Blackmagic PYXIS Color Grading Workflow in DaVinci Resolve

PYXIS 6K or PYXIS 12K: does the DaVinci Resolve workflow change?

No, the color management steps are identical between the two bodies. What changes is the sensor behind the file, which affects exposure and grading latitude, not which dropdowns you set in Resolve.

Blackmagic's own tech specs list the PYXIS 6K sensor as "6048 x 4032 full frame HDR sensor" with 13 stops of dynamic range and dual native ISO at 400 and 3200, up to 25,600 extended. The PYXIS 12K uses a "12,288 x 8040 full frame RGBW sensor" instead, rated at 16 stops of dynamic range with a single native ISO of 800, per Blackmagic's official PYXIS Tech Specs page. Both sensors decode through the same Camera RAW tab, both use Gen 5 Color Science, and both land in DaVinci Wide Gamut and DaVinci Intermediate the moment you set that panel once per project.

Where the two bodies genuinely diverge is price and frame rate ceiling. The PYXIS 6K launched at $2,995 for L-Mount and EF, and $3,195 for PL-Mount, becoming available in June 2024, according to CineD's original announcement coverage of the PYXIS 6K. The PYXIS 12K arrived roughly a year later at a considerably higher $5,829, and CineD's lab test of the camera notes it "remains compelling for users who can work within its frame rate limitations," since its rolling shutter readout runs close to double the URSA Cine 12K LF's, according to CineD's PYXIS 12K lab test.

A PYXIS 6K clip and a PYXIS 12K clip decode through the exact same Camera RAW panel setting, so the body that shot a clip changes your exposure math and your file sizes, not a single dropdown you touch in DaVinci Resolve. If you're renting between the two for a shoot, the color setup transfers over with zero adjustment.

Which sensor mode and frame rate should you shoot for the cleanest grade?

Neither PYXIS body has one frame rate ceiling. The ceiling changes with every sensor mode and aspect ratio you pick, and Blackmagic's own tech specs lay out a different number for nearly every crop rather than a single headline figure.

On the PYXIS 6K, full sensor 6K open gate (6048 x 4032) tops out at 36 fps, and 6K DCI (6048 x 3200) reaches 48 fps, according to Blackmagic Design's tech specs for the camera. Windowing the sensor down raises that ceiling fast: Super 16 mode (2112 x 1184) shoots up to 100 fps, and 1080 HD reaches 120 fps, per the same tech specs page.

The PYXIS 12K follows the same principle at a larger scale. Full sensor 12K open gate (12,288 x 8,040) caps at 40 fps, climbing to 60 fps once you crop to 12K widescreen (12,288 x 5,112). Drop down to the camera's 8K/4K multi-scale readout and the ceiling climbs again, reaching 112 fps in the widescreen crop, per Blackmagic's tech specs.

None of this changes a single Camera RAW dropdown. A clip shot in Super 16 windowed mode on a PYXIS 6K carries the same Gen 5 metadata as one shot in full 6K open gate, and both decode through the identical Decode Using, Color Science, and Color Space settings covered above. What changes is field of view: windowing the sensor down to hit a higher frame rate crops the active sensor area, so a lens shooting a windowed high-frame-rate mode frames a noticeably tighter image than the same lens shooting full open gate. That's a framing and lens-choice problem to solve on set, not a color problem you fix in Resolve.

Rolling shutter improves with the same crop, for the same reason: less sensor to read out per frame. CineD's lab test measured the PYXIS 12K's rolling shutter at 24.1ms in 12K 3:2 open gate mode, improving to 13.5ms once switched to 8K open gate, a figure covered earlier in this guide's dynamic range section below. If a shot needs both a high frame rate and a wider field of view, that's the tradeoff: reach for a smaller sensor crop to hit the frame rate, and expect the framing to tighten and the rolling shutter to improve at the same time.

Windowing the PYXIS sensor down to hit a higher frame rate changes your field of view and your rolling shutter, but it never touches a single Camera RAW dropdown in DaVinci Resolve. Plan your lens choice around the crop before the shoot, not the grade after it.

Which PYXIS lens mount should you buy, and does it affect color?

The mount you choose changes your lens compatibility, not your color pipeline, and it's a decision you only get to make once, at purchase.

