As I get into more portrait work I keep finding different little things to buy. One of the is the Seculine Pro DiskII which is a neat little tool to keep all of your needed settings in check. What made me purchase this tool in the first place was the need to make sure that the colours were all in check. When shooting things that the colour and tones are important, tools like these are needed. This is something you don’t think about as a landscape photographer because if you want to may the trees a different shade of green then it is generally ok. If you do that to someone’s award winning cat, they might not appreciate it so much.

There are many products for white balance, colour management and almost everything you buy for photography has a grey card included in it. So what is the story here? Well, for the most part this is a 3-in-1 tool that is slim portable and seemingly rugged. With a price point ranging from about 30,000 to 55,000 won on Gmarket it is affordable too.

The white balance filter is similar to the expodisc but does not clip into the barrel or your lens. If you have never tried these before, they basically create a custom white balance setting for your camera. With a few adjustments you will have a white balance perfect for your scene and light source.

Normally, I shoot in raw and adjust the white balance in camera RAW after, but basically that is pretty much guess work and this tool takes much of guessing out. With a custom white balance in place and the colour balance card as a reference, you can bet that you are going to get a perfectly balanced shot.

Now, for the the price that I paid I was expecting a plastic chunk of painted squares. What I got was a professional grade tool that comes with a mirror on the back and a lanyard to keep it around your neck, if you want to look cool. Although the physical build quality seems good, I am a little worried about the hinges.  I have used hard plastic devices lit this, primarily compasses for orienteering and these are quite similar. The overall product may be built to last but those hinges seem like they will be the first to go.

The colour card and grey card are stuck on with adhesive and I notice that the grey card almost peeled off when I touched with my finger. It stuck back easily but that was something that raised an eyebrow for me. The other thing to note is that the latch system maybe a bit annoying. They are using a sort of tongue and slot to keep things secure but you have to peel bacl the case away from the white balance filter to open it. While it provide a good closure, it did find it a little annoying to open up at times. Perhaps I just have to get used to it.

Overall, if you are doing any sort of portrait or product work where you have to get the colours just right, you should look at picking one of these up. The expodisc is just a white balance filter and is also over $100, this is a better choice in my opinion.