Should you buy the new Micro Panel for Davinci Resolve 19?!

this is the brand new D resolve micro color panel by Blackmagic design now I'm no colorist and actually have quite limited experience grading with a panel like this if you want the opinion of some people that are just slightly more experienced on this sort of thing check out this great video by team 2 films I've linked that down below but what I'm going to do is cover some of the most asked Noob friendly questions and a bit of an overview about this brand new microl panel starting off with what exactly is it the D Vinci resolve microl panel is a compact Wireless color grading panel designed specifically for D Vinci resolve both free and Studio versions and that also includes the iPad version which we'll get to in a moment oh and you do need to be under Vint resolve 19 to use the microl panel it's not compatible with previous versions which also means the iPad version doesn't quite do exactly what it should do at the moment but as soon as the iPad version is updated to 19 it will work in exactly the same way it takes all of the most commonly used controls and functions from the color page and turns them into physical buttons resettable knobs track balls and these physical Rings DJ this allows you to work faster and more efficiently on the color page while also giving you much more granular control take the track balls for example on the on the left here we have lift in the center we have gamma and on the right we have gain these correspond to these primary color wheels on the bottom left hand corner of the color page now we simply adjust the color using the track ball so if I drag this down and around you can see the color changing and we can see the colors changing within the gain area and if we want to adjust the amplitude or the amount we use the ring so we can bring the gain up and down the same goes for gamma color with the track ball the amount using the ring and then finally for Lift we can then simply reset any of those using either this reset lift reset gamma and reset gain buttons across the top and just simply doing that immediately is much more fun much more tactile and much more precise compared to when using a traditional keyboard and mouse it also allows you to adjust multiple things at once which again just gives you that little bit more control you can bring up the shadows and down the highlights or the other way around at the same time on the left here we have an offset button if we give that a click that will go green and that will change the functions of our three main track balls we now control the offset which is kind of like the general exposure with this one over here on the right hand side so we can bring our offset up and down and we can change the color using the track ball and now the wheel on the left hand side adjusts our color temperature while the one in the center adjusts our tint we can get back to the standard controls by just scking offset once again and now we're back to our lift gamma and gain on the left hand side we have common buttons for things like copy paste undo redo delete and reset and at the bottom here we've got our two shift modifier keys and they allow many of the keys on the actual micr panel itself to per perform multiple functions for example if we hold shift up and then hit offset we jump between the color wheels or the log wheels so if we jump to log Wheels we now have shadows midtones and highlights rather than the lift gamma and gain once again while in the log we hit offset we can now adjust the offset switch that off shift up and offset and now we're back on the primary color wheels with a power window activated we can actually drop one right in using this add window here then if we hold shift up the right track ball and ring now control the size and location of that power window which just means that you don't need to reach for keyboard and mouse alternatively If We Hold shift down the same track ball and wheel over on the right hand side now adjusts a transform so we can change the zoom we can zoom in and out and we can change the position we can hit delete to delete a node we can undo we can hit hit reset to reset the current node or we can hit shift down and reset to reset all of the nodes on the current clip you use all of these with your left hand super quick and easy to do all of those common controls also on the left hand side is autocolor why who's buying this panel to use autocolor that seems a bit strange but anyway moving on on the right hand side we have navigation buttons for jumping between Stills key frames nodes frames and clips we've also got play forward which we can tap multiple times to play faster play reverse and of course stop next up buttons across the top so we can really quickly grab a still let me just reset this node now then if I play the still I can see kind of my before and after and if I hold still wipe and then use my little wheel on the right we can actually adjust the wipe so we can have a quick look at our before and after and then if we just toggle Play Still again to get of it in the middle we've got highlight viewer cursor and select viewer just puts us in our full screen viewer and cursor will then go green and then we can use our right hand track ball to move the cursor around our preview window and lastly on the right hand side we've got add node to add a new node add window to add a new window and add key frame to of course add a new key frame and last but surely not least we have the controlled knobs across the very top on the left hand side these four are dedicated to contrast we've got lift Gam gain as well as the main contrast we've got pivot mid detail color boost and shadows in the middle and on the right hand side highlights saturation Hue and Luma mix once again these all correlate to the same controls you'll see on the color page here now these control knobs are kind of infinite you can just keep going and going until you reach the actual limitations of that control within D Vin resolve and then you can just push them in to reset their respective controls at any point microc color panel in a nutshell so how does it connect well the microl panel is designed to work with Mac Windows Linux and the APPL mentioned iPad you can connect either by USB type-c using the type-c port on the back and the included type-c cable you can use your own type-c cable or you can use a type A to type c cable if required once connected it's dead simple you just open up D Vinci resolve and it should start working if you click on help and then go to the D Vinci resolve panels a separate app will open and you can see the status within there that will also be how you do any firmware upgrades in the future and that's also where you can check on the battery level and the charging status of the panel itself or alternatively because it's 2024 this also has Bluetooth so it can connect wirelessly simply hit the button on the back hold it for like a second or two until the light comes on that will make it discoverable open up your Bluetooth settings find the microl panel connect and that's about it then you need to open up the Vint resolve and you'd be good to go go now it won't actually turn on you won't see the back lighting appear until you do open D Vinci resolve which first time you try and connect can be a bit strange cuz it will connect but it looks like it's still asleep it actually opens automatically turns