Depends on how you are shooting. For me, stopping for manual
WB means I would miss much of what I would need to shoot,
especially where there is mixed lighting, with varying
concentrations of predominant colors (near windows with
interior work, with strong tungsten, flourescents, etc. also
present, for instance). For this, the AWB (with hue-bias
adjustment used) works best for me, touching up in post.
For exterior work, using the daylight preset gives me the
most consistently good color balance (again, with the
VX-2000 hue-bias control adjusted for best color). Same
for pure tungsten, using TWB (though I find AWB best for
flourescents). If you feel you MUST use manual WB (it makes
for more error and time-loss than it is worth for me...),
you can use a white sheet (or lightly-colored one selected
to give you the color-bias you prefer - or white sheet
combined with weak colored gels in front of the lens, if
you have enough hands [most of my work is hand-held...]).
For MWB on the VX-2000, switch to the MWB symbol, then hold
in the selector wheel until the MWB symbol stops blinking,
then let go. This should lock the WB on the VX-2000 (if
you have not dropped the camera while doing all this...;-)
MWB is best used, I think, for controled-lighting
situations, like studio work, or fixed-camera-position work;
if you move about much with the camera in places where the
light color is not constant, MWB can drive you nuts! ;-)
Same with manual exposure...

On Sun, 11 Feb 2001 15:50:07 -0500, bvandyk wrote:
>Thanks-- great info. I have on additional question re. above-- I have a Sony
>VX2000. What is "correct" mode? It looks to me like it defaults correctly--
>you can see the colors change through the viewer when you press the white
>balance button.

>> I believe the camera has settings for
>> indoor(3200/3000K), outdoor(5600K), and manual. When shooting in
>> incandescent light, the indoor setting will most likely be OK. But under
>> conditions such as mixed color temperature, flourescent, etc., use the
>> manual setting. For outdoor use, the preset outdoor setting will be OK in
>> sunlight, but in shaded areas, again, manually white balance.
>> Rick Diamond