Ewen Bell 📸Apr 14
This little bit of news is going to be a huge moment in digital photography, and another blow to Adobe.

I've long wished for Black Magic to take their video editing software (Davinci Resolve) and develop a photo editor that applies the same techniques. From version 21, that's exactly what they have done. The implementation is a little weird and there's a lot of new feature that I still need to test out, but if you already know how to edit with Resolve then you can now create projects to edit RAW files and export out JPEGS... or just haul into your video projects.

This move is to Lightroom what Affinity was to their creative suite. It's a big deal. NO SUBSCRIPTION pricing to edit your RAW photos.

Davinci is powerful and complex to learn. I think this will make it unwieldy for MOST photographers. But for some of us it present another path forward to exit LR and C1 pricing. That's good for the entire market.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuKgfytA0lg

#DavinciResolve #Photography #RAWediting #Lightroom #Affinity #CaptureOne
Show threadbobApr 14
@ewen I really wish they'd work on resolve's stability. C1 has never once crashed on me. Resolve crashes constantly. I haven't tried this beta yet so hopefully it's more stable but I've considered downgrading to something like v18 because of the constant crashing I've had with 20.
Show threadEwen Bell 📸
@beep

I crash C1 all the time. Often need to wipe the session database and just start over. I work it hard though.

Davinci is incredibly complex compared to C1 though. Would be great if they made a stand alone of their photo editing so you don't need all the rest of the app.
Apr 14 at 1:14pmWeb
Show threadbobApr 14

@ewen Oh 100% agree on being more complex software as far as what it's doing/capable of doing and drivers/gpu usage.

My biggest issue with Resolve lately is that it crashes with no error or indication as to why it crashed. It just disappears. I want to say it's a "me" issue but the program doesn't give me any insight into what the problem is and I haven't had luck looking through logs to see what's causing it.

Resolve opens in a fraction of the amount of time it takes C1 to open so if it's stable for me I wouldn't complain about it also handling photos. I've paid for Studio and wouldn't mind not paying the C1 subscription going forward.

Show threadEwen Bell 📸Apr 14
@beep

Are you on Windows by any chance? Just a guess.

DR often introduces new bugs with minor upgrades. Experienced editors never ever never update the software in the middle of a project delivery! They are not known for building bug free software. My biggest problems with it have been caused by resources that I forgot were on a Dropbox volume.

But I paid for the Studio version back in 2020 and haven't been asked for more money to upgrade since then. The big fixes and feature upgrades have been free. C1 used to give you big fixes and a few upgrades but now they do not. So I have some silly bugs in my C1 and would have to pay monthly subscription to get support.

I think I get good value from Black Magic.
Show threadbobApr 14

@ewen

Yes on Windows. Likely moving back to Linux later this year so that'll be its own can of worms with Resolve. Was worried about a C1 replacement but maybe that'll just be Resolve with the new photo handling.

Yeah, I really think/hope this is a "me" issue in that something is creating a silent conflict with Resolve. Their support just got back to me today asking for more info so hopefully that'll be confirmed soon. There are enough instances of people talking about Resolve crashing online that I know this isn't completely random but there's also enough people without issues that I know this isn't super common. As someone who isn't in the industry and doesn't frequent conversations about Resolve, it's hard to tell when software crashing is because it's buggy or because of something specific to my environment.

I agree on the value. When Resolve has worked for me I think I get more value out of it than I do from my yearly C1 subscription. I don't work with either of these in any professional capacity and the videos I'm working on are just videos of my dogs and stuff around our farm to send to family. I used Resolve casually for a few years before buying Studio earlier this year. I bought it because I "needed" Studio to handle some bitrate or codec (don't remember now) that the free version didn't do. Happily paid it.

Good to know on the update hesitation. Assuming I get my current issues sorted, I'll keep that in mind going forward.

Show threadEwen Bell 📸Apr 15
@beep

There's a substantial difference in experience when editing on Windows vs MacOS. Apple write their own drivers for GPU support because it's their hardware. That's a large part of the stability when pushing video or photo editing.

My experience as an Apple user is routinely different to those on Windows.