Blackmagic sells the PYXIS in three separate, non-interchangeable configurations: L-Mount, locking EF, and PL, each requiring a specific body SKU rather than a swappable mount plate. Once you own an L-Mount PYXIS, you can't convert it to PL later without buying a different body, a detail wolfcrow's breakdown of the camera's quirks flags directly for buyers coming from mirrorless systems where mount swaps are more common, per wolfcrow's PYXIS 6K feature rundown.

None of the three mounts change how the camera decodes color. A PL-Mount PYXIS 6K and an L-Mount PYXIS 6K both record identical Blackmagic RAW files with identical Gen 5 metadata, so the Camera RAW panel settings covered earlier apply the same way regardless of which mount is bolted to the body. The decision comes down entirely to what lenses you already own, what a rental house near you stocks, and whether your production needs PL's cinema lens ecosystem or the more accessible EF and L-Mount glass most working editors and DPs already have on hand.

If you're building out a kit from scratch, EF gives you the widest range of affordable secondhand glass. PL opens up cinema zooms and primes built for narrative and commercial work, at a real cost premium on both the body and the lenses. L-Mount sits in between, with growing native full-frame options from Panasonic, Sigma, and Leica.

What is Gen 5 color science, and how does the PYXIS version compare to other Blackmagic cameras?

Gen 5 is the color science generation Blackmagic Design built for its current sensor lineup, and the PYXIS uses the same generation as the company's flagship URSA Cine, not a scaled-down version built for a cheaper body.

Blackmagic's own PYXIS page states the camera "features the same generation 5 color science as the high end URSA Cine, delivering an even greater advancement in image quality," per Blackmagic's official PYXIS product page. That page also describes files as developed through the Camera RAW tab "using Wide Gamut Gen 5 and Film Gen 5," the same pairing of options this guide's sibling post on the Blackmagic Cinema Camera 6K calls DaVinci Wide Gamut and Blackmagic Design Film, now labeled with the Gen 5 generation attached directly to each color space choice in the dropdown.

Practically, this matters because Gen 5 has to match what the camera actually recorded. Earlier Blackmagic bodies, including the original Pocket Cinema Camera and early URSA models, used earlier color science generations, and mismatching that setting against footage from a different generation produces a technically valid but visibly wrong decode, the same category of mistake as picking the wrong gamut on a Sony Color Space Transform. Every PYXIS shipped since its 2024 launch records Gen 5 natively, so this is mostly a non-issue unless you're intercutting archival BRAW shot on an older Blackmagic body in the same project.

Gen 5 Color Science is the same color pipeline Blackmagic built for its flagship URSA Cine, running inside a body that costs a fraction of what that flagship line does. That's the practical upside of Blackmagic's own camera ecosystem: the color science your footage arrives with and the software you're grading it in were designed by the same team, at the same time, for each other, whether you're on a $2,995 PYXIS 6K or a $5,829 PYXIS 12K.

Our guide to grading the Blackmagic Cinema Camera 6K in DaVinci Resolve covers the same Gen 5 pipeline on that separate camera line if you're intercutting a PYXIS with a Cinema Camera 6K on the same job; the Camera RAW settings transfer directly between the two.

DaVinci Wide Gamut or Blackmagic Design Film: which working space fits a PYXIS project?

DaVinci Wide Gamut paired with DaVinci Intermediate gamma is the right default for nearly every PYXIS project, and the reason is consistency, not any weakness in the alternative.

The Camera RAW panel's Color Space and Gamma dropdowns give you a choice. DaVinci Wide Gamut decodes Blackmagic RAW into Resolve's own native working space, the same intermediate space this site's guides for Sony, Canon, and Panasonic footage all convert log footage into before grading. Picking it means a PYXIS clip and a Sony or Canon clip, once both are decoded, sit in the exact same working space and respond to your primary correction tools identically. Our guide to matching color between different cameras in DaVinci Resolve covers that normalization step in more depth for any project mixing a PYXIS with a non-Blackmagic body.

The alternative, Blackmagic Design as the Color Space with Blackmagic Design Film as the gamma, decodes the clip into Blackmagic's own log-encoded intermediate instead. That's a legitimate choice if your downstream pipeline is built around Blackmagic Design Film as a delivery-agnostic intermediate, common in some broadcast and VFX handoffs that need footage passed to other software before final grading. For a project you're grading start to finish inside DaVinci Resolve, which covers most PYXIS work, DaVinci Wide Gamut is the simpler, more consistent choice.

Which Blackmagic RAW quality setting should you shoot for grading latitude?

