ProRes vs. BRAW vs. ARRIRAW: Which Acquisition Format Is Right for Your Production?
The Codec Decision That Doubled the Storage Budget
A DIT on a 15-day indie feature arrives on day one expecting ARRIRAW acquisition at 4.6K. The DP changed the camera setup three days before the shoot without telling the post team. The camera now records ProRes HQ at 4K. The DIT's pre-ordered media -- 10 TB of CFexpress storage -- was calculated for ARRIRAW data rates. ProRes HQ at 4K runs at 1.2 GB/second at 24fps; ARRIRAW 4.6K runs at approximately 0.75 GB/second at the same frame rate. The DIT has 25% more storage than needed. The colorist at the post house, however, has built her grade workflow around ARRIRAW's raw parameter control. The switch to ProRes removes the ISO, white balance, and exposure metadata she planned to use for the grade.
The codec decision affects storage budget, post-production capability, and the specific tools available to your colorist. This post compares ProRes, BRAW, and ARRIRAW across the dimensions that matter for production planning: data rates, storage requirements, grading latitude, and NLE compatibility.
Technical specifications in this post draw from Blackmagic Design, ARRI, and Apple published codec documentation, and independent bitrate benchmarks from Digital Cinema Society testing reports.
Format Comparison at a Glance
| Feature | ProRes HQ 4K | BRAW 5:1 (4.6K) | ARRIRAW 4.6K |
|---|---|---|---|
| Data Rate (approx.) | ~1.2 GB/s at 24fps | ~0.4 GB/s at 24fps | ~0.75 GB/s at 24fps |
| Storage Per Hour | ~4.3 TB | ~1.4 TB | ~2.7 TB |
| Color Science | Baked (camera LUT applied) | Full raw parameter control | Full raw parameter control |
| NLE Native Support | Excellent (all major NLEs) | Excellent (Resolve native) | Excellent (Resolve, AVID, Premiere) |
| File Format | .mov (Apple container) | .braw (Blackmagic proprietary) | .ari (ARRI proprietary) |
| Debayer Requirement | None (baked) | Yes (in Resolve or plugin) | Yes (in Resolve or ARRI Codex) |
| In-Camera LUT Application | Yes | Optional (still retains raw) | No (flat LOG only) |
| Camera Platform | Most cameras | Blackmagic Design cameras | ARRI ALEXA cameras |
What "Raw" Actually Means in Practice
ProRes is not a raw format. It is a compressed, post-production-ready codec that captures the image after the camera's image signal processing pipeline has applied white balance, color science, and tone mapping. Shooting ProRes LOG (LogC, S-Log, BLog) preserves wide dynamic range for grading, but the specific debayering and demosaicing decisions have already been made in-camera. You cannot change the ISO, white balance, or fundamental exposure metadata after the fact.
BRAW (Blackmagic RAW) and ARRIRAW are both raw formats, which means the sensor data is captured before most image processing decisions. In DaVinci Resolve, a BRAW clip retains editable ISO, white balance, exposure, and color space metadata that can be changed non-destructively at any point during the grade. Changing the ISO on a BRAW clip in Resolve changes the way the raw data is decoded, not how a baked image is color-corrected. This is a qualitatively different level of control.
The practical implication: a BRAW or ARRIRAW workflow gives a colorist the ability to fix a miscommunication between the DP and the camera department in the metadata rather than in a color correction layer. An underexposed shot in ProRes requires a digital gain push that amplifies noise; the same underexposed shot in BRAW can be adjusted by raising the raw ISO metadata, which produces a cleaner result at the decoder level.
Storage Implications by Production Scale
Understanding storage requirements before the shoot is not optional. The Codec Storage Calculator handles these calculations for any codec, frame rate, and shooting ratio. For reference, a 15-day shoot at 5:1 for a 90-minute finished cut requires 450 minutes of acquired footage:
| Format | 450 Minutes of Acquisition | Redundant Backup (2x) |
|---|---|---|
| ProRes HQ 4K at 24fps | ~32.3 TB | ~64.6 TB |
| BRAW 5:1 at 24fps | ~10.5 TB | ~21 TB |
| ARRIRAW 4.6K at 24fps | ~20.3 TB | ~40.6 TB |
BRAW's compression advantage is substantial. At 5:1 compression, BRAW production requires roughly one-third of the storage that ProRes HQ demands, while retaining full raw parameter control. This is not a quality trade-off at 5:1 -- BRAW 5:1 is visually lossless for most production uses, and BRAW 3:1 is available if the colorist requests even more latitude. The Backup Strategy Calculator models the card rotation and redundant backup infrastructure required for each format.
Three Production Scenarios
Scenario 1: Solo BMPCC 4K Shooter, No Dedicated DIT
A solo filmmaker shooting a 22-minute documentary on a BMPCC 4K with no DIT and one 8 TB portable drive for backup. BRAW 5:1 is the correct choice. At 1.4 TB per hour of acquisition, a 10-hour shoot day generates approximately 2.3 TB at a 5:1 shooting ratio. The 8 TB drive handles 3-4 days of acquisition before a fresh drive is needed. Attempting ProRes HQ on this setup would require either a different storage plan or a significant compression step that introduces a generation of quality loss. The film production storage guide covers the complete storage planning framework for different-scale productions.
