Hi--

>. . . by e-mailing you, but I literally have never been able to use the
>news portion of my internet software to post a message successfully, and
>having read the rec.video postings via deja.com (now google), e-mail was
>the only way I know how to ask my question. So if apologies are in order,
>please accept mine.

No problem - I answer several email questions a day...

> Anyway, since I have read your review of the PC1 )among others), which
>I think you have said is similar to the PC5, and since you are obviously
>extremely knowledgeable about digital camcorders, I have high hopes that
>you will know the answer to my question, if you will be kind enough to
>address it
>
>I just purchased a Sony PC5 and find that indoors, skin tones are redder
>than in real life (or than outdoors). That is not to say the overall video
>image is
>generally tinted red; it's not. Rather, it appears that surfaces that
>already contain a little red (like skin and pale off-white walls) simply
>have the red enhanced. The less illumination there is, the more pronounced
>this reddening effect is. And it doesn't seem to increase with increasing
>gain (everything else equal). On the contrary, one time when I tried
>manually adjusting the exposure to make
>it darker (which reduced the gain), the skin tone got redder. And in one
>case when I selected backlight, which (as it turned out) increased the gain,
>the skin tone got paler and more natural looking.
>
>It's also interesting that within a single shot, if one person's face is
>well-lit the skin tone is more natural, while if another person's face is
>more in shadow the skin tone is redder.
>
>I tried switching between auto white balance and indoor white balance
>without effect. I'm not sure it has anything to do with white balance
>anyway.
>
>I can think of about three possible explanations (but maybe none of these is
>correct)
>
>(1) This phenomenon is typical of these camcorders because of their
>design and construction.
>
>(2) This phenomenon is typical of these camcorders because of some
>optical/electronic tendency of red to be favored over other colors as the
>amount of light decreases.
>
>(3) There is something wrong or out of adjustment with my particular
>camcorder. (If this is true I would need to decide right away whether to
>return it.)
>
> I would very much appreciate any insights you may be able to
>provide. Thanks!
"Robert E. Mintz"

Sony and Canon cameras all have a tendency to go quite red in low light.
I'm guessing, but I suspect the Japanese have a "thing" for rosey skin
tone, and as the gain rises, normally the color saturation goes down,
leaving people quite pale. Just guessing, but I'd bet it explains the
redness as well as anything...;-) BTW, the Panasonic EX30U/PV950 is
quite neutral in all light levels, but the new MX3000 Panasonic is quite
red in all light levels...;-) My guess is that your camera is normal.
BTW, one of the advantages of three-chip cameras is that they can (and
some do...;-) render more subtle colors well in low light. If you look at
the office frame-grabs of Peter from the various cameras in my reviews,
you will see that they generally don't do very well with skin tone in low
tungsten light levels.