DaVinci Resolve Lite (can I use it?)

[John Hewat]

I am considering renting a BMCC to shoot a short film soon and plan to shoot RAW.

But because I will be renting the camera, they won't give me Resolve with it.

So I'm stuck with the free version which limits access. The main way I think that will affect me is that the free one doesn't allow resolutions higher than HD, so the prospect of shooting in 2.5K may be useless to me.

Can anyone comment on this?

Thanks,

-- John

[Sam Tansey]

What's your normal editing/coloring software? Adobe speedgrade does a great job with cDNG's

[John Hewat]

I just color inside Premiere in Magic Bullet Looks and Colorista. I'm very new to proper color grading, so this will be a trial by fire.

I've never used SpeedGrade but will look into it. Won't I still need to transcode the DNGs for editing in Premiere anyway?

[Sareesh Sudhakaran]

Originally Posted by John Hewat

So I'm stuck with the free version which limits access. The main way I think that will affect me is that the free one doesn't allow resolutions higher than HD, so the prospect of shooting in 2.5K may be useless to me.

Can anyone comment on this?

Thanks,

-- John

You can import 2.5K DNG files into Resolve Lite, but monitoring and export is limited to 1080p: Blackmagic Design: DaVinci Resolve Compare and http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/hd-uhd-2...ing-raw-2.html

Unless you're anticipating a 2K screening over DCP, it's cool. Why don't you download and test it? It's free anyway.

[Donald McPherson]

For those who want the download link.
Blackmagic Design: Support

Davinci resolve 9 lite

[Sam Tansey]

Originally Posted by John Hewat

I just color inside Premiere in Magic Bullet Looks and Colorista. I'm very new to proper color grading, so this will be a trial by fire.

I've never used SpeedGrade but will look into it. Won't I still need to transcode the DNGs for editing in Premiere anyway?

Yes, as it stands, fingers crossed this will change in CS6.5

[John Carroll]

Unless you are color grading pro, SpeedGrade will most likely give you a giant headache in it's current form. I'm hoping this changes with further development, but right now it is too difficult to get projects into and out of.

I echo the recommendation of Colorista II. It's very powerful, and since it is a plugin, you can grade as you go without having to have image-lock on the whole project. Plus edit changes will be no problem...

Have a test-drive in Speedgrade and you'll quickly see what I mean.

If you are going to edit the project completely, then color grade as you final step, different story.

:)

[John Hewat]

Originally Posted by John Carroll

I echo the recommendation of Colorista II. It's very powerful, and since it is a plugin, you can grade as you go without having to have image-lock on the whole project. Plus edit changes will be no problem...

This is my preferred solution.

My thinking at the moment is to either:

OPTION ONE: DaVINCI:
1. Transcode to ProRes
2. Import in Premiere
3. Edit
4. Export XML
5. Import XML into DaVinci, but re-link original RAW files
6. Grade in DaVinci
7. Export Final Film

or

OPTION TWO: CINEFORM
1. Transcode to Cineform RAW using Cineform Studio Premium (which I already own)
2. Edit in Premiere using Colorista and Magic Bullet
3. Grade in Premiere
4. Export

I just need to know how to do step 1 of this option.

Do people have opinions about the validity of either/both options?

[Duane Adam]

Originally Posted by John Carroll

Unless you are color grading pro, SpeedGrade will most likely give you a giant headache in it's current form. I'm hoping this changes with further development, but right now it is too difficult to get projects into and out of.

I echo the recommendation of Colorista II. It's very powerful, and since it is a plugin, you can grade as you go without having to have image-lock on the whole project. Plus edit changes will be no problem...

Have a test-drive in Speedgrade and you'll quickly see what I mean.

If you are going to edit the project completely, then color grade as you final step, different story.

:)

Couldn't agree more about Speedgrade, what a nightmare. I'm loving newblue ColorFast.

[Mark Kenfield]

You're not really likely to export higher than 1080p video from the camera's 2.5k DNGs anyway - the oversampling is there to give you sharp 1080p images from a bayer-pattern sensor. So it's intended for 1080p output, you'd just be interpolating the added resolution if you were to export 2.5k files.

In short - the Lite version isn't the limitation you think it is with the BMC.

[John Hewat]

Originally Posted by Mark Kenfield

You're not really likely to export higher than 1080p video from the camera's 2.5k DNGs anyway - the oversampling is there to give you sharp 1080p images from a bayer-pattern sensor. So it's intended for 1080p output, you'd just be interpolating the added resolution if you were to export 2.5k files.

In short - the Lite version isn't the limitation you think it is with the BMC.

That's fair enough. So are you suggesting that a superior 1080p image can be gained by scaling the 2.5K down rather than simply cropping the 2.5K to 1080?

[Mark Kenfield]

Yep, debayering the DNG files will get you native 1080p files. Cropping a 1080p frame out of the un-debayered 2.5k raw files, or exporting the raw files as 2.5k video files will use computing power to interpolate (guess) the missing information between pixels.

You might still get a nice result, but it'll never be as nice as properly debayered 1080p files from the 2.5k raw files.

[John Hewat]

Originally Posted by Mark Kenfield

Yep, debayering the DNG files will get you native 1080p files. Cropping a 1080p frame out of the un-debayered 2.5k raw files, or exporting the raw files as 2.5k video files will use computing power to interpolate (guess) the missing information between pixels.

You might still get a nice result, but it'll never be as nice as properly debayered 1080p files from the 2.5k raw files.

Well I guess I have to learn what debayering means exactly. I thought it simply referred to a kind of "digital development" of the digital negative file. But it sounds a bit more complicated than that. Is that the stage where the "look" is burned in to the footage?

[John Hewat]

Originally Posted by John Carroll

I echo the recommendation of Colorista II. It's very powerful, and since it is a plugin, you can grade as you go without having to have image-lock on the whole project. Plus edit changes will be no problem...

Does this method give you the full flexibility of the raw file though? If DaVinci and Cineform FirstLight have access to metadata and are non-destructive, is colorista just as powerful and non-destructive?

[Chris Barcellos]

When you are using Colorista, my understanding is that as a plugin, nothing is done to the raw original file. You have to render a new file to have a permanent changed file.

In Davinci, I think it is the same. You have to actually render out a new file. Is that what everyone is saying ??? Have I got that right ?