ok so i know this is probably the most beaten to death question on here but i genuinely cant find a clear answer that isnt from like 2019. im shooting mostly in D-Log M on the Air 3 and ive been using Premiere for years but a buddy told me DaVinci handles the color grading workflow way better especially for log footage. i tried DaVinci maybe 18 months ago and got frustrated with the node system and gave up

now im wondering if its worth actually learning properly. most of what i do is landscape and travel stuff, occasional paid gig for a small local business. nothing crazy. do people actually find the free version of DaVinci limiting for this kind of work or is the paid studio version actually necessary. also does anyone use the LUTs that came with the Air 3 or do you download third party ones, the built in ones seem pretty flat to me

DaVinci is genuinely worth learning if you shoot log. the node system feels weird at first but once it clicks you wont want to go back, lumetri in Premiere feels like painting with oven mitts after you get used to the color page. free version is totally fine for what youre describing, the main things you lose are some noise reduction tools and a few specific effects but for color work on landscape footage you wont miss them

for LUTs i stopped using the DJI ones pretty early on. i use a paid pack from Dehancer for most stuff but honestly just pulling a creative LUT off somewhere like Ground Control and then adjusting intensity down to like 40-50% and then doing your own corrections on top gets you pretty far. the DJI LUTs are fine for a starting point i guess but yeah they are pretty conservative

im also on Air 3 and D-Log M and i just use Premiere still lol. the Lumetri panel is fine if you know what youre doing and i have a whole preset chain saved that handles the log conversion first then creative grade on top. probably not as elegant as the node system but i know it well and it works for client delivery so i havent bothered switching. though i do sometimes send just the color-heavy stuff over to DaVinci via XML when i really need to nail something specific