Blackmagic RAW gives you two encoding approaches, constant quality and constant bitrate, and the one you pick on set directly caps how far you can push the grade later without the footage falling apart.

Constant quality, Q0 through Q5, removes the upper data limit so complex, detail-heavy frames encode at a higher data rate automatically to preserve quality, rather than being capped to a fixed size. Constant bitrate, 3:1, 5:1, 8:1, 12:1, and an additional 18:1 tier on current PYXIS bodies according to Blackmagic's PYXIS Tech Specs page, caps the data rate at a fixed ratio relative to the sensor's uncompressed frame size, giving predictable file sizes at the cost of the adaptive quality boost constant quality offers on complex frames.

None of these settings change your Camera RAW color space or gamma dropdowns. What they change is how much detail survives a heavy push in highlight recovery, shadow lift, or a tight secondary qualifier. A lightly compressed 3:1 or Q0 clip holds together under aggressive grading. An 18:1 or 12:1 clip, fine for a talking-head interview cut with minimal color work, starts showing compression artifacts the moment you push it as hard, and on a PYXIS 12K, where a single frame already carries far more raw data than a 6K frame, the gap between quality settings matters even more for storage planning.

An 18:1 Blackmagic RAW file off a PYXIS decodes into the exact same DaVinci Wide Gamut working space as a 3:1 file shot on the same body, but it won't survive the same amount of grading before you see it. Match your quality setting to how hard you actually plan to push the shot in post, especially on a PYXIS 12K project where storage costs make the smaller tiers tempting.

How much storage and which CFexpress cards does PYXIS BRAW actually need?

Both PYXIS bodies share the same physical media system: two CFexpress Type B card slots for primary recording, plus one high speed USB-C expansion port for external SSD recording when card capacity runs out mid-shoot, confirmed on Blackmagic's official PYXIS Tech Specs page. What differs sharply between the two bodies is how much sustained write speed that media actually needs to keep up.

Blackmagic and independent outlets publish approved card lists tied to specific record modes rather than one blanket speed rating, because the honest answer depends on resolution and compression ratio together. CineD's roundup of approved CFexpress cards for the PYXIS 12K ties its recommendations to specific combinations, noting cards suitable for "12K 16:9 Blackmagic RAW 8:1 up to 45 fps, and 8K 3:2 (Open Gate) Blackmagic RAW 5:1 up to 60 fps," according to CineD's PYXIS 12K CFexpress card list coverage. A card that comfortably handles that isn't automatically safe at a heavier setting, like 12K open gate at Q0 or 3:1, since that combination pushes far more data per frame.

The PYXIS 6K's demands are comparatively modest. Its heaviest common mode, 6K open gate at 3:1, moves a fraction of the data a 12K open gate frame does, so a card that struggles on a PYXIS 12K project may run a PYXIS 6K project all day without dropping a frame. That gap is exactly why checking the current approved list for your specific body and record mode matters more than trusting a card's advertised top-line speed rating, which is usually a burst figure rather than the sustained write speed a continuous cinema recording actually needs.

The practical failure mode when a card can't keep up isn't a color problem at all. It's a corrupted or partially unreadable Blackmagic RAW clip that either won't load into the Media Pool or drops frames mid-clip, showing up before you ever open the Camera RAW panel. If you're seeing that kind of failure, the fix is a faster or fresher card, not a different Decode Using or Color Science setting.

On a multi-day PYXIS 12K shoot, budget card capacity and offload time as part of the schedule, not an afterthought. Heavier quality settings, Q0 and 3:1 especially, fill a card fast at 12K resolution, and the USB-C expansion port for external SSD recording exists specifically so a production can keep shooting once onboard cards fill up, without waiting for a full card-to-drive offload between setups.

A dropped-frame CFexpress card produces a corrupted Blackmagic RAW clip DaVinci Resolve can't fully decode, not a color problem you troubleshoot with a different Camera RAW setting. Check the approved card list for your exact body and record mode before the shoot, not after a corrupted card ruins a take.

What ISO should you shoot the PYXIS at for the cleanest grade?

The PYXIS 6K uses a dual native ISO sensor, meaning it has two ISO points where the sensor's gain circuit resets and noise performance improves, and shooting near one of those two points matters more for a clean grade than shooting at whatever ISO feels close enough.