I do push my hardware harder than most anyway. My last gig in Japan I was editing 3000 frames a day for two weeks, plus pulling in log gamma 422 10bit video to my timeline. I did nuke my C1 session database at one point because it had choked! But I didn't crash anything. Not on my little M1 Air.

It's telling that a six year old Mac can still do the job for me. I left my chunky MacBook Pro at home because it gets very hot when editing on my lap in a hotel room :)
Show threadbobApr 15

@ewen I bet! I have a MacBook Pro from 2015 or 2016 that has been running Linux for about half of that time. I would love a new MacBook but I don't tend to get on well with the OS and Linux options for the ARM chips are limited. Already having a desktop with a 7900 XTX and 64 GB of memory also makes it hard to justify the cost of a MacBook when this is all hobby stuff for me.

Editing 3k frames per day is insane, especially daily for weeks. I only got a fraction of that the first few days when I bought my Canon R6 mark III before I figured out how to turn down the burst rate lol.

Makes sense on the Mac vs Windows experience in Resolve and the drivers with how GPU dependent it is. I'm kind of hoping my issues aren't GPU driver related because there isn't much I can do about that beyond the uninstall/reinstall I've already done.

It really is crazy how strong these newer MacBooks are. Especially the combination of power and battery life. I think if I needed or could justify a laptop, I'd probably just deal with my OS issues and get one. My job isn't at all in the creative space but if I could just find a way to convince my boss I needed one for work. :)

Show threadEwen Bell 📸Apr 15
@beep

I have to say it is really a pain in the neck trying to run linux on Mac hardware! I had it running nice on a partition of my M1 Air for a year or so, and then I upgraded to the latest Fedora and it all turned to custard. Apple are total dickheads for making this stuff so hard.

I don't even use iPhones, I stick with Android. But the Apple laptops are just so much better than anything in Windows world.They just work. And work for a long time. The UI is way more tuned for humans too. I tried to go back to Windows one year and literally threw the fkn thing out the window in frustration.

Anyway, it would be awesome if Davinci could deliver on Linux support and give more people an option that is effective and affordable. This is a win for all of us.
Show threadbobApr 15

@ewen I'm surprised Fedora worked at all. I was under the impression there was only one specialty distro that worked with ARM Macs but I haven't been following it too closely.

When I installed Arch on my MBP it required essentially nothing. The only thing I had to do was uninstall the driver for the wireless card. Once I did that, it did and continues to work without issue, currently with Debian on it. A lot of my ill will towards Apple and MacOS is that same wireless card stopped working. Apple support insisted it was hardware and my only option was to buy a new laptop. No matter how many times I explained that booting a linux thumb drive got it working, hardware hardware hardware. Installed Linux and haven't had a problem with it since.

Supposedly Resolve only works under one specific linux distro? That might, again, be me misunderstanding. I figure when the time comes to switch back to linux I'll do the install (probably Arch again) and see how if Resolve works. Keep my Windows SSD around and dual-boot if needed since I assume Resolve isn't going to be super happy in a virtual machine lol.

Same goes for C1. It's a shame they seem to have no interest in a linux version. They have a FAQ or something where I read that they would like to but it's not being worked on at all and isn't on their roadmap. Hopefully Microsoft pushes more people to linux and that in turn motivates some of these companies to work on Linux versions. Though I guess fingers crossed I won't even need C1 with these new Resolve updates.

Show threadEwen Bell 📸Apr 15
@beep

I was using Asahi Linux on the M1. Was great, until it wasn't.

This is the downside to Linux. It's not one single beast. A strength but also a weakness.
Show threadbobApr 16

@ewen As a follow up to my Resolve issues -- it was a "me" issue. According to their support, Resolve doesn't play nice with a program called RivaTuner Statistics Server (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RivaTuner) running which is used to display hardware performance stats as an overlay. Closed that program and Resolve appears to no longer be crashing.

An error about the conflict would have been appreciated but I'm super happy it was an easy fix.

RivaTuner - Wikipedia

Show threadEwen Bell 📸Apr 16
@beep

Oh wow, I had no idea this was even a thing. Glad you found the source of the drama.

This experience also highlights that it can be hard to convey the experience you might be having. I did not fully take in the level of conflict you were experiencing.