GEAR MINI TESTS
COLOR FINALE TRANSCODER £50/$70 colorfinale.com It’s no secret that Raw video files are the way to go in terms of absolute resolution, detail and controllability in post. That’s if you have the memory space on your media cards and hard drives, with a powerful, speedy computer to drive the edit and grade, as well as the time and expertise to get the best out of the files. Chances are, you will also have to learn a new software, in addition to your normal NLE. Time is money, so all that faff puts off lots of people who just want an edit-ready, or even broadcast-ready, codec they can use straight away. Well, there’s no easy solution to the memory issue or speed of computer, but there is now a simpler way to work with some Raw files if your chosen NLE is Final Cut Pro (FCP). Color Finale Transcoder software is a plug-in, allowing you to instantly preview and adjust the settings of Blackmagic Raw (BRAW), Arriraw and CinemaDNG files in FCP, which already reads ProRes Raw and Redcode Raw files. At £50/$70, it’s hardly going to break the bank. There’s even a seven-day free trial, so you can see if it’s for you. The latest 1.1 version, which is free to anyone who bought version 1.0, installs quickly and easily on a Mac. There is a new user interface, and real-time videoscopes, RGB parade, waveforms and histogram. There’s also extended metadata from imported BRAW files, so you can see all the shooting settings. Once the plug-in is installed, click on the Color Finale Transcoder icon within FCP, which opens up a new window – where you can browse files and select ones to inspect. This window is where the magic happens, as you can change settings
– such as what colour space and codec you want to transcode the footage to – the resolution, colour temperature, tint, ISO, exposure, highlight recovery, anamorphic settings and lots more. Select a Log colour space to retain dynamic range, or convert to something like Rec. 709. You can even apply LUTs. But this is for viewing only, as once the files are exported, the LUT is not baked in. You can use all the usual waveform tools to get your exposure and colours right. Once you are happy with the file, export it for use in your projects in whichever FCP library you are using. You can change settings on each file individually – or copy and paste the settings across as many files as you like. While you get lots of options for tweaking BRAW files, the parameters to change CinemaDNG are more limited. For example, you can alter the codec, colour space, exposure and saturation, but not the white balance. And when changing the sliders, it’s not an instantaneous preview. It can take a fraction of a second to catch up. Also, Color Finale Transcoder software works with Blackmagic, Arriraw and CinemaDNG only. However, more are promised.
MAC MATE The Color Finale Transcoder makes it easy to use Raw files inside Apple’s FCP software
SPECIFICATIONS Rawfile compatibility:
BRAW, Arriraw, CinemaDNG Computer: AppleMac with Intel orM1 CPU Operating systemrequirement: Mac OS 10.15 Catalina, MacOS 11 Big Sur FCP requirements: Final Cut Pro 10.5 or newer Computer requirements: Graphics cardwithMetal 2 support Licence: Activated online for two computers
But for an inexpensive way to get an all-FCP workflow, then it’s very useful and relatively simple. Especially if you shoot with a Blackmagic camera and don’t want to learn DaVinci Resolve. PROMOVIEMAKERRATING: 7/10 An easy way of using Raw files inside an all-FCP workflow, especially BRAW. Pros: Inexpensive and easy to understand Cons: Limited control on some files
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