FS7: learning curve catalist prepare VS resolve

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Publimix

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Anyone using Catalyst Prepare for grading FS7 material? Is it good enough for basic grading or is Resolve the inevitable software? I tried both programs, Resolve seems less intuitive (understatement) than catalyst prepare. I have adobe cc 2015 but these apps are not stable, and keep crashing.

And how about catalyst edit?

Is it the same problem I had with photoshop? I use 2%-10% of the capacities of this software on a daily basis, version 5.0 does well for me (while I am paying for version CC2015).
 
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There are loads of tutorials on Youtube for Resolve most cover the very basics of the software. Ripple Training do good affordable courses by the bloke who wrote the Resolve manual. They also do short <5 mins Tuts for free.

Bite the bullet and get to grips with Resolve once you learnt a few principles you'll soon make a lot of progress.

If you have any specific questions go ahead and ask.
 
I've written reviews on Catalyst Browse / Prepare if you follow my signature link. I also recently did a "5 minute grade" using Catalyst on some frames from a commercial I DP'd recently just to show how it can be used and posted frames and info here http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?338959-Recent-kitchen-food-commercial-shoot

Having said that I've been a Davinci user since version 9 and there is absolutely no substitute for the advanced grading that Resolve will let you do far easier than any other software I have used. There are countless reasons why Resolve is my defacto tool for grading.

To name just a few things you won't find in Catalyst software compared to Resolve are: power windows, clip versions, qualifiers, masks, animating masks, curves with placeholder functionality... and more.

Version 12 of Davinci Resolve brings even more to the table like a much needed streamlined UI, creation of splines on curves, and new tools for qualifying colors on images.

Bottom line, Sony Catalyst Browse is great for its easy to use UI and you could easily give this to a client along with your slog footage and get them to go nuts - perhaps useful for fast turn around of footage that don't require advanced grading techniques but when it comes to professionally grading video I would only ever turn up Davinci Resolve.

Cheers
 
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Dennis, that sums it up pretty well.

I would add just a couple of things: 1) The output options in Resolve are really flexible. 2) Node-based grading is simply an excellent way of working.
 
But browse and prepare aren't really supposed to take the place of tools like Resolve, Sony suggests that prepare can, but they never really come out and say it. Look at the clips, get them organized into rough cut ready state, then toss them in a real editor. If you have a specific look generated from some of the industry standard tools, you can apply it early on, or create a crude look in browse/prepare. At least this is how I understand it.

As far as browse goes, we've been using their XDCam browser for years, I fired up Browse for the first time a few weeks ago and really like it. More logical to operate than XDCam browser, though there were a few metadata features that seemed to be lacking. Wish they had a PDF user manual instead of the dreadfully chm manual format!
 
Thanks for the useful comments. I am going to invest my time in Resolve. Their manual is great.

(I solemnly swore that I never will do work that other people can do faster and better, so broke that promise, I want to know the ins and outs and want to be able to talk with the pro's.) The problem is how to find more of them them. (Good craftsman/woman, not too expensive, living near my home town), but that is another thread.

Greetings (after a day's drive) from Denmark, tomorrow in Norway, filming the beautiful Harvangerfjord.
Peter Bosman
 
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