Scenario 2: High-VFX Feature, Pipeline-Driven Choice
A feature with 140 VFX shots is shooting on ARRI ALEXA 35. The VFX supervisor requires ARRIRAW files for all shots containing VFX elements, citing the additional debayer precision available in ARRIRAW at the Resolve or Nuke compositing stage. ProRes is used for all coverage and dialogue scenes to reduce storage load on non-VFX days. The production maintains two parallel acquisition tracks: ARRIRAW for specifically flagged setups, ProRes LogC4 HQ for everything else. The DIT flags the camera roll report to identify which rolls are ARRIRAW for the VFX vendor and which are ProRes for the editorial team.
Scenario 3: Multi-Camera Commercial, Same-Day Delivery
A 2-day commercial production shooting on three BMPCC 6K cameras with same-day delivery to the client. ProRes 4444 is selected because the agency's post facility requires ProRes for their Premiere Pro editorial workflow. The client approves the color grade remotely in the same session. BRAW would require transcoding to ProRes before the agency's NLE can ingest the footage natively. The data rate calculator confirms that three BMPCC 6K cameras in ProRes 4444 generate approximately 14 TB per day, requiring 28 TB of media across both shoot days plus backup.
Pro Tips
Tip 1: On any production where the colorist is separate from the editor, confirm the acquisition codec with the colorist before the shoot, not after. A colorist who has built a grade workflow around ARRIRAW's raw metadata will have a fundamentally different time with ProRes footage from the same camera. The codec decision is a post-production decision that happens in pre-production.
Tip 2: BRAW compression ratios are not equivalent across all lighting conditions. BRAW 5:1 works well in controlled lighting. In very high-frequency, highly detailed scenes (handheld crowds, foliage in wind, complex textile), consider dropping to BRAW 3:1 for additional data retention. The visual difference at 5:1 versus 3:1 is minimal in most cases, but in edge-case high-frequency content, 3:1 provides a safety margin.
Tip 3: ProRes LOG footage shot at ISO 3200 or above requires careful noise management in post that raw formats handle at the decoder level. If your production is shooting in low light, the raw format advantage is most pronounced. Upgrading from ProRes to BRAW or ARRIRAW for a low-light production is one of the clearest quality-versus-cost cases in digital acquisition.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is BRAW compatible with NLEs other than DaVinci Resolve?
BRAW has official plugins for Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro that allow basic timeline editing and some parameter adjustment. However, the full raw metadata editing capability -- changing ISO, color space, and white balance at the decode level -- is only fully available in DaVinci Resolve. For maximum BRAW workflow capability, Resolve is the correct NLE. The DaVinci Resolve vs. Premiere Pro for indie film post covers the full implications for different production configurations.
Does ProRes RAW offer the same capabilities as BRAW or ARRIRAW?
ProRes RAW (and ProRes RAW HQ) is Apple's raw format that captures sensor data with less in-camera processing than standard ProRes. It offers some raw parameter adjustment in Final Cut Pro and a small number of compatible applications. It is not equivalent to BRAW or ARRIRAW in terms of ecosystem support or the depth of color metadata available in Resolve. ProRes RAW is supported by very few camera systems. For productions where raw acquisition matters, BRAW and ARRIRAW are the more established options.
What happens to ARRIRAW files if ARRI changes its codec?
ARRIRAW is an open, documented format with a published specification. ARRI provides free decoding tools (ARRI Reference Tool), and the format is supported natively in all major NLEs and compositing applications. ARRIRAW files from an ALEXA Classic can be debayered today using the same tools as ALEXA 35 files, because the format is backward-compatible. For long-term archival, ARRIRAW is one of the most future-proof acquisition formats available.
At what production scale does the raw format advantage justify the storage cost?
The raw advantage is meaningful at any scale where the colorist has skilled involvement in the grade. Even on a micro-budget short where the DP is also the colorist, BRAW's storage efficiency and raw parameter flexibility at $295 for DaVinci Resolve Studio is the default recommendation. The question becomes "why not raw?" rather than "is raw worth it?" At productions above $50,000, the cost of raw acquisition storage is marginal relative to the total production budget, and the post-production flexibility is real.
Related Tools
The Codec Storage Calculator generates total storage requirements for any combination of codec, frame rate, shooting ratio, and project duration. The Backup Strategy Calculator models card rotation and redundant backup infrastructure for each acquisition format. The Data Rate Calculator converts between codec bitrates, resolution, and frame rate to verify manufacturer specifications against real-world acquisition volumes.
Conclusion
For Blackmagic camera productions, BRAW 5:1 is the default acquisition format unless the delivery pipeline explicitly requires ProRes. It costs less storage, delivers more grading latitude, and is natively supported in the industry's standard color tool. ProRes remains the right choice when the delivery pipeline is ProRes-dependent or when same-day editorial delivery requires immediate NLE compatibility without transcoding. ARRIRAW is the choice when the project involves a post facility with an established ARRI pipeline, a complex VFX vendor, or a colorist whose workflow is built specifically around ARRI's color science. The codec decision that happens in pre-production determines what's possible in post.
Which acquisition format have you used that surprised you most in the color grade -- for better or worse?
