You’re probably wondering why anyone would want to shot a film in 12K. The idea here is not to so much to do that but to allow filmmakers to capture the smoothest possible footage at resolutions people are consuming their content in currently. Oversampling footage gives filmmakers more flexibility when it comes time for post-production, and the Ursa Mini Pro 12K can capture 8K and 4K footage without cropping. 

Besides its impressive sensor, the camera includes features like an interchangeable lens mount and dual UHS-II SD slots. Another nifty feature is that the camera encodes footage using Blackmagic own RAW codec, which the company claims will enable you to edit any 12K footage using a laptop.  

With a $9,995 price tag, the Ursa Mini Pro 12K is out of the range of most of us mere mortals. But compared to cinema cameras from the likes of Red and Canon, some of which can cost tens of thousands of dollars, it’s a reasonable price for what is a very capable camera.

Next up is color correction, which really is a strength in Resolve. It was originally designed as a color correction application, and the industry has used it for that since 1985.

For simple color adjustments in Resolve, you drop into the Color workspace, adjust your shots and see the results immediately. You can also create and track “power windows” to adjust specific parts of an image. It also has a warp stabilizer to adjust shaky footage, a dust, blemish and noise remover (Studio version only), along with lens and aperture effects. Resolve Color automatically works with RAW footage, lets you apply LUTs and easily work in HDR, both with Dolby Vision and HDR10. 

Premiere, on the other hand, uses the Lumetri color module. It’s more like Lightroom color correction than any dedicated video system. It also offers some basic secondary color correction and the ability to mask and track parts of an image. Overall, it’s adequate for most jobs and is relatively easy to use, especially if you’re used to Lightroom. 

The bottom line is that Resolve’s color tools are more powerful than you’ll find in Premiere. However, if you’re more of a casual user, Adobe Premiere Pro is easier to understand and use. 

According to Schodt: “I always get vastly better results in Resolve, especially for log or RAW footage, than I do in Premiere.” 

He added that the free Resolve version doesn’t include noise reduction, which is “really powerful,” while noting that “Premiere doesn’t have any functional noise reduction at all.”

When it comes to VFX, Resolve’s Fusion beats what’s built into Premiere Pro. However, many Premiere users also have access to After Effects via Creative Cloud subscriptions, so let’s compare that. 

It’s certainly more convenient to hop over to the Fusion page than it is to switch over to After Effects, even when using Adobe’s Dynamic Link. However, both Fusion and After Effects take time to learn. If you depend heavily on After Effects, it probably doesn’t make a lot of sense to switch to Resolve, considering the investment of time required to learn Fusion. 

Both effects apps have their strengths. Fusion is better for pure VFX work thanks to its true 3D workspace and advanced keying, rotoscoping, lighting and other effects. After Effects is better for 2D and motion graphics work and also supports a vast number of plugins for anything from warping to aged film effects. Resolve, meanwhile, offers a more limited selection of plugins. 

From Chris: “Fusion is so complicated. After Effects is also a huge, complex program, but the layer/clip/timeline setup is a little easier to grasp coming from a video background.”

Text

Steve Dent/Engadget

A lot of creators focus on motion graphics and text, making it a key feature on any editing system. Premiere Pro has a great reputation for how it handles text, especially since it added a new Photoshop-like text tool several years ago. That lets you type text directly on to your video, then manipulate it using video effects or filters. Even without any extra apps, Premiere Pro can handle text better than Resolve. 

Should you need more, After Effects is available via a Creative Cloud subscription — if you pay for it. It’s the most widely used program for advanced text and motion graphics effects, with an enormous range of controls, scripts and third-party apps available. 

With Resolve 15, Blackmagic Design offered editors more control over typography with the Text+ function. That feature offers animated text, write-on effects and more, all in a 3D space. You also gained better control over things like kerning, outlines, text color and other properties, along with some 2D and 3D text animation presets. 

However, many of the text features have weak controls and lack undo functions, so creating even a simple animation can be a tedious process. And while some of the preset animations are nice, you can’t change any of the properties outside of the color. All told, if you do a lot of fancy text work, then stick to Premiere Pro and After Effects — Resolve 16 still needs a lot of work in that area.

Audio

As I mentioned, Resolve 16 has a standalone tool called Fairlight. Taken alone, it easily beats out the relatively basic audio functionality within Premiere. Again, however, Creative Cloud full subscription owners will have access to Adobe’s Audition, a mature and powerful audio editing tool. 

For most of the audio chores that a video editor needs, both apps do a good job. Audition does have a few useful tools that Fairlight is lacking, like a remixing function that lets you change the length of a sound clip to match the audio. Audition supports more plugins just because it’s been around for a long time, but Fairlight also has a good range of useful plugins.

Overall, I’d give the edge here to Resolve 16 as Fairlight is built right into the app and easier to access. Audition, meanwhile, requires a more expensive subscription, and you need to use Dynamic Link to access it from Premiere Pro. 

Pricing

Steve Dent/Engadget

Here’s where the philosophies of Blackmagic Design and Adobe diverge the most. Adobe’s main product and source of revenue is its subscription service. Blackmagic, meanwhile, sells (and gives away) Resolve 16 as a compliment to its cameras, control surfaces and other products. 

As such, Resolve 16 pricing is dead simple. The basic version is free, and the Studio version costs $300 for the life of the product. So if you buy a Resolve 16 Studio license now, you’ll be able to install Resolve 17 for free whenever that comes along. Blackmagic Design also gives buyers of the $1,295 Pocket Cinema Camera (and many of its other broadcast products) a Resolve 16 Studio license for free. 

