As one of the two most popular universal RAW formats for video, ProRes RAW, has long been the holy grail for those looking to shoot and record digital video at the highest quality possible. While many cameras offer RAW recording in one form or another, this new innovation announced by Atomos promises to truly unlock Apple Pro RAW for all cameras everywhere.
Set to be released immediately, Atomos has announced support for Apple ProRes RAW plug-ins which should allow manufacturers the ability to create their own ProRes RAW processing pipelines to combine with the unique elements of their own cameras, sensors, lenses, etc.
With this new array of plug-ins, every camera manufacturer will be able to develop their own ProRes RAW plug-in to bring out the highest quality video recording from their own cameras, in theory eventually adding ProRes RAW to any camera which you currently own or plan to in the future.
Unlock the power of ProRes RAW with AtomosCredit: Atomos
ProRes RAW Recording
What’s cool about this news is that with ProRes RAW recording unlocked with Atomos, any ProRes RAW plug-ins should be fully supported in Final Cut Pro or any other editing apps or color grading software that licensed the ProRes RAW SDK. According to Atomos, getting set up with this new ProRes RAW plug-in should be easy for camera manufacturers, vendors, and eventually users in the future.
Canon is set to be the first brand to capitalize on this new innovationCredit: Atomos
Once released, you’ll be able to easily install a camera vendor’s ProRes RAW plug-in, and FCP will instantly be able to show all of the enhanced features of your supported camera—including all of the unique characteristics of your camera rig.
Also, using a ProRes RAW plug-in will unlock the ability to make camera-specific adjustments in your edit, like changing the white balance, adding noise reduction, fixing lens distortion, or even demosaicing footage, plus plenty of other controls in the future.
A New ProRes RAW Ecosystem
This is exciting news, of course, for any Atomos and Final Cut Pro users already, but it should also entice others to consider adopting either of these tools and workflows in the future or at least that’s what Atomos hopes comes out of this announcement.
“This new feature for the ProRes RAW ecosystem is absolutely going to change the way people think about recording ProRes RAW. For the first time the filmmaker literally gets the best of all worlds: shoot in ProRes RAW with the option to immediately apply camera-specific processing, use standard processing, or customise individual parameters to their own taste. You have to ask yourself: why wouldn’t you shoot in ProRes RAW?” — Trevor Elbourne, Atomos CEO.
As they were the first to the market with their 8K ProRes RAW compatible mirrorless camera with the Canon EOS R5, this is indeed another major step forward for the ProRes RAW format and unlocks tons of fun possibilities with high-end video recording and editing.
Try it Out with Canon Cameras
It also sounds like Canon is going to be the first camera manufacturer to deliver one of these new ProRes RAW plug-ins with capabilities already unlocked in the Canon EOS R5, the EOS R5 C, and the EOS R6 Mark II, which can now output RAW directly to an Atomos monitor-recorder. This ProRes RAW plug-in is in support of these aforementioned cameras and can be accessed in the latest firmware updates for the Atomos Ninja V, the Ninja V+, and the Shogun Connect immediately.
Is this a setup you'd like to use on your next project? Do you completely hate the idea?
Let us know in the comments!
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Annie Johnson Kevin Scanlon