Per Blackmagic Design's own tech specifications, the PYXIS 6K has dual native ISO at 400 and 3200, extending up to 25,600, and 13 stops of claimed dynamic range, confirmed on Blackmagic's official PYXIS Tech Specs page. ISO 400 is your default for daylight exteriors and well-lit interiors. ISO 3200 is the second clean point to jump to for low light, rather than nudging gain up gradually through the noisier range between the two base points.

The PYXIS 12K works differently. It uses a single native ISO of 800 instead of a dual-native pair, per the same tech specs page, so the "pick one of two clean points" rule that applies to the 6K, and to most dual-native-ISO cameras this site covers, from Sony's A7 IV to Panasonic's S5 II, simply doesn't apply to the 12K body. On a PYXIS 12K, base exposure discipline means staying as close to ISO 800 as your lighting allows and treating any gain above that as a straightforward tradeoff against noise, not a search for a second clean plateau that doesn't exist on this sensor.

How much real dynamic range and exposure latitude does the PYXIS give you?

Blackmagic's marketing figures, 13 stops for the PYXIS 6K and 16 stops for the PYXIS 12K, are real specs, but independent lab testing is where you find out what those numbers actually mean for how far you can push a shot before it falls apart.

CineD's lab test of the PYXIS 12K, run at ISO 800, found "IMATEST reveals 12.8 stops at a signal to noise ratio (SNR) of 2, and 14.2 stops at SNR = 1" in 12K mode, with the highest score arriving in 4K full frame sensor mode at "13.2 / 14.6 stops at SNR = 2 / 1," a result CineD describes as "a tad worse across different sensor modes" than the flagship URSA Cine 12K LF, by roughly 0.3 stops, according to CineD's dedicated PYXIS 12K lab test. The same test measured rolling shutter at 24.1ms in 12K 3:2 open gate mode, roughly double the URSA Cine 12K LF's figure, improving to 13.5ms when switching to 8K open gate.

CineD hasn't run a dedicated lab test of the PYXIS 6K specifically, but the camera shares its sensor generation and 13-stop dynamic range spec with Blackmagic's Cinema Camera 6K, which CineD did test directly. That test found "11.6 stops at a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 2, and 12.9 stops at SNR = 1" at ISO 400, with practical exposure latitude landing at roughly 8 stops total, split 3 stops over and 5 stops under, per CineD's Cinema Camera 6K lab test. Treat that figure as the closest available proxy for the PYXIS 6K's real-world latitude rather than a direct PYXIS 6K measurement, since the two cameras use related sensor technology but haven't been tested side by side under identical lab conditions.

Blackmagic's headline dynamic range figures for both PYXIS bodies hold up reasonably well against independent lab numbers on closely related sensors, but the gap between total dynamic range and usable exposure latitude is the number that actually predicts how far you can push an exposure mistake before it shows. Treat lab-measured latitude, not the spec sheet's headline stops, as your real ceiling on set.

Why doesn't the Blackmagic PYXIS have a built-in ND filter, and how does that affect the grade?

The PYXIS ships without an internal ND filter wheel, a deliberate tradeoff for its compact, riggable box design rather than an oversight, and it means exposure control on set falls entirely on external filtration instead of a menu setting.

CineD's coverage of the camera's NAB 2024 launch interview reported that Blackmagic's Technical Sales Director, Craig Heffernan, explained the company decided against internal NDs specifically to keep the PYXIS body small, since fitting an ND wheel mechanism into the same compact chassis used across all three mount variants would have meant a larger, more expensive body, according to CineD's first impressions and interview coverage of the PYXIS 6K. Newsshooter's first look flagged the same absence directly among the camera's "notable limitations," alongside its single mini XLR audio input, per Newsshooter's PYXIS 6K first look.

In practice, that means every PYXIS shoot needs external ND, either screw-in or drop-in filters on a matte box, or a variable ND built into the lens itself if you're running a mirrorless-style glass setup. None of this touches your DaVinci Resolve settings directly. Exposure choices made on set through ND filtration land in the file the same way any exposure choice does, as data the Camera RAW panel decodes according to whatever ISO, aperture, and shutter combination you actually shot. Where it does matter for the grade is downstream: a shot exposed correctly with proper ND holds detail through the same Gen 5 pipeline every other PYXIS clip does, while a shot compromised by insufficient ND, and pushed too far in post to compensate, runs into the same latitude ceiling covered in the section above.

