ACES transform vs Color Transform in resolve

Resolve’s ACES Transform is correct for ACES IDTs, and matches Nuke’s OCIOColorSpace with the appropriate ACES OCIO config.

Resolve’s Color Space Transform (or RCM) matches the Nuke Colorspace node with Bradford Matrix unchecked. These are both performing an absolute conversion, with no chromatic adaptation. This is not appropriate as an ACES IDT.

With Bradford Matrix checked Nuke’s Colorspace node will match an OCIOColorSpace transform to ACES2065-1, and a Resolve IDT/ACES Transform, as the Bradford matrix is a chromatic adaptation matrix. Strictly the match will not be perfect for all IDTs, as some (e.g. ARRI) use CAT02 chromatic adaptation, not Bradford. But you have to look very hard to see the difference.

Additional note: in older versions of Resolve there was a slight difference between the IDT applied for LogC with Resolve’s built in IDT and the one in the ACES Transform effect. This was a different issue (there was a thread here about it) and was because the ACES Transform used the EI400 LogC IDT, and the built in one used (in the absence of metadata) the EI800 LogC curve. This has now been fixed.