What is ProRes RAW

ProRes RAW is a new codec, released by Apple, that allows for a new standard of video compression for RAW Footage. The new algorithm creates much smaller video file sizes than before, while retaining the amazingly higher quality video data rates and editing capabilities, of the original Uncompressed RAW video.

This gives the user file sizes that are even smaller than the original ProRes formats, while retaining the high quality levels, we have come to love from ProRes.

Much like the RAW files when shooting photos with your stills camera, RAW saves the highest amount of information possible, (aka the Dynamic Range and Color Depth).

The only difference when shooting video is that the camera has to now capture RAW files at the specified frame rate.

Most of us shoot at 30p or 30fps (frames per second).

This means that the video camera, has to record 30 RAW files every second. This is quite an astonishing feat, especially when you consider that even the newest Sony a9 camera tops out at 20fps. Granted that the Sony a9 is shooting at 24MP, where as, standard 4K is 8.2MP, its still very interesting that video can shoot at these types of speeds, in RAW.

Things get even more crazy when you start recording 4k 60p, where the camera now has to record 60 RAW files in a second.

Crazy if you actually think about it.

This is the reason that many cameras that can record RAW (listed lower down in this article), can’t do it internally, but instead, require a separate, external recorder to process this amount of data for them.

Now, if you think about how much data 60 RAW images takes when shooting with your still camera and you multiply that by 60 to get one minute of footage, then multiply that by another 30, to get 30mins of footage.

In comparison, you’re sitting with (60frames x 60seconds x 30mins) = 10,8000 still RAW images.

That is an insane amount of images.

Even wedding photographers, that generally shoot about 2000 images at a big wedding, would need to shoot 54 weddings, just to have as many RAW photos, as what a videographer records in just 30 minutes.

Most professional photographer, take years to shoot that many photographs, never mind storing then on your hard drive.

Because of this, you can quickly see the need to compress this RAW footage for the sake of hard drive storage needs as well as editing needs.

This is where codecs come in.

For those that don’t know, a codec is an electric circuit (such as your camera) or software (such as Adobe Premiere Pro), that compresses or decompresses digital video.

Similar to a zip file.

A codec, thus allows video files to be saved at much smaller file sizes, compared to its original uncompress state. Without codecs, the information coming from your camera sensor would be huge (as explained above), so naturally codecs, help save valuable hard drive and memory card space.

When compressing the video file, the codec has to remove data from the video file, in order to lower the file size. That data is directly related to the quality of the video. The more compressed the video, the less quality it will retain.

Although;

Depending on which codec you use, also has a big influence on what data it keeps and what data it does away with. So a great quality codec, will save video files to be smaller in file size, but will also be very close to the original uncompressed file, in terms of quality.

Currently you might have seen or heard of many popular codecs such as XAVC and H.264. These codecs are great at compressing the files to very small files sizes, while retain a great amount of quality.

So, you might be asking yourself: “Then why do we need ProRes RAW?”

Well, XAVC and H.264 are known as Long-GOP codecs, while ProRes (and some other codecs such as Avid DNxHR) are known as All-Intra Codecs.

You can read more about the difference between Long-GOP and All-Intra in this article, but in short, Long-GOP becomes very heavy on your PC during editing time, whereas All-Intra is much smoother, due to the different ways they record and store the footage.

This is where ProRes comes in.

Much like the original ProRes Codecs, ProRes RAW is an All-Intra codec. This makes it’s real-time playback as smooth as butter, during editing time.
The less strain the codec puts on your PC during editing, the lower end hardware you need when editing.

In other words, you are able to edit an All-Intra file on a laptop, where as you need a powerful desktop PC to edit a Long-GOP codec, even though they are both the same resolution (let’s say 4K 30p for example).

This is why many video editors actually transcode they Long-GOP footage to All-Intra footage first, before editing, in order to make it more manageable. But transcoding still takes time and effort, that could otherwise be put towards something more beneficial, like editing.

The other downside is that Long-GOP codecs don’t retain as much quality, compared to All-Intra codecs, so you will always be working with lower quality data, even if you transcode it.

It’s the same as shooting a JPEG file straight from your camera, and converting it to TIFF. The created TIFF in not magically get back the quality that the JPEG lost, as it simple doesn’t exist anymore.
This is why it’s always best to shoot at the highest quality All-Intra that you can. But remember, the higher the quality the bigger the files sizes, even with ProRes.

This is especially important when dealing with RAW footage and thus, is where the new ProRes RAW comes in.

