Renting the camera - What do I do about DaVinci?

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

If I were to rent my BMCC I would include the CD install & Dongle for a weekly fee , I'm not sure how Blackmagic Design feels about this, but It seems doable, If Not then be sure that whom ever you rent from has experience or a resume for editing and color correction using Resolve, and see what their rates are for a basic one node DR color pass and beyond is, This does bring up a valid question, and since This is my forte I wonder how I could incorporate renting my Camera and include my knowledge and DaVinci Resolve as an editor and colorist when and if I ever rent my BMCC.

Well I'm renting it from a rental house rather than an individual. I'd guess that renting out a license to software isn't part of the deal when you purchase.

It looks like I can still use the free version anyway, just not at 2.5K.

I have to put it into a 1920x1080 project instead. But it looks like I can only squeeze the 2.5K footage into the HD timeline. I would have liked to have been able to import as 2.5K and crop the footage instead if needed.

Is anyone else aware of any other limitations?

I'm struggling a lot with the workflow. I'm in Premiere CS5 at the moment (will be CS6 soon) and from what I understand, I import the DNG files into DaVinci, output as proxies, import those proxies to Premiere, edit, export XML, then import XML into DaVinci and somehow relink to the original RAW files for the grade. That is the part that's got me beat. I can't seem to do that step at the moment.

Then what about final delivery? Back into Premiere for export or can I do that straight out of DaVinci?

Well I'm renting it from a rental house rather than an individual. I'd guess that renting out a license to software isn't part of the deal when you purchase.

It looks like I can still use the free version anyway, just not at 2.5K.

I have to put it into a 1920x1080 project instead. But it looks like I can only squeeze the 2.5K footage into the HD timeline. I would have liked to have been able to import as 2.5K and crop the footage instead if needed.

Is anyone else aware of any other limitations?

I'm struggling a lot with the workflow. I'm in Premiere CS5 at the moment (will be CS6 soon) and from what I understand, I import the DNG files into DaVinci, output as proxies, import those proxies to Premiere, edit, export XML, then import XML into DaVinci and somehow relink to the original RAW files for the grade. That is the part that's got me beat. I can't seem to do that step at the moment.

Then what about final delivery? Back into Premiere for export or can I do that straight out of DaVinci?

I think you're missing my point, The camera comes with Resolve, and any rental house, or individual
renting the camera should also have the right to include the DR Dongle with the camera,
But for a fee, Maybe the cost of losing the dongle? $999.00, Not sure, but this is a great question for
Blackmagic Design to answer? How does a lost/Broken or stolen dongle get replaced?

[Kristian Lam]

Resolve Lite is not limited in resolution of your source media. It is only the output that is limited to HD resolution. Unless you intent to render out a clip that is greater than HD, you won't need the full version.

If you're on a Mac, you can even download DaVinci Resolve Lite from the App Store.

I think you're missing my point, The camera comes with Resolve, and any rental house, or individual renting the camera should also have the right to include the DR Dongle with the camera

I see your point and totally relate to the logic, I just reckon that there's some small print somewhere that would forbid the installation of the software on anyone other than the end user's computer. Blackmagic's point of view would no doubt be "If you want the software, buy it."

But that's an interesting point: if they had a kind of software rental system that was reliable and impervious to piracy, I'd happily pay for it. I don't want to fork out $1,000 to buy software I'll only use a couple times a year, but I'll happily pay a rental fee to have a dongle that lasts a month or whatever the duration of my edit. If I need longer, I can extend it... Sounds like a sensible idea to me.

Resolve Lite is not limited in resolution of your source media. It is only the output that is limited to HD resolution. Unless you intent to render out a clip that is greater than HD, you won't need the full version.

If you're on a Mac, you can even download DaVinci Resolve Lite from the App Store.

Thanks Kristian, But would you consider a rental of the camera with the dongle "pirating" or a breach
of any owners purchasing rights? or Dongle replacement?

Resolve Lite is not limited in resolution of your source media. It is only the output that is limited to HD resolution.

So do I have the ability to scale the 2.5K footage as I choose? So rather than having it automatically squeeze into the HD project, I'd love to have it import as 2.5K footage that I can place wherever I want over the HD frame size to crop in post.

If you're on a Mac, you can even download DaVinci Resolve Lite from the App Store.

Yeah I'm playing with it now. It's way more complex than what I'm used to. I'm still just beginning to get my head around coloring. I wish I could afford to outsource this part of the job!

I think you're missing my point, The camera comes with Resolve, and any rental house, or individual renting the camera should also have the right to include the DR Dongle with the camera

I see your point and totally relate to the logic, I just reckon that there's some small print somewhere that would forbid the installation of the software on anyone other than the end user's computer. Blackmagic's point of view would no doubt be "If you want the software, buy it."

But that's an interesting point: if they had a kind of software rental system that was reliable and impervious to piracy, I'd happily pay for it. I don't want to fork out $1,000 to buy software I'll only use a couple times a year, but I'll happily pay a rental fee to have a dongle that lasts a month or whatever the duration of my edit. If I need longer, I can extend it... Sounds like a sensible idea to me.

As far as I know, No Dongle, No Go! even after you install the full version,
Dongle hacks are available, but as a rental house or in any individual rental situation, I'm curious as to what my options are? can I rent the software & dongle?, as it came with the camera as a package?
or what?

