Processing DNGs in ACR vs. DaVinci Resolve Lite 11

[fisawa]

Hello! First, thank you developers of Magic Lantern for developing this tool and for the support on the forums. Every camera question regarding filming I got it answered after searching for a while. You guys deserve a medal for the effort! Now, to the boring stuff.

I'm a very new user of the RAW and I have some questions about post processing.
I want to make proxy files for editing and dailies, and the only way I knew was to use DaVinci Resolve (I'm now using the 11.0.0b.037 version) because I can sync the audio and export easily (although I'm having some issues syncing more than one .wav to a video, but that's a issue not regarding ML at all). But, when I open the DNG sequence, Davinci monitor shows a very saturated and high contrast image, even making some of the roll offs seem like a 6-bit image, and even a h.264 test we did had better colors. Because I was using for proxy, I thought it wasn't a big deal, but when I opened one frame using ACR (8.5), the image was completely different.

ProRes 422 frame processed in DaVinci 11 with baked-in settings


DNG frame processed in ACR with baked-in settings


I'm not the most expert user of DaVinci, but I knew the problem was with the camera RAW processing, so I started messing all the parameters up (I can't screenshot the camera RAW settings, weird) until I got the image like the ACR, but I failed. Does anyone knows what else could be the problem? Thank you very much for any help!

[jimmyD30]

Some say ACR debayers better than DR. That being said, did you adjust the RAW input setting in Davinci Resolve? Setting to BMD Film is suggested for ML RAW.

[fisawa]

Some say ACR debayers better than DR. That being said, did you adjust the RAW input setting in Davinci Resolve? Setting to BMD Film is suggested for ML RAW.

Yes, but the results are far of the image that I got with ACR, it makes a LUT necessary for dailies and I'm no colorist, I'm just trying to arrange a decent and easy editing workflow for me.
And if it's known that ACR debayers are better, what is the guarantee that the BMD Film debayer is any good and it's not messing up my image like all the other debayers in DVR11?

Is there any other known easy and quick workflow with good debayer that I can sync sound (more than one .wav file) and export easily?

[reddeercity]

what's you platform  Mac of PC ?
Yes ACR is the Best but a little slow in workflow thou.
But the benefits out way that, I found in my workflow I kept trying to keep the Cdng's thought out the whole project.
At first it seem to be quicker but problems with massive amount of data to move etc....
I found it was more efficient to pregrade  in A.E. on the Mac and use ProRes4444 or the new ProRes 4444XQ with 16bit support up to 550Mb/s @ 1080p 30fps .
And you can export proxy at the same time , with this workflow you do "Cook your Look" but you can retain the linear color space with the New XQ codec.
there is MlRawViewer 1.1.7 (RAW/MLV/CDNG viewer/converter, Linux/Mac/Win) , you can export .mov prores with basic color adjustments .

[sergiocamara93]

But, when I open the DNG sequence, Davinci monitor shows a very saturated and high contrast image, even making some of the roll offs seem like a 6-bit image, and even a h.264 test we did had better colors.

I'm quite sure that's the Rec.709 curve. When you import your DNGs that's the default that Resolve applies to them (unless you change it in your project settings. In Resolve 10 (or 11, but that's a beta), if you change it in the Camera RAW tab to "BMCC Film" and you grade it, you will get nice gradients. When you first set it you'll get a completely flat image, that's what you grade. Even if you adjust the saturation and contrast to match the ACR image, you will get nicer colors and gradients that with 709.

[ChadMuffin]

In my tests, ACR gives me better results, I use VisionLog which is free and a great flat profile. Also, it has lens corrections, noise reduction, grain for no extra cost. Resolve is much faster but does not include these corrections for no additional cost. Also, BDM film was not designed for ML RAW, it was designed for Black Magic cameras. ACR was designed for DNGs, VisonLog was designed for ML RAW. Just something to keep in mind.

[jimmyD30]

That's pretty much my feelings too, then I bring into DR for color grading.

[fisawa]

So, I've messed around DVR using the Vision LUT and the color match tool and I got some interesting results.

The interface for color match


This is the image if CDNG processed using BMD Film


BMD Film, using color match, target gamma Rec.709


BMD Film, color match, target gamma sRGB



Now, with the VisionLOG LUT:

BMD Film + VisionLOG LUT


BMD Film + VisionLOG LUT + Color Match for Rec.709 Gamma


BMD Film + VisionLOG LUT + Color match for sRGB Gamma



I find that processing the CDNG using the BMD Film and using the VisionLOG LUT I got a pretty similar result if using ACR and changing the camera calibration to VisionLog, but that's just a guess, I don't know in fact if they have the same amount of information. Does anybody know if that's possible?