Blackmagic design have recently released Blackmagic RAW (B-RAW) as an open source RAW compression format to rival ProRes RAW.

Blackmagic did this due to the high royalty fees that Apple wanted to charge then to have ProRes RAW in the cameras and Davinci Resolve Editing software.

Now, not only do they have their own version, but have made it open source so that any other software company or camera manufacturer can implement it into their products as well.

This is fantastic news for the consumers, as not only will we be paying less (as the developers and manufacturers don’t have to pay Apple royalty fees), but its open source, meaning that anyone and everyone has access to it, instead of a few top dogs at Apple only.

Well done Blackmagic.

B-RAW is already on their high end broadcast cameras like the URSA Mini Pro and will soon be on their newest Blackmagic Pocket Cinema 4K camera as well.

B-RAW is already part of Davinci Resolve Pro 15, which actually comes free with the Pocket 4K camera, all for only $1295, so make sure to check out my review on it, from the link above.

Ok, so we have had ProRes 4:2:2 HQ as an All-Intra codec for a very long time now.

Why the specific need for ProRes RAW version?

Well, as with all technology and software, things always progress, becoming better and better with time.

We have seen the resolutions of video quickly progressing over the past few years, as we are now in the heart of the 4K resolution era and within a few short years, we will most likely be within the 8K era.

While these increased resolutions look absolutely stunning. The sheer amount of quality detail that 4K has, compared to FHD 1080 is staggering, never mind 8K.
But;

This increased resolution and detail comes at a hefty price. The price is file size and speeds.

• 4K is FOUR times the resolution of FHD.
• 8K is FOUR times the resolution of 4K
• 8K is SIXTEEN times the resolution of FHD

The data rates of video files, are growing exponentially and while the current ProRes formats have been fine to compress FHD RAW footage, they simply aren’t good enough to keep file sizes down to a realistic level, when using 4K RAW, and certainly not 8K RAW footage.

To put the file sizes of 4K resolution into context, let use a standard 60 second (1 minute) video clip as an example.

If this clip were to be captured at at 4K UHD 30p 10bit, in the current ProRes codec option, you would end up with the follow file sizes:

• ProRes 4:2:2 LT (410mb/s) = 3GB file
• ProRes 4:2:2 (589mb/s) = 4.4GB file
• ProRes 4:2:2 HQ (884mb/s) = 6.6GB file

Yes, that’s a 4.4GB file for every 60 seconds of ProRes 4:2:2 you shoot.

If this clip were to be captured at at 4K UHD 60p 10bit, in the current ProRes codec option, you would end up with the follow file sizes:

• ProRes 4:2:2 LT (821mb/s) = 6.1GB file
• ProRes 4:2:2 (1178mb/s) = 8.8GB file
• ProRes 4:2:2 HQ (1768mb/s) = 13.3GB file

As you can see by doubling the frame rate from 30p to 60p, it doubles the data rates as well. So now you will end up with an 8.8GB file for every 60 seconds of ProRes 4:2:2 you shoot.

For my YouTube channel I don’t shoot more than ProRes 422 4K30p, as I feel it gives me enough dynamic range latitude for the basic color grading required for reviews and tutorials to be watched on YouTube. This also helps to keep my file sizes smaller (even though they are still very big) to avoid having to buy terabytes worth of hard drives to store them on.

But, for high end cinema Hollywood movies, ProRes 4:2:2 doesn’t deliver sufficient quality as its a compressed codec, so they mostly shoot at RAW and likely no less than ProRes 4:2:2 HQ, which requires 13.3Gb of hard drive space per 60 seconds of footage!

So even the smallest short film, requires terabytes, or even Petabytes of storage space. Remember, these file sizes are only for a mere 4K60p. If you were to shoot in 4K120p or at 8K30p, they again double, making a 60 second clip of ProRes 4:2:2 HQ (3536mb/s) = 26.6GB file!

Definitely not a realistic way to move into the future and thus the need for a better codec, that stores all the quality, but at a much smaller file size.

Welcome, Pro­Res RAW!

As mentioned above, ProRes RAW does one thing – it makes smaller files sizes, while retaining even better quality than previous ProRes formats.

Exactly how much you ask?

Well, Apple don’t give exact data rates, but according to their ProRes RAW Whitepaper graph, we can easily work out an estimate, based on our knowledge of the current ProRes 4:2:2 data rates mentioned above.