Despite the missing ND, and the price point relative to some full-frame competitors, Newsshooter's Matthew Allard wrote in his first look at the camera that "my gut tells me this will be a disruptor and sell very well," per the same Newsshooter first look coverage, a prediction weighed against the camera's dual CFexpress recording, full-frame sensor, and bundled Resolve Studio license at a sub-$3,000 launch price.

A missing internal ND filter is a production planning problem you solve with a matte box or variable ND before the shoot, not a color grading problem you solve in DaVinci Resolve afterward. Budget for external filtration as part of your PYXIS kit rather than discovering the gap on set.

Do you need DaVinci Resolve Studio to grade Blackmagic PYXIS footage?

No, and this is one place where the PYXIS workflow is genuinely simpler than most other camera guides on this site, because the answer isn't really a question at all.

Every Blackmagic PYXIS, 6K or 12K, ships with a bundled DaVinci Resolve Studio license. Blackmagic's own product page states plainly that "Blackmagic PYXIS includes a full version of DaVinci Resolve Studio," confirmed on Blackmagic's official PYXIS product page. That's a meaningfully different situation than every third-party camera guide on this site, where the free-versus-Studio decision hinges on whether you need Noise Reduction, Dolby Vision delivery, or hardware-accelerated decoding badly enough to pay for it separately.

With a PYXIS, that decision is already made. You have Studio-only Noise Reduction, Temporal and the DaVinci Neural Engine-driven Spatial and UltraNR modes, available from the moment you activate the license, useful on a PYXIS 6K shot near ISO 3200 or a PYXIS 12K pushed past its native ISO 800. You also have Dolby Vision and HDR10+ delivery tools if a client needs an HDR master, listed among Studio's exclusive features on Blackmagic's own Studio product page.

The only reason to think about free-versus-Studio at all on a PYXIS project is if you're collaborating with an editor or colorist cutting the same project on a machine without the camera's bundled license installed. In that case, the free version's feature set still covers Color Space Transform, the Camera RAW panel, and Resolve Color Management without restriction; it's specifically Noise Reduction, Dolby Vision, and a handful of other Studio-exclusive tools that would be missing on their end.

A camera that ships with the same paid color grading software used to grade it removes an entire category of guesswork every third-party camera guide on this site has to work around. If you bought a PYXIS, register the included Studio key before your first project rather than assuming you're stuck in the free version by default.

How does the PYXIS's box-camera design change your rigging and monitoring setup for color?

The PYXIS is deliberately not a self-contained, handheld-ready body the way a mirrorless hybrid is, and that changes your on-set monitoring setup more than it changes anything inside DaVinci Resolve.

Blackmagic markets the camera with the tagline "The World's Most Riggable Full Frame Digital Film Camera," per Blackmagic's official PYXIS product page, and the design backs that up: no built-in viewfinder or handgrip, a fixed 4-inch touchscreen LCD rated at 1500 nits, and a USB-C port specifically for an optional external electronic viewfinder, the URSA Cine EVF, priced separately at roughly $1,695. Dual CFexpress Type B card slots handle hot-swap recording, with a USB-C expansion port available for external SSD recording when card capacity runs short on longer 12K sessions.

For color monitoring specifically, the PYXIS outputs 12G-SDI up to 2160p60, a full-resolution signal well suited to a proper on-set reference monitor, unlike some competing box cameras capped at lower HDMI resolutions. Both PYXIS bodies also include a hardware streaming engine with RTMP and SRT support, letting you push a live feed to a client or director's monitor over Ethernet, or tethered through a phone via USB-C, without a separate encoder box.

None of this changes your Camera RAW project settings. It changes what physical gear you bring to set, and how a colorist reviewing footage remotely receives your feed. If your suite setup relies on a second physical display for objective scope monitoring rather than a single graded reference, our guide to node labeling and color organization in DaVinci Resolve covers keeping a PYXIS project's node graph legible once you're intercutting rig-mounted footage from multiple setups and multiple operators on the same job.

The PYXIS trades a self-contained camera body for a rig-first design that pushes viewfinder, grip, and even audio input choices out to accessories, but none of that affects how the footage decodes once it reaches DaVinci Resolve. Plan your rig budget as part of the camera purchase, not as an afterthought once footage is already on the timeline.

How do you handle PYXIS footage in a mixed-camera project with other bodies?

If your timeline is entirely PYXIS footage, the Camera RAW project settings covered earlier are the fastest path to a finished look. The moment you're intercutting a PYXIS with a different camera brand, or even a different Blackmagic body, the calculation changes slightly.

