ProRes RAW workflow woes - The solution!

[Russell Newman]

Hey all,

I recently switched to an FX3 shooting RAW (from shooting redcode on a RED Komodo) and found the workflow for ProRes RAW to be horrendous.

I've helped build an Adobe Premiere plugin which is an entire RAW processing pipeline with proper RAW controls:
OCTOPUS RAW Studio

You can finally set white balance and ISO and a lot more!
It also supports CinemaDNG.

There is a free trial and we have a 15% off deal with the coupon code WEB15 (till end of April)

Thanks!

 

[Michael Weinheim]

Is this in theory possible for Resolve, too, or does Blackmagic Design have some policy that prevents ProresRAW implementation?

 

[Russell Newman]

We would love to be able to build the same thing for Resolve, but unfortunately Resolve has no SDK for adding codec support

 

[Evan Anthony]

Apple charges to have ProRes RAW implemented. So I don't think you will ever see it in Resolve.

 

[Lucius Snow]

Apple charges to have ProRes RAW implemented. So I don't think you will ever see it in Resolve.

We said the same for ProRes export on Windows

 

[Evan Anthony]

We said the same for ProRes export on Windows

Some did say that but PR RAW as a MUCH lower market share. It was a codec that never took off for many reasons so less of a need to implement it.

 

[Russell Newman]

Our plugin uses Apple's ProRes RAW SDK directly so we have entered a licence agreement with Apple to use it officially. It's not necessarily something you pay for.

I believe Resolve's lack of native ProRes RAW support is more to do with Blackmagic RAW being a direct competitor of ProRes RAW. Also Blackmagic and Atomos don't really get on very well and ProRes RAW is largely an Atomos business strategy (I think they co-developed it with Apple).

ProRes RAW has only recently been supported internally in prosumer cameras which might boost its popularity. There's also the possibility Apple could integrate ProRes RAW into iPhones.

 

[Michael Weinheim]

Their rivalry is unfortunate for us (Resolve) users. The new Panasonic LUMIX S1R II records Prores RAW internally to CFexpress Type B cards, that's pretty big going forward. Panasonic will also announce a new (Sony FX3 style) cinema camera on May 13th which possibly does the same.

 

[Lucius Snow]

The only way to use ProRes RAW on DaVinci is to convert it to DNG sequence first, right?

 

[Michael Weinheim]

The only way to use ProRes RAW on DaVinci is to convert it to DNG sequence first, right?

Afaik yes. I did with Assimilate Play Pro and once tried another app I forgot the name. Kind of a pita. No-one should have to transcode anything anymore imo.

 

[Christian Wieberg-Nielsen]

Baselight is always an option (i know, I know… there is a price difference) It can read both ProRes Raw and Blackmagic Raw

 

[Bruno Mansi]

Have you seen this...?

Raw convertor – Prores RAW to Cinema DNG convertor for Davinci Resolve

 

[Michael Weinheim]

That's the app I meant earlier and tried once. No matter what app, converting is still a pita.

 

[Sanada Khumanthem]

Premiere already has ProRes RAW Support and lacks grading tool, I don't see a reason why develop a plugin for Premiere to grade RAW in there. And most of us here use either Baselight or Resolve for grading. The RAW missing feature is in Resolve not Premiere. Yes its good to have but there's a but.

 

[Russell Newman]

I know Premiere isn't considered grading software but it's still widely used for basic color correction - and Premiere's built-in ProRes RAW support (and CinemaDNG support) are pretty much unusable, they're missing the absolute basics like ISO and white balance control. Premiere is still the dominant NLE and as ProRes RAW becomes more popular (all new prosumer Panasonic cameras record it internally) it will become a larger and larger pain point.

We would love to expand the plugin to Resolve, but sadly Blackmagic haven't made Resolve extendable in any way in terms of import codec support

 

[Rajneesh Kassin]

I know Premiere isn't considered grading software but it's still widely used for basic color correction - and Premiere's built-in ProRes RAW support (and CinemaDNG support) are pretty much unusable...

What about FCPX? Can you at least adjust Color Temp and ISO in that? I would be fine with running ProRes Raw through FCPX and getting an optimized "flat Log" ProRes 444 file in the same res, and just using that for final color in Resolve.