Apple says that there are two ProRes RAW formats :

• ProRes RAW
• ProRes RAW HQ

Looking at the bar chart, we can see that ProRes RAW falls in-between ProRes 4:2:2 and ProRes 4:2:2 HQ.

Using a resolution of 4K UHD (3840 x 2160) at 60p, as our base resolution and frame rate, we can roughly work out ProRes RAW from the graph.

At 4K UHD 60p, ProRes 4:2:2 HQ has a bitrate 1,768mb/s (221MB/s). As ProRes RAW has about 5% less bitrate (at its peak) than ProRes 4:2:2 HQ, we can estimate ProRes RAW to be about 1,680mb/s (or 210MB/s). 

Now, let’s take a look at ProRes RAW HQ, which is about 10% less bitrate than ProRes 4:4:4:4 at 2656mb/s (332MB/s), making ProRes RAW HQ about 2,388mb/s (or 299MB/s) at 4K UHD 60p.

If we then take our previous example of a 60sec (1 minute) video, at 4K 60p 10bit, we can work out our file size to get:

• ProRes RAW (1,680mb/s ÷ 8000 x 60sec) = 12.6GB file per 60 seconds
• ProRes RAW HQ (2,388mb/s ÷ 8000 x 60sec) = 17.91GB file per 60 seconds

Comparing that to our previous ProRes bitrates of:

• ProRes 4:2:2 LT (821mb/s) = 6.1GB file per 60 seconds
• ProRes 4:2:2 (1178mb/s) = 8.8GB file per 60 seconds
• ProRes 4:2:2 HQ (1768mb/s) = 13.3GB file per 60 seconds

We can see that we are now able to achieve Pro Res RAW quality, with zero visual artifacts, using less bitrate than ProRes 4:2:2 HQ.

That is a big step forward for the industry.

While these files are still fairly large, you must not forget, that the quality you get in exchange for file size far exceeds the current ProRes 4:2:2 codecs, that do still show artifacts from the compression. ProRes RAW outputs a quality that is on par with ProRes 4:4:4:4 and even ProRes 4:4:4:4 HQ.

If you compare the file sizes of these two formats to ProRes RAW instead, you quickly see the differences:

• ProRes RAW (1,680mb/s) = 12.6GB file per 60 seconds
• ProRes 4:4:4:4 (2656mb/s) = 19.9GB file per 60 seconds
• ProRes 4:4:4:4 XQ (3976mb/s) = 29.8GB file per 60 seconds

So now, if take ProRes Raw with a comparable quality video of ProRes 4:4:4:4, we have downscaled our files from 19.9GB for a 60sec 4K UHD 60p video clip, to just 12.6GB, resulting is is a file storage saving of 37%

If we then also compare ProRes Raw to ProRes 4:4:4:4 HQ, we downsize our file size from 29.8GB to just 12.6GB, yielding us a 58% smaller file size.

Doing the same comparison with ProRes RAW HQ:

• ProRes RAW HQ (2,388mb/s) = 17.91GB file per 60 seconds
• ProRes 4:4:4:4 (2656mb/s) = 19.9GB file per 60 seconds
• ProRes 4:4:4:4 XQ (3976mb/s) = 29.8GB file per 60 seconds

We see a 10% smaller file size compared to ProRes 4:4:4:4 and a 40% smaller file size compared to ProRes 4:4:4:4 XQ which is massive considering that ProRes RAW HQ is the equivalent of an uncompressed RAW format.

Now, let’s compare ProRes RAW HQ to Uncompressed RAW 10bit 4:2:2.

Here are what the current Uncompressed RAW 10bit 4:2:2 bitrates are at various resolutions and frame rates:

• Uncompressed RAW 10bit 4:2:2 at 1080 30p = 1,326mb/s (166MB/s)
• Uncompressed RAW 10bit 4:2:2 at 1080 60p = 2,652mb/s (332MB/s)
• Uncompressed RAW 10bit 4:2:2 at 4K 30p = 5,304mb/s (663MB/s)
• Uncompressed RAW 10bit 4:2:2 at 4K 60p = 10,608mb/s (1,326MB/s)

Taking the 4K 60p of 10608mb/s (1326MB/s) and compare it to the ProRes RAW HQ bitrate of 2,388mb/s (299MB/s) you can quickly see the massive savings of both bitrate and data storage requirements when using the new ProRes RAW compared to traditional Uncompressed RAW 10bit 4:2:2.