Resolve Color Management, set under Project Settings, Color Management, with Color Science set to DaVinci YRGB Color Managed, lets you tag each camera's native input color space per clip through Clip Attributes rather than relying on one global Camera RAW setting. Blackmagic RAW clips from a PYXIS get tagged with their Gen 5 color science, while Sony or Canon log footage on the same timeline gets tagged with its own native gamut and gamma, all converging into the same DaVinci Wide Gamut working space before your shared creative grade goes on top. This is the same principle our guide to matching color between different cameras covers in more depth, useful whether the second camera on your job is a Sony mirrorless body or an older Blackmagic Cinema Camera 6K shot on a different color science generation.

The one PYXIS-specific wrinkle worth flagging: if you're mixing a PYXIS 6K and a PYXIS 12K on the same project, both bodies share Gen 5 Color Science and both target DaVinci Wide Gamut identically, so there's no per-clip gamut mismatch to manage between them the way there would be between two different manufacturers. The only adjustment is exposure-driven, since the 12K's higher native ISO and dynamic range headroom mean a shot exposed to match a 6K reference frame by eye may sit in a slightly different part of its own latitude curve, worth checking against the scopes rather than assuming identical exposure settings produce identical results across two different sensors.

Frame rate and sensor mode consistency matters here too, not just exposure. If you're intercutting a PYXIS 6K windowed Super 16 slow-motion insert with 12K full-sensor footage from the same scene, confirm both were conformed to the same project frame rate, and that the windowed clip's tighter field of view, covered in the sensor mode section above, doesn't create a jarring framing jump against the wide open-gate shot around it. None of this is a Camera RAW or color management setting; it's a shot-matching check worth doing on the timeline before the grade, the same way you'd check exposure or white balance.

A step-by-step example: taking one PYXIS clip from BRAW to Rec.709

Here's the full sequence in order, from a fresh PYXIS clip in the Media Pool to a delivered Rec.709 grade, with every setting from earlier in this guide placed where it actually happens in a real project.

1. Confirm the source. Check which PYXIS body shot the clip, its recorded Blackmagic RAW quality setting, Q0 through Q5 or 3:1 through 18:1, and its ISO, ideally near the 6K's native 400 or 3200, or the 12K's native 800.
2. Set Camera RAW project settings. In Project Settings, Camera RAW tab, set Decode Using to Project, Color Science to Gen 5, Color Space to DaVinci Wide Gamut, and Gamma to DaVinci Intermediate. This applies to every Blackmagic RAW clip in the project at once, PYXIS 6K or 12K.
3. Build optimized media if playback stutters. A PYXIS 12K clip at a heavier quality setting is genuinely heavy to decode in real time. Generate Optimized Media at Half or Quarter Resolution before you touch color, so you're not diagnosing playback and grading decisions in the same pass. Our proxy media setup guide for a slow laptop walks through the exact panel and a decision tree for which resolution tier fits your hardware.
4. Node 1, primary correction. With the clip already decoded into DaVinci Wide Gamut through the Camera RAW panel, no input Color Space Transform node is needed here. Set white balance with an eyedropper on a neutral reference if you have one, then shape your black point and white point using the Lift and Gain wheels against your scopes.
5. Node 2, Noise Reduction, if the shot needs it. If the clip was shot near ISO 3200 on a PYXIS 6K, or pushed well past ISO 800 on a PYXIS 12K, add a Temporal or Spatial Noise Reduction node here, since Studio's noise tools are already included with the camera's bundled license.
6. Node 3, creative grade. Do your actual look here, contrast shaping, color balance, secondary qualifiers or power windows. Nothing about Blackmagic RAW changes how you grade once you're in DaVinci Wide Gamut.
7. Node 4, output Color Space Transform. This is the one CST node this workflow needs. Set Input Color Space to DaVinci Wide Gamut, Input Gamma to DaVinci Intermediate, Output Color Space to Rec.709, Output Gamma to Rec.709 or Rec.709-A. Swap the output settings to Rec.2100 and ST 2084 or HLG on a duplicated timeline if you also need an HDR deliverable.
8. Check the result against the troubleshooting table below before calling the grade final, particularly if this clip is intercut with footage from a different PYXIS body or a different camera brand entirely.

Four nodes handle the entire mechanism, one fewer than a typical Sony or Canon log workflow, since the input conversion this guide's sibling posts handle with a manual CST node is already done for you at decode time through the Camera RAW panel.

