yes, but how? The looks room? Secondary Room?

That's a whole long topic by itself.

I use secondaries to deal with all of that. There's eight available so I'll have one for a sky gradient, another to lighten a face, another to desaturate only reds.

I respectfully disagree with your suggestion. DVD you referring to is extremely superficial and it has tons of black holes. Moreover it is poorly shot and organized. The best tutorial I found is the book "Color, Correcting and Grading in Final Cut Studio" by Michael Wohl and David Gross. It has DVD but as addition to the first class printed tutorial. No wonder that this book is the part of Apple Pro Training Series.

Forgive me Mark, if I respectfully disagree with you.

I bought that DVD just before christmas. It arrived very quickly (from USA to UK) and I found it very informative and easy to follow.

Walter's voiceover leaves something to be desired but generally, I'm very pleased with the tutorial. I had scratched the surface of Color and was looking for more info on setting up Color correctly and using the more advanced rooms. This DVD was just what I wanted.

I'm not aware of any "black holes" apart, maybe from there being no mention of how to get the best dual screen setup.

Of course, I cannot compare it with the book as I don't have a copy.

Mark...

You're free to disagree with my opinion and your feedback is valuable to this community. However, I have to point out that Walter's DVD turned a bewildering application into a productive tool for me and others.

Color is now part of my fundamental set of tools in post. And Walter's DVD got me to that point very fast. It might be superficial but only because it covers just enough of the basics to get someone started. A one-hour video will not provide comprehensive instructions on software with this sort of physical size and the number of rare structures.

I am glad Dean and Andy that it helped you, while it did not help me. I found tutorial book that I have mentioned as better covering all aspects of Color program and in much deeper and in much more organized way. After study this book I made Color my tool that I am using in my production workflow with great success. Again, I just share my personal experience.

I had issues with the back focus going out of alignment. A shutdown/startup procedure fixed it, but this makes me worry a bit about on-shoot reliability.

battery issue
 

I have EX1 that was purchased last November with rev.V1.11_0531 firmware.
After insertion into camera of freshly charged battery, I noticed that it lost about 75% of its charge within about 2 weeks. Do you think it is normal rate of self discharge or this is the result of excessive camera juice draw? Next I will check battery itself being out of camera.

Do not leave batteries on the camera more than a few days without expecting battery drain. I've always unplug batteries and if possible charge everything the night before a planned shoot and leave them fully charged unattached otherwise.

I agree about Walters DVD. I found it really helpful in getting up and running. It solved a lot of mysteries for me. It isn't intended to be an in depth DVD about how to grade with Color. It is meant as a primer for how the Color interface works.

Some EX1 have battery drain problem. This will discharge the battery in a day or two. I had mine sent back to Sony and they changed some parts to solve this.
Now, the battery drain is still here but take some weeks. I called sony which told it was "normal".

whatever, I knew of the battery drain because of what I read here. I NEVER let the battery on the camera when I'm done. Remove it, or re-charge it, but don't let it in.

Slightly off topic, but I've been having problems with older Sony products. My Sony headphones' coiled cord started becoming so sticky to the point that I just threw the unit away. Faux leather earpieces started disintegrating on my newer headphones. Sony foam microphone windscreen tears easily and turns to powder. Leather handgrip on a hi-8mm camcorder turning to dust. My suspicion is that these components are made in China....

Oh yes, and I had problems with letters rubbing off, and paint peeling from my EX1 handle.

SO far so good
 

I regualarly abuse mine and the thing is great. The paint did wear off on the heavily uses parts but .... I have finally come around to embrace file based workflow.

I would buy another.

I was an early-ish adopter following the cam since the first utterance of it's being on the forums.