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Poll: How much would you pay for Resolve panels?
I’m in no way trying to take merit off from the Resolve panels, I think they’re awesome , and I would really like to own one, but I’m not going to spend 30K given the uncertainty of the post business at this moment, and how fast and cheap everything is getting (except the Resolve panels, of course)
After seeing new products like Tangent Element, how much Resolve cost, and the fact that you can ONLY use the panels with Resolve, how much would you pay for it today? What do you think is a fair price?
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33 Replies
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I think that it’s interesting that Blackmagic starting giving the Linux license at no charge with the board, but there are probably more folks like me that like the set-up simplicity (and codec support) of the Mac version, and would stick to it even given the option… So for us it doesn’t represent any price change.
Perhaps with all the increased features and new customers, Blackmagic will see an opportunity to lower the price, reduce the margins and increase volume? I’d certainly reevaluate if it ended up anywhere in the 15K-25k range.
KC
prehistoricdigital.com
hardworkingpixels.com -
When I decided to start my own company the panels were the biggest and most time consuming question in the back of my mind. It would be the one biggest cost that I would incur. After months of thought and looking at other options I decided to buy them. After using them now for 4 months I would still buy them again today for the 30k. I have been a colorist for 30 years and as you know if you have been in this business long enough that the one most important thing in your equipment is your monitor. I feel the next most important thing is your control surface. If you want to f@#$ around all day with going up and down thru menus and trying to navigate thru hell then I say go for it. I have seen the Tangent Wave panel and if you work with clients sitting behind you personally I would be embarrassed to work on one. I see so many guys out there today doing things half ass with their equipment and I say if you want to play with the big boys then get the right gear. If your comfortable with a cheap piece of plastic panel that you spend most of your day trying to find your way around on then you have less time to do the one thing you are trying to do and that’s make beautiful images. Yes I would pay 30k today because I absolutely love the Resolve panels and the guys at Black Magic have been great working with me to make sure they work properly. LOVE THEM!!!
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Some strong opinions expressed here:-)
So, I’ll try to give you my perspective.
I have yet to encounter a client, that would base their opinion of the colorist, based on the control panel he or she is using.
After using MC Color for the last 3 months, I can say without hesitation, that it’s an awful experience. Same goes for the Wave. Said that, I see no reason, why those two panels couldn’t be more productive. It all depends on the programming the interface and not the hardware. Either one could be quite useful, if BM deemed it necessary. They don’t, because they feel they NEED to sell their panels. Good illustration of this point is the lack of support for the Tangent Element. It has all the needed hardware and software at the great price point to drive Resolve. So now we have a Gillette Razor Blades or printer cartridges situation. Just buy our expensive panel (Razor blades, cartridges) and will give you the software (razor, printer) for free.
So, for time being, I’ll stick with MC Color and hope, that, at some point, Tangent Element will be supported… -
I’m going to try being optimistic here and say BM aren’t crippling 3rd party hardware expressly to sell their own. They clearly care more about market penetration, with how they’re pricing things, and having broad hardware support helps that a lot.
I’m hoping they would enable the kind of remapping for these panels that we got used to with Apple Color though, but it really seems like they’re busy developing their hardware and software first (just look at how much Resolve’s grown in the past year).
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Well I paid 30k and actually did it twice to get two sets of panels for two different rooms. However (and you should talk to your accountant about this) we didn’t buy them out right we went through a leasing company and leased them. This is how I handle all major equipment purchases I hate the feeling of being left with equipment that is outdated in a few years, by leasing I can return the panels and then lease the latest and greatest when it comes out.
As far as the big panels go they tend to be a little more evergreen then say a computer or graphics card. I mean there are still a lot of older 2k panels around. You have to judge when leasing what you think the usable life of the panel is for us that was 3-4 years so we leased them for 39 months. By leasing we don’t have the initial major cash outlay and the monthly payment is workable. I disagree with an earlier post about a client never noticing. Our clients notice and feel more secure that we’re committed to our equipment and have invested in trying to give them the best. In fact since we secured the big panels we’ve been able to push our rates up almost 25%.
Again to each their own and please don’t take my accounting advice, but I’ve never been happier with other panels and I have no real complaints about the Resolve Panels (except that there is no off/power switch!) They allow me to do my job so much faster. Lastly, when you compare them to the wave, mc color, jl cooper etc I think its wrong to say that BM handicaps the mappings. The fact is those panels have a LOT LESS buttons and knobs to map too and there are only so many levels of shift and paging.
My 2 cents
Robbie Carman
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Colorist and Author
Check out my new Books:
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The control panels are a big consideration both in cost and function. Like a lot of purchases in modern post you can see large changes in pricing and performance in short amounts of time, the linux license for example.
We decided to go with a Wave after leasing a linux system with re-purposed 2K panels for a week for the first job. Part of the decision was to avoid a costly mistake and part because I had just freelanced in Miami on a Wave and liked it.
