Atomos announced immediate support for Apple ProRes RAW plug-ins, an innovation that lets camera manufacturers provide their own ProRes RAW processing pipeline to take advantage of the unique properties of their cameras, sensors, lenses, and more. It’s a groundbreaking development in the world of RAW video processing – Atomos’ immediate support for Apple ProRes RAW plug-ins, making it easier for camera makers to deliver the highest image quality.
ProRes RAW is widely regarded as the universal RAW video format. With the introduction of plug-ins, now every camera maker can provide their own unique processing, in a completely confidential way, by writing a single ProRes RAW plug-in that brings out the best quality and unique looks created by their own cameras.
Apple ProRes RAW combines the visual and workflow benefits of RAW video with the incredible real-time performance of ProRes, allowing you to record stunning ProRes RAW video in resolutions up to 8K. It combines quality and speed, allowing you to import, edit, and grade pristine RAW data straight from your camera sensor without slowing down your edit. The power of ProRes and the flexibility of RAW allows you to work at increased resolutions, increased frame rates, and increased bit-depths — all whilst maintaining a small file size.
ProRes RAW becomes, in effect, the conduit for their custom processing, carrying the unique characteristics of any camera, sensor, processing, and lens combination into post-production. ProRes RAW plug-ins will be supported in Final Cut Pro as well as many third-party applications that have licensed the ProRes RAW SDK, such as nonlinear editors (NLEs) and color correction applications.
According to Atomos, the process is very straightforward: simply install the camera vendor’s ProRes RAW plug-in and Final Cut Pro will automatically show all the new enhanced features of the supported camera. Using a ProRes RAW plug-in enables camera-specific adjustments such as custom white balancing, noise reduction, demosaicing, lens distortion correction, and more.
Canon is the first camera maker to deliver a ProRes RAW Plug-in, with the EOS R5, R5 C and R6 Mark II cameras outputting RAW to an Atomos monitor-recorder. Atomos has already enabled full ProRes RAW plug-in support for these cameras in the current release firmware for Ninja V, Ninja V+, and Shogun Connect. Atomos supports over 50 camera models – Sony, Canon, Panasonic, Nikon, Z CAM, Olympus, Fujifilm, Leica, and Sigma – recording ProRes RAW from the camera’s RAW output over SDI or HDMI, so is uniquely placed to record this new enhanced metadata standard.
“We are very proud to be working alongside Apple and Canon to bring this ProRes RAW innovation to market,” Elbourne added. “We were first to market with an 8K ProRes RAW compatible mirrorless camera – the Canon EOS R5 – and now we are making another huge advancement with the ProRes RAW format.”
The ProRes RAW plug-in model has been designed to work not only with macOS but also with Windows and Linux.