WhiBal Shipping

Just a note in response to several commenters who believe they can't order WhiBal cards from other countries...actually you can. Carl has received confirmation from WhiBal that they ship 30% of their orders overseas. They'll be posting clarification about this at their website soon.

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Mike  (Thanks to Carl)

Featured Comment by Michael Tapes of rawworkflow.com (WhiBal): "Hi Mike and Carl and TOP readers. As I discussed with Carl in email, we ship daily to virtually all parts of the world, with the bulk of international sales going to Europe and Australia. Shipments are via the U.S. Postal system. Rates for 1 WhiBal are as follows: First Class International: ~$2–$3 (2–3 weeks) Priority Mail International: $11–$13 (1–3 weeks) The delivery times are generally on the low side of the above scale, but any individual package can wind up in the ozone in customs, or in the system in general. The Priority method has so-called "tracking" but it works only some of the time based on the destination country and the phase of the moon. Thanks to Carl for a fine article and of course to our photo guru, Mr. Johnston. I am proud to be associated with TOP. Happy holidays to all."

Comments

[Mick Brooks]

I just received my WhiBal card today after ordering it last friday. So not only do they deliver overseas, but it is jolly quick, given the christmas traffic

Mick,
UK

[Stuart Dootson]

Not just that, but (at its cheapest), it's remarkably cheap shipping. I'd got it into my head that the cheapest shipping was about $30...and that's why I hadn't bought one. Turns out it's $3...bargain!

Having got good results with nominally neutral references (a 'white' shirt) in horrible lighting, I'll be using it regularly.

[Nick]

Another confirmation from The Netherlands... Took about 10 days with the cheapest shipping option. Great product!
Nick

[Bob Wong]

Forget special white balance cards.

I want to see a white balance function embedded in cameras that can use your hand as the white balance card.

Your hand is always with you and doesn't take up any extra space.

Don't think that because each hand is different that this function can't be added to cameras, just a little tuning is required.

[Mustafa Incel]

I received my WhiBal last week. The package was delivered in one week.

Mustafa
The Netherlands

[Dave Stewart]

Bought mine via the link last month, with no problems. It's great, as is the recently recommended book "Lost Balls" - thank you for that Mike.

Dave
(Scotland/UK)

[Roger Botting]

I ordered my second WhiBal a few weekes ago. Delivery to Toronto Canada was almost instantaneous. Pizzas seem to take longer to come!
Great service for a great little tool!

[James]

Thanks for the tip. I'll be ordering one shortly. Amazon.com wouldn't send one to me here in Korea. (There are a lot of things Amazon won't ship to Korea. They wouldn't send me a lens pen either.)

[ctein]

Dear Bob,

This wouldn't work for a couple of reasons.

First, the skin color on the palm of your hand changes with blood flow to the surface, by a considerable amount. Depending on how hot or cold you are, how much you flexed your hand recently, which have been carrying, et cetera. It would not be a reliable reference even if the "fine tuning" problem could be solved.

Furthermore, the reflectance spectrum of skin is very uneven. That means there is considerable photometamerism that crops up in rendering skintones. It's why making a color film with a good skin-gray balance is the hardest thing to get right. It's also why professional makeup artists have to do their work under lighting conditions that exactly match the ones under which the face is going to be viewed.

You're better off just relying on the auto color balance function in your camera.

~ pax \ Ctein
[ Please excuse any word-salad. MacSpeech in training! ]
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-- Ctein's Online Gallery http://ctein.com 
-- Digital Restorations http://photo-repair.com 
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[Mark]

I had absolutely no problems getting mine and I ordered just a week before Christmas!
Greetings from Germany,