- Given the way 2020 had kind of sucked all of us into a weird vortex where at the passage
of time had no meaning, it's probably easy to forget
how long ago different events took place. It's hard to believe
that just over a year ago we had some major Kodak
developments in the world of videography. This was when both Blackmagic
RAw and ProRes opened up their formats to make editing
life easier for all of us. Unfortunately, there is never any right
answers to these questions like these, since user experiences tastes
and opinions always vary. Today, I'm going to be
covering BLACKMAGIC RAW and ProRes RAW, and the benefits of each
and their disadvantages. And we will also be going
over what ProRes options are available amd Blackmagic
pocket cinema camera. So let's get started. (Upbeat Music) As always make sure to
subscribe below and hit the notification bell to stay up
to date with all of our content being that I've talked about, mainly Blackmagic products
in the past couple of videos, I'm going to start today's
discussion with the program's raw and while it's not
available in the pocket 4k, it still gets us into understanding
a little bit more about what progress is and
the trajectory it's on, and also its advantages and
disadvantages over B roll. So let's get started. ProRes RAW is an all intra-codec, this means that the
encoding is intra-frame, where the compression is applied
to each individual frame. There are a few reasons
why some prefer this codec. First of all, while you were
in the process of editing, you get a really smooth playback, which is always a great thing. All interplots less
strain on your computer, which means you need
less hardware to edit. Being able to accomplish all of your editing on
just a laptop is a very attractive feature of ProRes RAW. There are a lot of you out there
that transcode your footage into a intra before editing, and I can understand why. ProRes raw also saves a lot on data from the previous versions of
the format and does not skimp on quality to accomplish this. Part of the way this is accomplished is that previous
versions of ProRes had a set bit, right. Well, the new raw format evolve
to their variable frame rate format, giving the bit
rate more fluctuation. The data rates that you get
from this fluctuation is determined by what you're shooting. As opposed to the previous
versions where the data rate was constant, regardless. ProRes RAW also automatically
does decode in demosaic, your all of your footage. All around, those are some pretty good benefits, but what about the other side of the coin? What are those
disadvantages to ProRes raw? The biggest drawback when it
was released was that it was only available via Apple and
will only compatible with final cut pro X. They've since resolved this
issue and made ProRes raw compatible with most editing
softwares and have expanded the devices you can now
run it on kudos to them. The only real disadvantage for
ProRes raw is that it's kind of just stuck in his lane
as an all intra-codec. We'll see if that is something
that will change down the road, but for right now, this means that even though
you get a bigger range of possible file sizes from the
natural evolution of the codec, you still don't have control. The result is you still get the file sizes the codec wants to give you. Now, since we do a lot on the
pocket 4K on this channel, I will tell you, unfortunately, again, the pocket 4k does not offer
ProRes raw and why would they? It doesn't make sense to have
a competitor's RAW be putting the same camera as your
own proprietary raw, which is B RAW. The program options that you
actually have available to you in the pocket. 4k are the following, ProRes 422, ProRes 422 HQ, LT and proxy. Now that we've kind of explained
what ProRes raw is and the ProRes options in the black
magic pocket cinema camera, let's move over to black
magic, own proprietary, B-RAW codec. Now my last video was a
review of this specific codec. So if you want some more detail, then feel free to go
and check out that video when you're ready, I've included the link in the description. But briefly B-Raw is black magic designs, proprietary codec released
just back in early in 2019, jumping right into the benefits. The best place to start is where
we left off with the ProRes codec. B raw, unlike it's Apple counterpart
is a hybrid style codec. So what this means is that
ProRes's raw biggest drawback is B RAW's biggest strength. B RAW has two separate settings, constant bit rate and constant
quality with multiple options available within each setting. This gives you much more
control over the resulting file sizes. In the long run this will also result in
lower costs when it comes to purchasing the required storage size. B RAW does carry a lot of the same advantages
that ProRes raw has, But with B RAW you can get an automatic
in-camera de-mosaic. You also get higher data efficiency and faster playback as well. This all gives the same
benefit of not needing as much computing power to edit. The biggest drawback with B raw is that with de-mosaic,
there's a partial Debayer which means you're not really
truly working with raw footage at this point, but it's not really that
big of a disadvantage, Whether or not this is a big
deal is really up to you and what you exactly need. B RAW though also allows you
to be able to edit things like ISO color balance, et
cetera, in post production, making it super easy to fix
something that you've already potentially shot wrong
or had to shoot quickly. This to me is a major help
when filming while traveling or in a running gun scenario
where you just don't have a ton of time to set up and you're worrying about
a host of other things you're trying to film. All in all B RAW is a major step forward for encoding high-quality
footage and a lower file size and allowing for easier editing
due to its highly optimized GPU and CPU accelerating and
its vast metadata support. Now I did want to point out
one additional disadvantage, which at the time of this
video applies to both codex. As it stands B RAW is not
compatible with Final Cut Pro X, the same goes for ProRes RAW, You can not edit that
footage on Blackmagic's editing software, DaVinci resolve. This really does feel like
an oversight on both of their parts or just another way to
attempt to make more money who knows. Hopefully this will be resolved soon and honestly, I mean, come on, like I'm making this video now it could have changed
this morning if it does, I'll make sure to mention
it in the comments below. While opinions and testing are done by various users of this camera are all over the place when it comes to using B RAW over a ProRes in the blackmagic pocket cinema camera, it's generally a good idea
to use, B RAW on the camera. If you want to get the most
information out of it and adjust the settings later on posts. That being said that debate for
what looks the best is still up in the air and if you
have an opinion on this, which you think is better, please let me know in the
comments because I'm sure you would love to. Feel like I'm missing something or said something wrong, please let me know in the comments below again so we can correct it. Thanks for watching today's
episode and be sure to subscribe to our channel below and hit
the notification bell to keep up to date with all of our
latest videos until next time. This is John Owens with Frame Voyager.
