Which is the best Blackmagic RAW for the Pocket 4K setting and when to use which?

Which RAW setting is best?

TLDR;

Pick Constant Bitrate 3:1 RAW whenever possible for best image quality.

If storage space is an issue, pick Constant Bitrate 8:1.

Here’s a quick chart of the data rates for each RAW variant:

All variants are visually lossless.

The best quality always has the highest data rate. So if you want best quality, it’s best to compare Constant Bitrate 3:1 to Constant Quality Q0. I prefer CB 3:1 for these reasons:

1. It doesn’t discriminate for highlights and shadows, or over/under exposure. Sometimes with Q0 the algorithm might not allot enough data when the scene demands it.
2. You can estimate your data needs more precisely.
3. The camera doesn’t have to process the data to determine when to apply what data rate. This saves a bit of battery life and generates less heat (tiny advantage).
4. Constant data rates always give the best image quality consistently. E.g., theoretically, Q0 has a higher data rate of 203 MB/s, but that’s only if the algorithm correctly interprets the footage as needing it. It might interpret dark footage as not needing enough data, but you might have accidentally underexposed and would love to have that extra data to pull up the shadows later in post.
5. I find 3:1 to be less noisy and slightly more organic than Q0. Q0 appears sharper so it is apparent there is some processing beforehand, which you ideally don’t want.

Here are two frames of 3:1 and Q0, with just the RAW settings pushed to extremes:

Playing back the footage I see Q0 is noisier, and 3:1 is more organic. Q0 also has extra sharpness, which might be the result of processing. This is not ideal because you can always add sharpening later in Resolve.

If you really need to save space, you could compare CB 8:1 to Q5. Again, for the same reasons above, I would pick CB 8:1 to save space instead of Q5.

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