Color grading?

[irvineimages]

Yo guys.
Finally getting to the point with my project that it's about time to start working on colors.
I'm using Cineform files and Adobe Premiere pro cs5 right now.
Been reading around a bit and it seems like there are better options than using Premiere for color editing?
A good friend of mine who is pretty smart about these things told me to check out Da Vinci, and it looks pretty legit.

What do you guys think?

 

[Allen Ellis]

Da Vinci is definitely a professional's tool. How much grading do you want to do, and how much experience do you have? Recommending Da Vinci for a small project is a bit like renting one of these to landscape your front yard:

Have you seen the price for a Da Vinci? Old used ones sell for $40,000.

*edit*
Ok they've gotten cheaper, but no amount of money can buy you a substitute for great talent. If you have no experience with color correcting, start with the tools in Premiere, or maybe try one of the Magic Bullet programs. But you can do quite a lot with Premiere's tools, at least ground yourself with some essentials before buying what is really a very sophisticated piece of engineering that frankly, you'd need a lot of experience first to benefit from what it offers.

 

[Lenaic]

there is a cheaper way to go Davinci but it is for Mac users only.

http://vimeo.com/10890549
http://www.blackmagic-design.com/davinci/resolve/

But as TigerFx said you could consider some redgiant software such as magic bullet or even Colorista ll. It will be released tomorrow and it is may be enough for your project and for 300 dollars.

 

[Xian Messerschmidt]

Red Giant is getting ready to release Colorista II tomorrow. You might want to look into that.

http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/

 

[jakobim]

really looking forward to Colorista II!...

 

[irvineimages]

Thanks for the links everyone! I'll be sure to check them out.

How much grading do you want to do, and how much experience do you have? Recommending Da Vinci for a small project is a bit like renting one of these to landscape your front yard:

Haha. Well, I need to colorgrade around an hours worth of video for the first documentary, and then assuming things don't change too much I would use it for the next project I work on.
I have plenty of experience color grading still pictures, I'm quite good at that, so I figure I'll be able to learn how to do video as well.

Have you seen the price for a Da Vinci? Old used ones sell for $40,000.

*edit*
Ok they've gotten cheaper,

No I hadn't looked at the prices yet, prices do matter but so does quality, so I have to find the right balance for sure.