User's Manual

When using Blackmagic RAW in constant quality you will see the settings are Q0 and Q5.
Theseare the compression parameters passed to the codec and they are setting how much
compression is applied in a more technical way. This setting is different because the codec
operates differently between constant bitrate vs constant quality. In this constant quality setting,
you really cannot tell what the file size ratio will become as it varies a lot based on what you
areshooting. So in this case the setting is different and the file will become the size needed
tostore your media.
Constant Bitrate Settings
The names for 3:1, 5:1, 8:1 and 12:1 represent the compression ratio. For example,
12:1compression produces a file size roughly 12 times smaller than uncompressed RAW.
Constant Quality Settings
Q0 and Q5 refer to different levels of quantization. Q5 has a greater level of quantization but
offers a greatly improved data rate. As mentioned above, the constant quality setting can result
in files that grow and shrink quite a lot, depending on what you are shooting. This also means
it’s possible to shoot something and see the file size increase to beyond what your media card
can keep up with. It could result in dropped frames. However the benefit is that you can
instantly see if this happens on a shoot and then investigate your settings vs quality.
Blackmagic RAW Player
The Blackmagic RAW player included in your Blackmagic camera’s software installer is a
streamlined application for reviewing clips. Simply double click on a Blackmagic RAW file to
open it, and you can quickly play and scroll through the file with its full resolution and bit depth.
When decoding frames, the CPU acceleration in the SDK library supports all main architectures,
and also supports GPU acceleration via Apple Metal, Nvidia CUDA and OpenCL. It also works
with the Blackmagic eGPU for extra performance. Blackmagic RAW player is available for Mac,
Windows and Linux.
Sidecar Files
Blackmagic RAW sidecar files let you override metadata in a file without overwriting embedded
metadata in the original file. This metadata includes the Blackmagic RAW settings as well as
information on iris, focus, focal length, while balance, tint, color space, project name, take
number and more. Metadata is encoded frame by frame over the duration of the clip, which is
important for lens data if the lens is adjusted during a shot. You can add or edit metadata in
sidecar files with DaVinci Resolve or even a text editor because it’s a human readable format.
Sidecar files can be used to automatically add new Blackmagic RAW settings to a playback
simply by moving the sidecar file into the same folder as the corresponding Blackmagic RAW
file. If you move the sidecar file out of the folder and reopen the Blackmagic RAW file,
thechanged settings are not applied and you see the file as it was originally shot. Any software
that uses the Blackmagic RAW SDK can access these settings. Changes made are saved in the
sidecar file and can then be seen by Blackmagic RAW Player or any other software capable of
reading Blackmagic RAW files.
When shooting video gamma, the file stays in film gamma, and the metadata tells the
Blackmagic RAW processing to display using video gamma. Video gamma is great when you
don’t want to grade the image and want to deliver content quickly, however if you want to pull
up the black parts of the image, or pull down the white areas, all the detail is retained. You
never clip the video and all the detail is still there if you want to access it at any time.
44Recording Blackmagic RAW on Video Assist 12G HDR