on it comes to life when you open up D Vinci resolve also worth mentioning very much like the speed editor there's no dedicated power button it should as mentioned automatically go to sleep when you exit resolve but I have had an instance where I woke up in the morning and I had considerably less battery than when I went to bed so I personally would love to see a power button but that's just me oh and also you can connect it even while resolve is open sometimes with the speed editor once again you'll connect it up resolve is open it won't actually work until you restart resolve this just comes to life straight away plug it in even if resolver is open and you'll be good to go you'll also notice at the top there is a big slot for a tablet or presumably real estly an iPad you connect via Bluetooth drop your iPad in and then you'll be good to to go now this is a 12in iPad Pro and as you can see there's plenty of room either side so it should be absolutely fine with the newer slightly bigger 13in iPad Pros now I also did try and wedge in this Asus Zenbook Duo but it didn't fit which is a shame however you can kind of balance it and it does then sort of work it's all connected via Bluetooth but now I've got dual oleds and a color grading panel and it's all small enough to fit into a bag for life not bad which leads me onto the next one how micro is it really pretty micro actually especially compared to some of the other color grading panels within the black magic range and it's absolutely small and light enough to be considered portable weighing in at a little over 1 kilo and measuring just 18x 36 cm and just 4 cm deep at its thickest it's pretty small and it's pretty light this puts it smaller than the quite chunky editor keyboard but bigger than the speed editor now I think it's actually a pretty perfect size for your average desk kind of setup because it's essentially the same width as a standard querty keyboard so it's a bit taller a bit thicker kind of a bit that way but widthwise it's the same as your keyboard so if you've got room for a keyboard you'll have room for this just scoot your keyboard out the way dump this down and off you go hey now to help keep it lightweight it is made of plastic and it does feel like plastic but it's still quite premium and it is quite nice although the piano black finish will show literally every single fingerprint smudge and Speck of dust known to man so just keep that in mind the buttons feel light to press but they are tactile and the back lighting does make them look really nice and make sure they're super visible in pretty much any conditions the knobs have a really nice weight to them but the click into reset is a little mushy for my liking but it works perfectly the track balls super smooth and they feel really nicely weighted as do the Rings however the balls will rattle a bit if you give it a shake moving on who is it for it's for anyone really anyone that wants to start learning color grading or even an established colorist who just wants a slightly more portable solution it offers a lot of the same functionality of the larger panels just in a smaller package but it does only function on the color page that is all it does you can't use any of the dials or The Wheels on the edit page or Fusion or anywhere else it is a color grading panel and a color grading panel only so you do need to be enthusiastic about color grading for it to make sense to you if you just hop into the color page add one or two nodes with some very simple adjustments and then move on this thing is probably going to be a little bit overkill for you but if you really want to learn color grading you're spending a lot of time on the color page and you want to develop your skills and become more efficient all you just really love it and that whole side of things is super fun then I would definitely start to consider it because it's a really neat piece of Kit and from my perspective there was a benefit I didn't expect confidence it made me feel more confident on the color page need a new node you just hit a button you don't need to think about how you add the node where am my noes right click out of node you just hit the one button and off you go once to adjust the contrast you twizzle a knob feels like you've made it it worse which is often the case for me undo delete or reset everything is there it's all easy it's all super quick to access and it just allows you to focus on doing the things that you want rather than worrying about how you do the things that you want everything is just easy and you boop and off you go boop boop for me there's also less second guessing if you're doing it the right way when there's a very clearly labeled dedicated button telling you this is how you do the thing but but is it actually easy to use yes and no in equal measures having dedicated buttons and the track balls does make things easier but it does take quite a lot of time and a fair bit of muscle memory to come in it feels very different to navigating the color page with a keyboard and mouse for example so it just takes some relearning however as soon as you get over that hurdle it is a much better experience make an adjustment Smash in a new node repeat a few times it's fun it's quick jump to the next clip off you go it's just more intuitive will this instantly make you a colorist no it will not well it certainly didn't for me anyway having all of the functions clearly labeled and nicely accessible will make you more efficient and may help you to gain some confidence like it did for me but you will still need to learn and understand what each of the individual inputs do however on the flip side I'd imagine that once this panel became second nature once you knew where where all of the buttons were and you didn't really have to think about it then learning the why you're making the changes would become easier because you're no longer having to think about the how to make the changes and talking of how how much is it well the panel is priced at $59 or £462 at the moment in the UK now that only includes the panel and a few you know a cable and that sort of thing it doesn't come with the dent resolve Studio license but this is now officially the cheapest color grading panel and it's not only cheaper than the previous model it's of course smaller lighter and does have some additional features so if you feel you're going to use it often it's really going to help you with your workflow and you're really into color it does seem like pretty good value even though it doesn't come with that studio license should you buy one well honestly only you can answer that I have had quite a lot of fun with this I've enjoyed color grading more using this than when I was trying to use my keyboard and mouse so I will likely buy one for myself so as mentioned if you keen on color or you would like to be and I'm Keen to invest in a panel I do think it's a pretty worthy investment but again if you're not doing that much color probably less so so I think that pretty much covers everything about this brand new Blackmagic denture resolve micro color panel do you want one are you Keen let me know your thoughts and feelings down in the comment section below thanks for watching take it easy I'll see you next time

Channel: MrAlexTech

Views: 14,469

Keywords: MrAlexTech, Mr Alex Tech

Id: T5UW8KgHh4M

Length: 15min 5sec (905 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 15 2024