Worked example 2: matching a PYXIS 6K clip shot at ISO 3200 to a PYXIS 6K clip shot at ISO 400 in the same scene. Say a documentary interview started in daylight at the 6K's first native ISO of 400, then continued after the sun dropped, and the operator jumped straight to the second native ISO of 3200 rather than creeping gain up through the noisier range between the two. Both clips carry the same Gen 5 metadata and decode into the same DaVinci Wide Gamut working space through identical Camera RAW settings, so nothing about the setup covered earlier changes. What changes is how much correction each clip needs to sit at the same apparent brightness and noise floor next to its neighbor.

1. Decode both clips identically. Confirm both are still reading Decode Using Project, Gen 5, DaVinci Wide Gamut, and DaVinci Intermediate, exactly as set once at the project level.
2. Match exposure by eye against the waveform, not by matching ISO numbers. A daylight-exposed ISO 400 clip and a deliberately-exposed ISO 3200 clip should already sit close in apparent brightness if the operator exposed correctly for each lighting condition; use the Lift and Gain wheels to true up any remaining offset.
3. Apply Noise Reduction only to the ISO 3200 clip. The daylight ISO 400 clip likely doesn't need it. Add a Temporal or Spatial Noise Reduction node on the low-light clip's own node chain, not as a global grade applied to both.
4. Check both clips against the same scope, not against each other by eye. A parade or waveform reading that matches between the two clips is a more reliable check than judging brightness match on a monitor, especially once Noise Reduction has altered the low-light clip's apparent detail.
5. Finish both through the same single output Color Space Transform. Once matched, both clips flow through the identical Rec.709 or Rec.2100 CST node covered above, since the dual native ISO jump changed the source exposure and noise floor, not the color pipeline.

The dual native ISO jump on the 6K is a deliberate two-point system, not a smooth ramp, so a clip shot at ISO 800 or 1600, between the two native points, loses the noise-floor benefit of either and typically needs more correction to match its neighbors than a clip shot cleanly at 400 or 3200.

How do you deliver both an SDR and an HDR master from the same PYXIS grade?

Since your bundled Studio license already includes Dolby Vision and HDR10+ delivery, covered earlier in this guide, the real question on a dual-deliverable job isn't whether you can produce both. It's how to structure the node tree and timeline so the two masters share a single creative grade instead of drifting apart into two separate, inconsistent versions of the same project.

The cleanest structure keeps every node before your output Color Space Transform identical across both deliverables. Do your primary correction, Noise Reduction, and creative grade once, in DaVinci Wide Gamut, exactly as covered in the worked example above. Duplicate the timeline only at the very last step, so the SDR duplicate and the HDR duplicate both inherit the same upstream grade and only diverge on their final CST node: Rec.709 and Rec.709-A for the SDR delivery, Rec.2100 with ST 2084 (PQ) or HLG for the HDR delivery.

That structure means a client note that changes the creative grade, a different white balance pull or a stronger secondary on a key subject, gets applied once, upstream of both output nodes, instead of twice by hand on two separate timelines that can silently fall out of sync. If the HDR version needs its own trim pass, common with Dolby Vision delivery since PQ headroom above 100 nits behaves differently than Rec.709's clipped highlight rolloff, that trim happens on the HDR duplicate's own node, after the shared grade, not by rebuilding the look from scratch.

The PYXIS side of this is simple because it was already solved earlier in the pipeline. Blackmagic RAW's Gen 5 metadata decodes into DaVinci Wide Gamut once, through the Camera RAW panel, regardless of which delivery format comes out the other end. You're not managing two different input conversions for two different deliverables, only two different output ones, which is exactly the one-CST-node advantage this whole guide keeps coming back to.

A shared upstream grade with two separate output Color Space Transform nodes keeps an SDR and an HDR master from a single PYXIS project consistent with each other, instead of becoming two grades that quietly drift apart. Build the split at the last node, never earlier.

Why does PYXIS footage still look wrong after all this?

If you've followed every setting above and something still looks off, work through these in order before assuming the footage itself is bad.

First, a Gen 5 mismatch against an older Blackmagic body. If you're intercutting PYXIS footage with archival BRAW shot on an earlier Blackmagic camera using an older color science generation, confirm the Camera RAW panel's Color Science dropdown actually matches what each specific clip was recorded with, rather than applying one global setting across footage from two generations.

