D5000 wont preset white balance

[ssmartie2001]

My D5000 has decided it wont let me pre set the white balance. From new I would use an expodisk to set the white balance but on a recent outing with the camera club it wouldn't cooperate and gave a message that it couldnt do it. Has anyone had a similar experience and how did they fix it. The reason behind wanting to fix it is i would like to have the camera converted to infrored and being able to preset the white balance is then important.

[I @ M]

If you can't get it to work after checking all your settings the first thing you should try is a factory reset and see if that cures the problem. If that fails a trip to the doctor is in order.

Reset instructions here ---- http://support.nikonusa.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/16486/~/d5000-reset-switch

[arthurking83]

What exactly is the error?
Do you already have any presets residing in memory.
Most Nikon DSLR's have 5 WB preset memories(d-0 to d-4), where there is a currently set version(d-0), and four others residing in memory(d-1 to d-4) you can choose from if you delve into the WB preset feature.

Is the error that you are getting simply a 'ng' message in the viewfinder, or something else?
The two messages you will get when you try to set a new WB preset is either 'good'(pretty much self explanatory), or 'ng' or No Good. If you get this ng message, that simply means that exposure or RGB balance is way out for some reason, and can't be calculated.
I've occasionally got this ng message when trying to use a grey source, and then with the next attempt, on the same source and same exposure values .. bam.... it worked! :confused013
If you are only trying to set a WB preset using a grey card only, and keep getting a ng message, try using a pure white card of some type.
A good WB preset source is a piece of white copy paper, or a modern sleek contemporary white piece of furniture painted with two pack paint .. whatever.
Don't fuss to much over the actual scientifically correct values .. unless you're shooting for scientific photographic of course! ... just get it close, shoot in raw and correct for it with your software.

From most literature I've read on the topic of IR photography, there actually isn't a correct WB value you can use anyhow. IR doesn't actually see in colour, and in any tute you read about IR photography, where you see these weird and interesting distorted colours in photos, it's false colour anyhow.
IR photography is black and white, but does increase in colour as you decrease the wavelength of the IR light you are capturing .. that is, if the filter you are using is below the 700nm range, then you get more colour 'contaminatin' the image, if the filter's wavelength is above 900nm you get pure black and white, so any colour in the image is literally a flight of fanciful imagination and purely man made.

I tried a bit of it a while back (for false colour mainly) and found that good images were to be had in broad daylight due to the amount of IR light coming from the strongest known source of IR light .. the sun! Higher, hotter and harsher is better. For WB values, I played with this and that and then found that a WB setting of daylight in software(on the raw files) turned out to be best.
Note that if you are chasing for the interesting looking false colour type of photography as opposed to the more scientifically orientated higher (>700nm) wavelength IR interest, look for an IR filter of less than 700nm rating.
I'm assuming that when you say you want to convert the D5000 for IR photography, you mean that you want an IR only filter in place of the sensor hot mirror?
Then the filter type from the conversion source will specify what wavelength the filter is.
If you want to source an external filter(Hoya/B+W/Kenko/etc), I know Hoya use an R rating, such as R720, or R640. The number after the R is the wavelength value.

Hope you sort out your WB preset issue too.