A clear answer from Blackmagic design would be best, since there are many rental houses already renting the camera, and they should know the answer if a client should ask.

Thanks

I think you're missing my point, The camera comes with Resolve, and any rental house, or individual renting the camera should also have the right to include the DR Dongle with the camera

I see your point and totally relate to the logic, I just reckon that there's some small print somewhere that would forbid the installation of the software on anyone other than the end user's computer. Blackmagic's point of view would no doubt be "If you want the software, buy it."

But that's an interesting point: if they had a kind of software rental system that was reliable and impervious to piracy, I'd happily pay for it. I don't want to fork out $1,000 to buy software I'll only use a couple times a year, but I'll happily pay a rental fee to have a dongle that lasts a month or whatever the duration of my edit. If I need longer, I can extend it... Sounds like a sensible idea to me.

As far as I know, No Dongle, No Go! even after you install the full version,
Dongle hacks are available, but as a rental house or in any individual rental situation, I'm curious as to what my options are? can I rent the software & dongle?, as it came with the camera as a package?
or what?

A clear answer from Blackmagic design would be best, since there are many rental houses already renting the camera, and they should know the answer if a client should ask.

Thanks

And excuse me if it is obvious, but the marketing of the BMCC includes Davinci Resolve, and there lies the question. ?????

Why not just ask them (Rental House) to export your final files on their Resolve system once you have finished grading and editing. I highly doubt you will be editing 2.5k files on an iMac or MBP.

Do the offline edit and grading, send that project over to the rental house and tell them to export a 2400x1350 project for you?

Otherwise I guess you'd have to work around it.

I rent out the camera locally and offer a dailies as well as full 2.5k export.

Why not just ask them (Rental House) to export your final files on their Resolve system once you have finished grading and editing.

That's not the kind of service these guys offer unfortunately.

I highly doubt you will be editing 2.5k files on an iMac or MBP.

That's true. Playback on my MBP gets about four frames per second in DaVinci. Haven't tried it on my HackPro yet though.

I rent out the camera locally and offer a dailies as well as full 2.5k export.

If only I was a local!

Why not just ask them (Rental House) to export your final files on their Resolve system once you have finished grading and editing. I highly doubt you will be editing 2.5k files on an iMac or MBP.

Do the offline edit and grading, send that project over to the rental house and tell them to export a 2400x1350 project for you?

Otherwise I guess you'd have to work around it.

I rent out the camera locally and offer a dailies as well as full 2.5k export.

I will offer the software and dongle in my rental fee period.

This is not as stupid a question as the resulting posts seems to be,
I'm going take my dongle & CD Install and rent it out until I'm told I can not.

It comes with the camera, and should be included in any rental.

Thank You Blackmagic Design for answering such a serious question!
Seems you are not even sure how to answer it, And that tells me to go ahead and rent it all!

or..read the EULA included with Resolve?

I don't think there would be any piracy concerns, since you need the dongle in order to run the full version of Resolve. A similar question was asked here: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=2721#p16074

Resolve Lite is not limited in resolution of your source media. It is only the output that is limited to HD resolution.

So do I have the ability to scale the 2.5K footage as I choose? So rather than having it automatically squeeze into the HD project, I'd love to have it import as 2.5K footage that I can place wherever I want over the HD frame size to crop in post.

It may be that you can bring the 2.5K footage into Resolve 9 which does include some editing capabilities. Depending on the expensiveness of the edits, I wonder if resolve could do it all for you. Would be great if Resolve 9 includes the ability to recompose each clip for a 1920x1080 window and then export that to the next application in your workflow. Would be a workaround until you buy the camera with the full Resolve dongle.

Rick Lang
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

Well I'm renting it from a rental house rather than an individual. I'd guess that renting out a license to software isn't part of the deal when you purchase.

Where are you renting from? everywhere i've looked has either been sketchy, not available, or "Coming Soon".

and some of the places that say they offer it don't even include an SSD, and you don't need Resolve when you rent it. Lite will handle what you need, or just use Adobe Camera Raw to get your quick look. Hell you could even just do your final CC in After Effects or if you want to subject yourself to torture, SpeedGrade.

Where are you renting from? everywhere i've looked has either been sketchy, not available, or "Coming Soon".

Ben's Camera Hire in Melbourne Australia. I was surprised to see it there as well.

just use Adobe Camera Raw to get your quick look.

I can't figure out whether doing this affects the entire video clip or just one frame. I guess I can pick my look then batch process every frame in the shot. But then I'm still left with DNGs that can't be opened in Premiere. Although I do own Cineform Studio Premium! I totally forgot about that. That has the capacity to transcode DNGs to Cineform RAW which can be edited in Premiere just fine... I will have to investigate what the recommended workflow is if I go down that path...

Ben's Camera Hire in Melbourne Australia. I was surprised to see it there as well.

Well that would be why. i was looking at places state side.

I can't figure out whether doing this affects the entire video clip or just one frame. I guess I can pick my look then batch process every frame in the shot. But then I'm still left with DNGs that can't be opened in Premiere. Although I do own Cineform Studio Premium! I totally forgot about that. That has the capacity to transcode DNGs to Cineform RAW which can be edited in Premiere just fine... I will have to investigate what the recommended workflow is if I go down that path...

After Effects will apply it to the image sequence, and then you could import those comps into premiere. That is if you have After Effects.