Taking our 1 minute 4K UHD 60p clip, will result in a 80GB file when shooting in Uncompressed RAW 10bit 4:2:2, where as it will only be an 17.91GB file when shooting in ProRes RAW HQ, which is a 3.5x smaller file size and bit rate requirement.

That is a phenomenal saving.

Things get even more impressive when comparing it to Uncompressed RAW 12bit 4:4:4:

• Uncompressed RAW 12bit 4:4:4 at 1080 30p = 2,237mb/s (280MB/s)
• Uncompressed RAW 12bit 4:4:4 at 1080 60p = 4,474mb/s (560MB/s)
• Uncompressed RAW 12bit 4:4:4 at 4K 30p = 8,948mb/s (1118MB/s)
• Uncompressed RAW 12bit 4:4:4 at 4K 60p = 17,896mb/s (2237MB/s)

Again, taking a 1 minute 4K UHD 60p clip as an example, will result in a 134GB file when shooting in Uncompressed RAW 12bit 4:4:4. Yes you read that right, for every one minute of footage you require a whopping 134GB of storage space, whereas it will only be an 17.91GB file when shooting in ProRes RAW HQ.

That makes ProRes RAW HQ 6.5x smaller in files size than Uncompressed RAW 12bit 4:4:4, while yielding the same quality footage.

Just imagine how much of your NAS storage is going to love you for this.

Simply amazing!

While these file sizes and quality levels are targeted towards high end productions and Hollywood movies, they will in most cases, far exceed the needs and capabilities of most consumers, as you need a camera that can shoot RAW to be able to record in ProRes RAW (I will cover the current cameras capable of this below).

Although, if you do own a RAW capable camera, then a 840mb/s file for 4K UHD 30p, is definitely in the realm where many indie filmmakers can make use of it. Even moving up to  4K UHD 60p with a bit rate of 1,680Mb/s is manageable.

840mb/s isn’t really that far off from the 400mb/s that many indies are already accustomed to the Panasonic GH5. So for just an extra 440mb/s, you get far superior, almost RAW quality video.

UPDATE: An exciting new announcement from Atomos and Nikon has been made at CES 2019.

With the releases of the new Atomos Ninja V 5” Recorder ($399.00) and the Nikon Z6 Camera (), you will be able to record ProRes RAW!

This is a world first for the industry – Well done Atomos and Nikon!

Never before have we been able to record video footage of such high quality on a camera system that costs less than $3000. Not because it wasn’t possible, but because other companies like Canon, Panasonic and Sony have been protecting their “higher end” and MUCH more expensive (over priced) cinema cameras from being cannibalised, which is what would happen if they released RAW in smaller and cheaper mirrorless cameras.

Atomos CEO Jeremy Young, said in an interview that he approached all three of these companies to implement RAW into their current mirrorless ranges and they declined to do so, for this very reason.

Nikon on the other hand have no higher end video camera to protect, as the Nikon Z6 & Z7 cameras are their first proper video capable cameras. With nothing to lose but everything to gain, they went all out and worked with Atomos to enable ProRes RAW on these cheap mirrorless cameras.

How amazing is that!

I own both the Z6 and Ninja V, and am insanely excited about this.

Now I can get RAW quality footage for almost the same data and space requirements that I could before only get ProRes 422. This really sets Nikon apart from all the other mirrorless cameras manufacturers and will force them to do the same.

This competition is only good for us as consumers, as now the monopoly of only allowing RAW to be available to $5000+ cameras is gone. Now Sony, Canon and Panasonic will need to follow Nikons path and also enable this on their mirrorless cameras, or face a very angry consumer base or worse, then leaving to buy Nikon instead.

In fact, they have bundled their two product, together with the brand new Moza Air 2 Gimbal ($379.99) into what they call the Nikon Z6 Filmmakers kit (Price not available), which bundled together is a massive saving of $1200 if you were to buy all these products separately.

Very well done to both Atomos and Nikon for pushing the what’s possible!

What makes ProRes RAW different from the original ProRes 4:2:2 and ProRes 4:4:4:4, is how to saves the data.

While ProRes has always been a Variable Frame Rate (VFR) Codec, ProRes RAW is taking that even further. The new algorithm that actually varies, depending on how you expose your footage, meaning that is not as much of a set bit rate as before.

If you over expose you footage, (in order to preserve the shadows), there will be more data per frame, so the file sizes will go up.

If however you properly expose in camera, the file sizes will go down to the data rate examples mentioned above, due to the fact that it doesn’t need to store as much data in the shadows.

