Uploaded July 2020 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
In today's tutorial we're going over how to Color Correct using Cheap monitors in DaVinci Resolve 16 using scopes and other adjustment tools to get more accurate information than your display is capable of displaying. Everything shown today can be done in the free version of DaVinci Resolve.
Download Davinci Resolve for Free: blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve
Notes:
Chances are when you're starting out you don't have a super color accurate monitor. At the consumer level it's getting better, but just to be clear a professional monitor should be 10 bit (12 bit is even better but more future proofing right now I'd say) with at least a 1000:1 contrast ratio (with HDR becoming more popular even higher is better, with the XM311k having a contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1. It also costs $37,500) and cover the DCI P3 color space. I use the Flanders Scientific monitors as reference just because I am most familiar with their monitors.
So I totally blanked on mentioning this in the video but you can adjust the video bit depth for monitoring in the project settings for either 10 bit or 8 bit, but the real limiting factor is the bit depth of your display. If it can't produce the colors, it really doesn't matter what setting you select.
References:
__________________________
Socials:
I don't have any, but if I start using them, you'll be the first to know I promise.
Gear I use:
Camera - Black Magic Pocket 4k
Microphone - Apex 176
Main Lens - Meike 12mm f2.8
Other lenses - Meike 35 mm f1.7, Rokinon 50mm T1.5, Rokinon 24mm T1.5
Tripod - Velbon Videomate 638
Computer Specs:
Normally I use
CPU - Ryzen 1700x
GPU - GTX 1070
for this video:
Acer Aspire 5 A515-51 Released Mid 2017
CPU: Intel Core i7-8550U
Integrated HD620 Graphics
12 GB Ram
(it chugged pretty hard, but got the job done more or less. Shot everything in prores to go a bit easier on it too)
In today's tutorial we're going over how to Color Correct using Cheap monitors in DaVinci Resolve 16 using scopes and other adjustment tools to get more accurate information than your display is capable of displaying. Everything shown today can be done in the free version of DaVinci Resolve.
Download Davinci Resolve for Free: blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve
Notes:
Chances are when you're starting out you don't have a super color accurate monitor. At the consumer level it's getting better, but just to be clear a professional monitor should be 10 bit (12 bit is even better but more future proofing right now I'd say) with at least a 1000:1 contrast ratio (with HDR becoming more popular even higher is better, with the XM311k having a contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1. It also costs $37,500) and cover the DCI P3 color space. I use the Flanders Scientific monitors as reference just because I am most familiar with their monitors.
So I totally blanked on mentioning this in the video but you can adjust the video bit depth for monitoring in the project settings for either 10 bit or 8 bit, but the real limiting factor is the bit depth of your display. If it can't produce the colors, it really doesn't matter what setting you select.
References:
__________________________
Socials:
I don't have any, but if I start using them, you'll be the first to know I promise.
Gear I use:
Camera - Black Magic Pocket 4k
Microphone - Apex 176
Main Lens - Meike 12mm f2.8
Other lenses - Meike 35 mm f1.7, Rokinon 50mm T1.5, Rokinon 24mm T1.5
Tripod - Velbon Videomate 638
Computer Specs:
Normally I use
CPU - Ryzen 1700x
GPU - GTX 1070
for this video:
Acer Aspire 5 A515-51 Released Mid 2017
CPU: Intel Core i7-8550U
Integrated HD620 Graphics
12 GB Ram
(it chugged pretty hard, but got the job done more or less. Shot everything in prores to go a bit easier on it too)
