Has Auto White Balance Changed on the Sony a7R iii?

During filming of my Sony a7Riii Course, I made the comment that it felt like the Sony's auto white balance was improving since my Sony a7S from 4 years ago. After watching the course back to review the edit, I thought I better find out if that was true.

It seems like the algorithm Sony uses for the auto white balance has not changed. Comparing the Sony a7S to the Sony a7Riii it seems the end result is very similar.

I want to confess that I do use auto WB some of the time when I am in a rush and the light is not changing. So the test might be important to some that use it but I am guessing many of you never use it.

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[MistaFussichannel]

The ‘AWB-white’ is also available on the a6500. I like the look.

[Somecooltech]

I think the colors are much improved on the A7Riii over previous Sony cameras. I have the a6500 and got the A7R3 and I can see a nice difference. The A7R3 color look much more vibrent and lifelike. Closer to Canon colors Id say.

[Rationalific]

I don't know about white balance, but saturation sure has increased (in a good way, in my opinion). And of course, with both, you can raise or lower the saturation yourself should you want to.

[JayJayXIX]

great video! would be great to have such test for a7r3 vs canon 5d4, i (newbie) personally think the sony is a bit less appealing in complicated light situations, i suspect it is both awb and color science problem, what do you guys think?

[trevorwildstory]

Anyone has any issue with the color on the A7RIII's LCD screen? I think it's way off and reddish or it's just my A7RIII?

[Ben-fqlj]

I think it just "looks" better cause they boosted the red tint (you can see this in your "a7rii vs a7riii have the colors changed?").

Looking at the vectorsope of that video, if you drag the tint or offset towards green you can match both generations up almost perfectly. (I said that the hue was rotated on that video, not sure why I said that).

[Frytech]

Thank you for the video!
Have you tried to make the same test but without WB cards in the frame? I have a little suspicion that since grey cards are always present in shots it's easy for cameras to set the correct WB, but it might be a different story had they not have a clear reference point. What do you think, can you make a little test and just compare the shots if they turn out to be the same?