Nikon D3 white balance

I’ve had generally excellent or at least pleasing results with the auto white balance of the Nikon D3. But in spite of its large built-in database of scenes, I’ve found that it often cannot grok exposures which are dominated by an overall color, such as this forest scene, whose tones are lush and green to the eye and render as expected when basic Daylight white balance is used. Get Nikon D3 at B&H Photo

Its variable results are why I often just shoot on Daylight white balance (sunlight or cloudy or shade) in any kind of outdoor scene; I get much more predictable results frame-to-frame. In addition, I often do not want to completely neutralize the lighting; it looks unnatural to have warm tones in the shade, so a bluish cast in the shade is quite acceptable in a JPEG, since I have the RAW anyway.

Nikon D3 auto white balance (top), daylight (bottom)