I have an 8 inch scar on my right elbow from ulnar nerve transposition as a result of ergonomics of legacy panels mixed with my anatomy. I have the carpal tunnel release scar on the wrist to match. I have modified my previous consoles to provide a negative 20 degree slope on consult from some at DaVinci. Colorists that inherited it when I moved on all seemed to enjoy a downhill slope in their control surface.
11 months into my venture with a Wave and I am very thankful that I have the opportunity to use a third party panel. That has never been an option for me before. When the master menu was introduced I found a familiar 3 or 4 clicks gets me to where I want to go. I was a big fan of macros on the 2K panels and would always build a library of redundant stroke reducers at any new shop.
To that end I am experimenting with mapping gestures to my track pad for the Wave. There are about 60 that can be mapped in conjunction with control, option and command keys. So I can now control the Resolve with a combination of gestures and Wave which comes with a nice negative slope to boot.
We are mostly an agency commercial house with top of the market rates and every session I grade is supervised. I am not embarrassed to use the Wave. I have had some clients comment on how nice it is to not have me surrounded by a ton of gear or have to string a telecine. It’s new for them too.
So if you made the decision to buy Resolve panels, good on you champ. You don’t have to defend your decision by disparaging those of us that didn’t. The innovation I am seeing in color correction is coming from trying new things in unexpected areas such as Black Magic engineering in Singapore vs. DaVinci in south Florida. There is a great exchange of ideas going on via the internet. Holding back for fear that some crusty blowhard will say you are “dicking around half assed” is something we don’t need.
Dave Pickett
Colorist
Jam Edit – Atlanta
http://www.jamedit.com
http://www.davepickett.com -
Ok, I think the question needs to be re-written:
How much would you pay for the Resolve panel today, IF you don’t own one.
How much considering how much the Element would cost, and how much considering that it can only work with a $1000 software (I wouldn’t know to say if Linux is free now), and considering that it is Blackmagic, and no one knows what will they do with the price of it in a year or so, I mean, they are the ones who started the post revolution after all.
I would take Linux out of the equation since I presume it is a minority that’s gonna get even smaller if not extinct.
Also, keep in mind that the most import piece of equipment in a color grading suite, the grading monitor, goes for $5K (Flanders)
So, how much would you pay. I would pay between $5K and $7K, maybe $10K, but that’s a big stretch.
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If they were 5000 I would buy em tomorrow .
For 10000 I would ask the bank for a loan .
I used them for a couple a weeks and they are awesome . But Ill get the job done on the wave too .
Soooo , I would like to pay for a Resolve bundled with the element for 6666 quit 😀A slice of color…
DaVinci 8.0.1 OSX 10.7
MacPro 5.1 2×2,4 24GB
RAID0 8TB eSata 6TB
GTX 470 / GT 120
Extreme 3D+ WAVE -
$6666 for mac license and tangent element or windows license with tangent element seems a great combo offer and 10k for mac and windows license with tangent element,15k for mac,windows and Linux with tangent element and 20k-22k for mac,windows and linux with BMD panels seems to be a fair price and would be a revolution i think.
wats your take????????????
🙂
prathvish hegde
colorist -
I would like to take a moment and apologize for my comments in an earlier post. They were heavy handed and way out of character for me. I should never have slammed other peoples equipment, I should have stuck to the question that was asked. I think everyone would agree that Resolve is probably one of the best pieces of software out there. I have been with Davinchi for 25 years and I never thought I would see the day that their software would be 1000.00 dollars. I personally don’t see how they are making any money. Now back to the panels. I absolutely love my panels and would not trade them for anything. We all want to get into this without spending a ton of money but we all need to stop for a moment and think of Black Magic and the costs that company does incur. There are engineers on staff not to mention all of the R@D that goes into their products. They all have to be paid and make a living. Granted the panels probably did not cost 30k to make but the fact is they were made specifically to work with Resolve. You will not find a better set of panels anywhere to do what they do. Those of us that have been around when post production started to change know that 30k is a drop in the bucket compared to what we use to pay to get into this field. The Spirit way back when was about 1 and quarter million. Now today film is in short supply and that has allowed a lot of us that would not otherwise be able to get into this alone the opportunity to do so. I guess what I am trying to say is that for 70k which is about what I spent is less than a HDCam SR was 5 years ago. To be able to do this for that kind of money is amazing. If all of us want to drive the cost of equipment down then there will come a point where there will be thousands of people jumping into this field and at the end of the day everyone will be competing against every kid that has a few thousand dollars. A comment was made earlier that its not the equipment that makes a colorist and I totally agree but when you have a person that will charge 50 dollars an hour because they were able to get all the equipment they needed for a few thousand dollars eventually that will come back to bite those of us that would like to charge higher rates but now the clients are using that price to drive you down. Its like a friend of mind said recently. “Its going to be a race to the bottom”. Trust me I am experiencing it first hand.
I would also like to say to Dave Pickett that I am not a “Crusty Blowhard” but a person that has been around long enough and with enough experience to know how this will effect all of us if the price of equipment keeps dropping.
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