine when up close, and out of focus.

[My_Computer_Is_Trash]

Why does my iPhone 13 mini do this? When I put the camera really close to the mouse, the color changes to the shade of purple I see, but when I put the camera at normal distance, the purple turns into white. How do I fix this, or why does it happen?

IMG_2374.mov

[johnt]

I suspect you are closer than the capacity of the lens to focus on the subject, and it's getting blurry and the DSP is treating it like bokeh. As far as the purple tint, it's possible the red and blue LEDs are overpowering and the camera's white balance is getting thrown off.

 

Anything closer than the minimum focusing distance confuses the device. A quick search shows the iphone 13 mini has a minimum focusing distance of 4 inches. White balance is always an issue with cameras. That's why it's usually the first adjustment is editing software.

[My_Computer_Is_Trash]

4 minutes ago, johnt said:

White balance is always an issue with cameras. That's why it's usually the first adjustment is editing software.

So, there's really nothing I can do as far as camera settings? Also, it happens with light blue, so blue and green leds as well then.

[johnt]

1 minute ago, My_Computer_Is_Trash said:

So, there's really nothing I can do as far as camera settings?

Not trying to be mean... I am not really sure what you think the problem is. The LED has a purple tint even as you move the camera back. I don't think there is a setting you can directly change to "fix" this. It's a common problem with auto balance on every camera. You could use an editing software to fix it if it really matters to you. Your camera was really designed to work best outdoors in well lit areas. It's trying to balance the red hues from your desk with the dark blues from your laptop and mouse and then a bright RGB source.

 

Do you have issues with "natural" light in well lit areas?

[My_Computer_Is_Trash]

4 minutes ago, johnt said:

Do you have issues with "natural" light in well lit areas?

Yes the same issue occurs in natural well lit areas. Natural being sunlight on the mouse. It also seems to have problems picking up on purples in sunsets, if there is a purple hue in the sunset, it will not show up on camera, and the purple will not show up.

[Electronics Wizardy]

This looks like the exposure is off. The camera is setting the exposure for the whole scene, and since the light as very bright and smal they get clipped and turn white. If you under expose your image the colors should look correct, but the rest of the image will be dark. You can also make the rest of the scene brighter so the leds aren't as bright in comparison.

 

The colors look correct when your close as its blurry and bigger, and auto exposure dims the whole image to make up for the bright lights.

 

Exposing for bright very saturated lghts is hard as they can clip on one channel and look bad, but the luma value isn't high enough to count as clippin on all channels.

 

 

[johnt]

16 minutes ago, My_Computer_Is_Trash said:

Yes the same issue occurs in natural well lit areas. Natural being sunlight on the mouse. It also seems to have problems picking up on purples in sunsets, if there is a purple hue in the sunset, it will not show up on camera, and the purple will not show up.

The blue filter is very challenging for cameras. It improves as you pay more for a camera, but it is what it is. I am trying to avoid saying that your camera is defective bc the video you provided isn't enough for me to do that. I think you will have to decide on your own if normal pictures look off and get it fixed or replaced. Or you can provide a couple more photos/videos and we might be able to help you make a judgement call.

[My_Computer_Is_Trash]

22 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

This looks like the exposure is off. The camera is setting the exposure for the whole scene, and since the light as very bright and small they get clipped and turn white. If you under expose your image the colors should look correct, but the rest of the image will be dark. You can also make the rest of the scene brighter so the leds aren't as bright in comparison.

 

Exposing for bright, and very saturated lights is hard as they can clip on one channel and look bad, but the luma value isn't high enough to count as clippin on all channels.

Yes, it removed the white problem. But when you turn it back up during editing, the problem gets fixed, and is WAY more color accurate. I also noticed that if you take a picture with the exposure at normal, it looks white, but the color gets fixed in post processing. I took a screen capture of what I mean. The screen capture is below.

 

So it looks like the problem doesn't get fixed during post processing when shooting video?  I did some testing, but you can't turn down the exposure while you're shooting video. You can in editing, however, it's fake exposure, so it just changes the brightness, and doesn't fix anything. I took some footage of my mouse in 4K at 30fps in HDR, as well as HD at 30fps in HDR, nothing worked. I will include both of these videos in another post below because of the 20mb upload limit.

 

[My_Computer_Is_Trash]

4K at 30fps in HDR:

 

HD at 30fps in HDR:

 

 

[saintlouisbagels]

I think it's the difference between the dynamic range of what your camera is capable of capturing versus the dynamic range of human vision. It can't process the high brightness of the RGB unless you lower the image exposure (and bring down the brightness of the whole room).

 

I think if you really want to film RGB lighting, you'll have to BRIGHTLY light up the whole room. That way you bringing down the exposure will make everything look natural.

 

On 5/23/2023 at 9:36 AM, My_Computer_Is_Trash said:

Yes, it removed the white problem. But when you turn it back up during editing, the problem gets fixed, and is WAY more color accurate. I also noticed that if you take a picture with the exposure at normal, it looks white, but the color gets fixed in post processing. I took a screen capture of what I mean. The screen capture is below.

Yes, the post-processing is what fixes the image beyond what the dynamic range of the sensor is able to capture.