Second, a Camera RAW and Color Space Transform conflict. If a clip looks oversaturated or double-processed, check whether you've accidentally added a manual input Color Space Transform node on top of a clip already decoded into DaVinci Wide Gamut through the Camera RAW panel. That's applying the same conversion twice.

Third, a 6K-versus-12K exposure mismatch. If PYXIS 6K and PYXIS 12K clips shot on the same job don't sit at matching brightness before grading, even at what felt like the same on-set exposure, check each clip's ISO and quality setting individually rather than assuming identical camera settings across two different sensors produce identical raw brightness.

Fourth, a quality-setting ceiling. If a heavily graded shot shows compression artifacts under a hard push, especially in shadow recovery or a tight secondary qualifier, check whether that specific clip was recorded at a higher-compression setting like 12:1 or 18:1, which doesn't hold the same push-pull latitude as 3:1 or Q0.

Fifth, timeline color space mismatch. If footage looks correct in the viewer but wrong on export or an external reference monitor, check that your project's overall Color Management settings actually match your delivery target, Rec.709 versus Rec.2100 being the most common version of this mistake.

Sixth, a media failure mistaken for a color problem. If a clip won't load into the Media Pool at all, or drops visibly corrupted frames partway through, check the card it was recorded on against Blackmagic's current approved list for that resolution and compression setting before assuming anything about Camera RAW or Color Science. A card that can't sustain the write speed a mode demands produces broken files, not files with wrong color.

Seventh, a sensor-mode framing mismatch cut in next to full-sensor footage. If a high-frame-rate insert shot in a windowed sensor mode looks tighter or more zoomed than the full open-gate footage around it, that's the sensor crop from windowing down to hit the higher frame rate, not a lens change or a color issue. Confirm which sensor mode a slow-motion insert was actually shot in before assuming the framing mismatch is something the grade can fix.

When the menus alone don't get you there fast enough

Everything in this guide is a settings problem with a settings answer, but a PYXIS project still means bouncing between the Camera RAW tab, Clip Attributes, and the node graph, especially early on, when you're confirming exactly which body, which quality setting, and which ISO a specific clip actually carries before you touch its grade.

TryUncle is the on-screen assistant for DaVinci Resolve on macOS. Ask in plain words, and Uncle points at the exact control on your screen. If you're on a Mac and asking out loud why your PYXIS footage doesn't need a Color Space Transform node going in, that's a faster route back to the Camera RAW panel than re-reading this guide mid-session. It's a paid app, currently in founder pricing, and macOS only, so it won't help a Windows editor working through Resolve's menus. Check TryUncle for current pricing before deciding if it fits your workflow.

It's worth knowing the category has other tools built on a different premise. Sottocut, PremiereCopilot, heyeddie.ai, and cutagent.ai automate parts of an edit or answer chat questions about your footage, rather than watching your live screen and pointing at controls. If your goal is automating a cut, those solve a different problem. If your goal is finding the right Camera RAW setting faster while you're mid-grade on a PYXIS timeline, on-screen guidance aimed at your actual screen is the more direct tool for that specific job.

What's the full settings cheat sheet at a glance?

Before the table, here's the one-line version of everything above. Set Camera RAW's Decode Using to Project, Color Science to Gen 5, and Color Space and Gamma to DaVinci Wide Gamut and DaVinci Intermediate, and skip the input Color Space Transform node a Sony or Canon workflow needs, since the Camera RAW panel already did that job. Shoot the 6K near ISO 400 or 3200, and the 12K near its single native ISO of 800, budget for external ND since there's no internal wheel, pick a quality setting that matches how hard you'll actually push the grade, check your card against Blackmagic's approved list before a heavy shoot, build optimized media if 12K playback stutters, and remember your bundled Studio license already covers Noise Reduction and HDR delivery without a separate purchase.

Set the Camera RAW panel once, per project, and every PYXIS clip that follows decodes the same way without another dropdown to check. Shoot the 6K near ISO 400 or 3200, the 12K near ISO 800, budget for external ND before the shoot rather than the grade, and the single output Color Space Transform node on your last node is the only conversion this workflow actually needs. Most PYXIS footage that looks wrong in Resolve isn't a broken decode. It's a mismatched color science generation, a stacked CST node doing a job the Camera RAW panel already did, a card that couldn't keep up, or an exposure gap between two sensors that share a color pipeline but not a native ISO, and now you know which one to check first.