Blackmagic Micro Panel vs. Tangent Wave 2

[Jacob Jabornig]

Hey!

I’ve been looking to buy a grading panel for a while now and considered the Blackmagic Micro Panel as well as the Tangent Wave 2 as a good option for my budget but can’t really decide which one to take and which one would fit better for my needs as i am a student which just goes into the grading direction and wants to make this to my profession. I'm curious to hear from you guys for which one you would decide and the benefits of those in detail.

Greetings,

Jacob

[Tom Evans]

Personally I don't use most of the controls in the panels and bought a Wacom pen instead after owning several of them. I'm more into entering numbers and precision than turning the wheels wildly in all directions. That said, I buy the speed argument. 

[Jeff Sousa]

I own the BMD Micro. It's extremely well-built, compact, and nice-feeling. And it drives Resolve great. Sometimes I leave it at the studio at an assistant station, sometimes I take it home with me for "homework." And it's great to bring to clients for on-site work (like when they say they have a color station, but it's just an iMac hooked up to a crappy Samsung TV). I'd say the Micro is best suited for lift-gamma-gain style grading in Rec.709. I'd say it's just OK at ACES or grading in a node prior to color space transform, because the Micro doesn't have dedicated printer lights, or any way to adjust the low and high ranges in the Log controls. But the huge disadvantage of the Micro is that it doesn't work with Scratch, Mistika Boutique, or Premiere. I avoid grading in Premiere like the plague, but I'd say there's at least one project I encounter per year that's such a messy Premiere sequence that it's better to just stay in Premiere than make the roundtrip (the XML round trip and relink would take MORE time than just grading in Lumetri). After many years of Resolve only use, I've started to incorporate Scratch and Mistika, and I actually had to pull my Avid Artist out of a box in my basement to drive these programs! TBH, I was considering adding the Tangent Wave 2 to my kit, since my Artist just found a permanent home at the studio.

[Mazze]

What Jeff said.

The Micro is well manufactured, but has mainly two disadvantages imho:
It only works with Resolve and it is quite heavy, which can be a disadvantage if you have to carry it around (i.e. on-set).

The Wave2 is lighter, due to its plastic chassis and works with almost any application, incl. Resolve.
The downsides of the Wave2 are basically, that it's plastic (very robust plastic, though) and that it has master dials, instead of rings.
That is more a question of taste, I guess - but at the same time, it's also a reason why the Wave2 is more affordable.

 

Cheers,
Mazze

 

[Jacob Jabornig]

12 hours ago, Jeff Sousa said:

I own the BMD Micro. It's extremely well-built, compact, and nice-feeling. And it drives Resolve great. Sometimes I leave it at the studio at an assistant station, sometimes I take it home with me for "homework." And it's great to bring to clients for on-site work (like when they say they have a color station, but it's just an iMac hooked up to a crappy Samsung TV). I'd say the Micro is best suited for lift-gamma-gain style grading in Rec.709. I'd say it's just OK at ACES or grading in a node prior to color space transform, because the Micro doesn't have dedicated printer lights, or any way to adjust the low and high ranges in the Log controls. But the huge disadvantage of the Micro is that it doesn't work with Scratch, Mistika Boutique, or Premiere. I avoid grading in Premiere like the plague, but I'd say there's at least one project I encounter per year that's such a messy Premiere sequence that it's better to just stay in Premiere than make the roundtrip (the XML round trip and relink would take MORE time than just grading in Lumetri). After many years of Resolve only use, I've started to incorporate Scratch and Mistika, and I actually had to pull my Avid Artist out of a box in my basement to drive these programs! TBH, I was considering adding the Tangent Wave 2 to my kit, since my Artist just found a permanent home at the studio.

Thanks for your detailed answer! Since you own the BMD Micro and considered to buy the Wave 2 now do you think you would've been better off at the start with the Wave or do you think the BMD Micro was worth it to buy because of the much better build quality and so on? I don't think i'll be using more than DaVinci in the near future but to have the possibility to do so is really helpful.

[Jeff Sousa]

I still like that I own the Micro. It looks very classy on my reclaimed wood desk in the studio, which matters for making a good impression in clients. And my wife, when it's in our living room! It also impressed clients when I bring it on site. And I do prefer its nice metallic rings. So I don't wish I got the Wave2 instead, I just wish I had it also :). Well what I really wish is that BMD would open up the Micro and Mini API to Assimilate and Adobe and SGO. After all, if BMD makes money on hardware, why do they care if we use that hardware with other software? Maybe it would even open up other markets for them, Scratch and Mistika users in the market for a portable surface.