BRAW

Blackmagic RAW (BRAW) is a video recording format developed by Blackmagic Design for their cinema cameras, including the Pocket Cinema Camera 4K which uses the Micro Four Thirds mount. BRAW is a partially debayered format — the camera performs some initial processing on the raw sensor data before encoding, but retains far more of the original sensor information than a standard processed video codec. The result is footage with RAW-like latitude for colour grading at file sizes that are practical for production workflows.

BRAW files contain metadata about the camera settings at the time of recording, including ISO, white balance, and colour science, but these settings are non-destructive — they can be changed in post-production without affecting the underlying image data. This means a clip that looks slightly warm or underexposed in the edit can have its white balance or exposure corrected without any quality loss, as long as the original sensor data captured the information. The practical grading latitude approaches 13 stops of dynamic range on the Pocket Cinema Camera 4K.

BRAW is natively supported in DaVinci Resolve, Blackmagic's free professional editing and colour grading software. Plugins are available for Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro. The format comes in several quality levels: BRAW 12:1, 8:1, 5:1, and 3:1, where the ratio indicates the compression factor — lower numbers mean larger files and less compression. Q0 and Q5 constant quality modes are also available. For most production workflows, BRAW 8:1 or 5:1 provides an appropriate balance of file size and image quality.