BRAW - What is your favorite flavor?

I did a quick search, but having trouble finding a topic that discusses the sweet spot in the Braw settings. I imagine this topic has already been thoroughly covered.

If so could someone drop a link to point me in the right direction. I understand that if doing green screen or fx shots you want to highest settings. But outside of that, is there a consensus on the sweet spot within the many variations of BRAW settings? Where is the mendoza line where you starting losing quality and can tell in the footage that you want to stay above? And where did everyone come out on Constant bit rate vs. Constant Quality. It seems like constant quality would be a no brainer and yet I see a lot of people using Constant Bitrate. For example I believe all of the test shooters for the BMCC 6K FF did in their tests.

Thanks in advance.

There’s no simple answer to this because it’s all contextual. How much storage can you afford; what’s your subject material; where will the final film be shown; how hard are you pushing the image; etc.

The best way to find an answer is to shoot your own tests. See how Q5 or 12:1 work for you, and then go from there.

Constant bit rate can save your behind if your media can't safely keep up for speed.
If you only use media according to BM's recommendations, constant quality is more efficient.
Both depend a lot on image content, with CQ the camera is even trying to make a prediction of space left, based on the current scene. Please note that, other than with H.264/265, motion doesn't matter, since BRAW is purely I-frame.

Constant Quality is my sweet spot with Q1 or Q3 depending on the length of the shoot and available media. I understand it uses a lot of resources and if your are shooting a few days concurrently, it is difficult to offload and copy a lot of data so Q5 is still good when you don’t have enough time to data wrangle higher media usage.

Q3 all day. No matter the scale or budget of show that’s what I default to.

It’s generally smaller files than the same res in 12 bit ProRes but it’s BRAW.

JB

I always shoot Q0, because I take short shots 5-15 secs each. Therefore, size doesn't matter, but quality does.

I typically use Q3. But if it's something vital, Q1.

I did a quick search, but having trouble finding a topic that discusses the sweet spot in the Braw settings....

I found this to be informative:

At least for the 12K.
For me always Constant Quality. I use Q0 as much as I can only changing to Q1 or Q3 when needed for higher frame rates or shutter speed or lengthy shoot. I have done interviews at Q5 with nice results. Also, for me, the size of the files is a low concern.

I usually work in q5-q3
Q0 when I shoot for photo instead of video.
I think I never used constant video like 12:1 and similar, I prefer a constant quality result on my work : documentary, theatre and similar.


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You say you're not doing fx, and presumably not delivering for broadcast or theatrical, so if you can't tell any difference between either 12:1 or (preferably) Q5 and the much lower compressions ratios under normal viewing conditions (which don't include enlarging the frame 10x), the choice should be obvious.

How many proponents of lower compression ratios for event and low budget work would be able to pass a blind test -- again, under normal viewing conditions? The likely answer is: zero.

How many proponents of lower compression ratios for event and low budget work would be able to pass a blind test -- again, under normal viewing conditions? The likely answer is: zero.

Visually, using human eyesight it's very very difficult to tell between all of them except in some very very very specific scenarios...

JB

I default to Q3, switching to Q5 only if I need more record time, and Q0 only for green screen shots.

Sounds like a good rule of thumb!