More salt in the wound from Blackmagic

More salt in the wound from Blackmagic

Today's Blackmagic update for the current Pocket series cameras added gyro data to BRAW for post stabilization in Resolve (update coming to 18 Beta).

While one could shoot in ProRes "film" (not available in some camera settings) or go through the time-consuming and data-growing process of transcoding with the Color Finale plugin, that gyro stabilization data can be mission-critical for handheld work with the Pocket cameras given the lack of IBIS.

One can always blame BMD but keep in mind that Premiere Pro and Avid have ways to support BRAW whereas the only FCP option is to buy the Color Finale plugin and transcode (losing the advantage of RAW and now the advantage of gyro stabilization data as well.

I find BRAW a PITA to work with. There are a zillion possible LUTs, most wrong. DPs almost never tell you (or know) which one is correct. I end up transcoding to 709 with a LUT and a "best light" grade in Resolve to ProRes and then use whatever other NLE best fits the bill. It's a far more productive workflow than dealing with BRAW natively. Give me ProRes RAW, ARRIRAW, or LogC any day.

Of course now with the added step of baking in the stabilization in Resolve first as well.
Regarding luts and BRAW, BMD has updated the color science a few times which means camera firmware may determine the lut needed.
Nonetheless, BRAW is common given the low cost of the cameras and if I have to make changes I'd rather work from that than a file with a baked-in conversion before importing into FCP. 
Whether going through Resolve or the Color Finale plugin, it's another step and slows the FCP workflow and increases file storage. Not being able to use the gyro data is now another hindrance.