Adobe’s pricing is more expensive no matter which way you look at it. Buying a license for Premiere Pro alone costs $20.99 per month, or $240 per year prepaid. That makes it more costly than Resolve 16 after about 14 months of ownership.

If you want all other apps I’ve mentioned, like Audition and After Effects, you’ll need to spend $53 per month or $600 per year, prepaid. That’s double what Resolve 16 costs after a year, to say nothing of the ongoing costs. That said, you do get other very useful apps, like Photoshop Character Animator and Lightroom, that Blackmagic doesn’t offer at all.

Conclusion

Should you switch from Premiere Pro to Resolve 16? If you lean heavily on After Effects, especially for motion graphics, Resolve simply can’t do those things as well. Video editors who also do photography and lean on Lightroom or Photoshop might also want to stick with Adobe. That said, it’s certainly possible to get a $10 per month Photography subscription (with Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom) and then use DaVinci Resolve to do your editing chores. 

For most folks, I think the answer is yes. Feature for feature, Resolve can hold its own against Premiere and is, for now, faster and more stable to boot. Most importantly, it’s just $300 for the Studio version or free if you don’t need the fancier features. Just keep in mind the learning curve, particularly when it comes to color correction and effects.

Hardware

The ATEM Mini is a console just 9.5 inches wide by 1.4 inches high by 4 inches deep, so it’s small and discreet enough to stick on a desk. It seems solidly built, but it’s probably not rugged enough to take on challenging outdoor locations. The buttons (all 59 of them) light up in different colors and have a nice feel, requiring just the right amount of pressure to activate.

On the back, there are four HDMI video inputs for sources like PCs and camcorders, along with two 3.5mm microphone inputs. An HDMI output lets you hook up a monitor, and you can control the ATEM Mini with a PC via a USB-C port. That USB-C port doubles as a webcam output, so you can directly stream video to OBS Studio or a similar livestreaming app. The ATEM Mini can output up to 1080p60 video, but not 4K, but that’s not a deal-breaker for most livestreamers.

As a nod to its mission-critical streaming role, the power cable has a screw-lock connector so you can’t pull it out by accident. It’s also got an Ethernet port for customized remote control devices, so you can operate it from another location.

On the front, at the bottom left, there are four large buttons that let you select which video source to take live. Above those are buttons to toggle audio on and off or adjust the levels. At the top are controls to turn the microphones on/off and adjust the levels.

The effects controls, meanwhile, live on the right-hand part of the console. At the top, you can select various picture-in-picture effects along with chroma and other types of keying. Below that are the controls for transitions (wipes, push wipes, dissolves and dips). At the bottom right, you choose to cut, dissolve or fade to black.

With a pretty rich set of physical controls, it’s possible to operate the ATEM Mini for most tasks without needing to dive into the software. That makes it particularly easy for one-man-band livestreamers to use. Since the console is also aimed at folks doing regular video productions (interviews, cooking shows, business presentations and training), the physical controls make it easy to grasp and use.

Software

The hardware is pretty complete, but to really get the most out of the ATEM Mini, you’ll need to install the ATEM Software Control. There, you can fine-tune certain things like picture-in-picture, keying and audio settings.

For instance, if you want to key yourself into a game and have behind you a greenscreen that’s not particularly well lit, the software lets you fine-tune both the foreground and background. You can also do color correction, add shadows and outlines to graphics, crop shots and more.

The ATEM Software control also lets you add photos, lower-thirds graphics and titles. Those will key on top of your video output provided they have a transparency layer. In short, you can transform your rudimentary Twitch stream into something that looks a lot more professional.

Whatever you do on the physical console will also show up on the ATEM software and vice versa. Once you’ve set it up the way you want in software, though, you can run your show entirely using the board. During a game stream, for instance, that will make it far less distracting than a laptop screen or monitor.

Setup

One of the most impressive features on the ATEM Mini is the flexibility of the video inputs. You can hook up one camera at 1080p 30 fps, another one at 720p 50 fps, and a laptop at 1080p 60 fps. Since the ATEM Mini has on-board transcoders for each channel, it’ll happily blend them all together. You can then output at the resolution of your highest quality input (1080p 60 fps, in this case). The ATEM Mini can even handle 10-bit video sources, if you need extra-high-quality output.

For my own livestream, I hooked up a Panasonic GH5s camera to channel one, a Sony RX100 IV to channel two, my gaming laptop to channel three and a control laptop to channel four. I then plugged the USB-C port to the control laptop, where I recorded the stream using OBS Studio. I could also have streamed live to YouTube or Twitch using that same software.

To record my voice, I connected both lapel and shotgun microphones to test the audio mixing capabilities. I was also able to mix in audio captured by both cameras and both laptops, for six stereo audio sources altogether. Finally, I loaded up a few graphics into the media player, both with and without transparency channels for keying.

Operation

You won’t be replacing the camera’s screen with this mod, just adding some hardware to allow it to twist and turn. Tilta says that it only takes an hour to complete the modification and that the kit includes all the tools you’ll need. The company will also provide tutorials so you can follow along and hopefully not brick your pricey camera. Oh, and performing this mod will definitely void your warranty.

The kit will also come with carbon fiber replacements for the BMPCCs’ flimsy port plugs, as well as a kit that allows you to mount an M.2 SSD in the cavity formerly occupied by the screen. A stock Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera takes SD, UHS-II and CFast cards natively, and can also write to a tiny USB SSD, like the Samsung T5, via a USB port. So while there’s no lack of connectivity, having an SSD tucked inside the camera is a nice bonus. Tilta hasn’t published a product page yet, but the mod kit will ship in November and cost $329.