So you will no longer have a constant data rate as we saw with the older ProRes codecs, instead you data rates will depend on what you are shooting and how much information that scene contains.

Much like how JPEG image size vary, depending on the amount of color variation in the image.

In other words, if you were to shoot a blue sky, it will be a much smaller file size than if you were to shoot a sunset with a high dynamic range.

As we have seen a lot through this comparison review, the the a7 III and the a7R III offer many of the same features although the LCD is slighly different.

To start, both camera’s Rear LCD screens are 3.0″ wide touch screen, at an aspect ratio of 4:3.

The screens unfortunately do not flip 180 degrees, (which is very useful for vloggers), and also do not tilt or swivel. What they can do however, is be be adjusted 107 degrees upwards and by 41 degrees downwards.

If you would like a screen that can be used as a selfie screen, then the new Atomos Ninja V is the perfect solution. Not only that but it offers a far better quality screen that allows you to record much higher quality video codecs as well.

Neither of the cameras have a secondary top LCD screen.

Here are the cameras that can currently shoot ProRes RAW:

Canon

• Canon C300 Mark II (Up to 4K DCI 30p)
• Canon C500 (Up to 4K DCI 30p)

Panasonic

• Panasonic EVA 1 (Up to 4K 60p or 5.7k 30p)
• Panasonic VariCam LT (Up to 4K DCI 60p)

DJI

• DJI X7 (Up to 5.2K 24p) – Internal RAW Recording

Sony

• Sony FS700R : Mark I & II (Up to 4K 60p)
• Sony FS5 : Mark I & II (Up to 4K 60p)
• Sony FS7 : Mark I & II (Up to 4K 60p)

As mentioned above, only one camera out of the list can record RAW internally and thus does not need and external monitor. The rest require an external monitor to record ProRes RAW.

Currently Atomos is the only manufacturer who has external recording monitor products.

Recording ProRes RAW also requires a fair amount of processing power from the external recorder, so only their top end products are able to do this. These versions are as follows:

• Atomos Shogun Inferno (Price not available) on Amazon
• Atomos Sumo 19 ($1,995.00) on Amazon
• Atomos Ninja V 5” Recorder ($399.00) on Amazon

*The Ninja V is Atomos’ latest external recording monitor release, announced at NAB 2018.

It doesn’t officially have ProRes RAW support just yet, but the CEO of Atomos, Jeremy Young, mentioned that it is in the works, as the Ninja V certainly has the processing power to do so.

The current limitation is because ProRes RAW has to be recorded via an SDI port, while the Ninja V only has HDMI ports.

As mentioned above, Jeremy and his team, together with Nikon, have overcome this hurdle on the Ninja V and Nikon Z camera

Recording RAW data rates has not only been a storage problem in the past, but also a speed problem. Transferring data rates of

Uncompressed RAW footage records at a data rate of about 6500mb/s (812MB/s). This means that you not only need an SSD Drive that can store these massive file (as we saw earlier in this article), but you also need a drive that record at those speeds.

These are naturally only the top end and expensive SSD Drives such as:

• Angelbird AV PRO MKIII ($248.62) on Amazon
• Angelbird AV PRO MKII
• Atomos 4K RAW ($589.99) on Amazon
• Atomos 4K RAW ECO (Price not available) on Amazon

With ProRes RAW, compared to Uncompressed and even ProRes 4:4:4:4, we saw a major decrease (75%) on the data rates when it came to file size.

The same data rates apply to the speeds at which the files are recorded. Now you will be able to slower SSD Drives for your external recorders, which are much less expensive.

As we know, ProRes is owned by Apple.

Apple, as we also know, own Final Cut Pro Software.

Another thing we know about Apple is that they hate sharing, especially with anything Windows related.

So the only way to edit ProRes RAW, is currently with Final Cut 10.

Unfortunately there is no support for Adobe Premiere Pro or After Effects as well as no support on Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve.

However;

Blackmagic have released their own opensource RAW version called Blackmagic Design RAW, in order to not have to pay Apple exorbitant royalty fees for ProRes RAW. Blackmagic Design RAW can be found in their DaVinci Resole software, as well as the URSA camera range and the new Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K.

And there you have it. ProRes RAW is a very exciting new step towards more manageable files sizes and speeds, when looking for the best quality video footage.

It will certainly help many professional production studios save tons of hard drive space, while still being given the ability to edit with the insane amount of dynamic range that uncompressed RAW footage offers.

I will continue to update this article, as new information becomes available .

Cheers for now.