Data Calculator for 8K recording

I'm shooting a feature in June and am shooting at 8K 2.4 to 1 and we will be in the middle of nowhere so I'm trying to figure out how to store all of the footage since it won't be sent to post until it's all over.
Thanks, Dan

Data rates are in the manual for the camera.
I'd say means of storage depends on transport capacity. If you have a car or boat, a large secure RAID will be the cheaper option. But if you need to travel light, a whole bunch of SSDs would be much smaller and lighter.
In that case, I'd not use the highest capacities available, but 1 or 2 TB only from a respected brand and definitely store everything twice. That would also give you the advantage of carrying the backup separately.

There’s a data rate calculator if you scroll down here

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/produc ... icursacine

JB

Don’t forget to estimate your shooting ratio in calculating how much media storage you’ll require. For example, would the feature be fully scripted and therefore your shots can be carefully planned? If it’s not all predetermined, you’ll be shooting more takes and longer takes to get what you want. Only using one camera or multiple cameras?

There’s a data rate calculator if you scroll down here

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/produc ... icursacine

JB

Something strange going on for the 9K calculation. For the constant quality settings Q5, it returns values lower than the 4K full frame. Does the Braw compression work differently between S35 and FF?

For sure there’s a difference in what is happening at the sensor level.

12k open gate, 8k open gate and 4k do different assemblies of the photosites at a hardware level to generate these files but at the same sensor size (no window)

9k is an S35 size windowed version of the 12k mode to my understanding.

Now I’m not sure what that means at all data rate level. But my years of BRAW experience and work with these codecs is that the resolution isn’t really the whole story in terms of how the picture ends up looking.

Shooting 4K or even 8k will never look as good as 12k originals downsampled to say a 4k delivery.

I see a lot of people arguing that they can save a bit of disk space and just shoot 4k for 4k and I think that’s putting the camera in less than ideal shooting conditions. Because of the RGBW sensor it really works best with more sample points. It’s true of most formats. Oversampling.

As to why the calculator is giving you those numbers. I have no idea. I know that it was giving incorrect 8k numbers initially, underestimating for 8k shooting. It may be that because it’s full sensor photosite density that the image can be more compressed than with a 4k image that has less photosite ”samples” to work with. Maybe it’s that. Or maybe it’s just wrong.

To reiterate. I wouldn’t recommend the camera for shooting 4k at 4k. That’s missing the point.

JB

I did a comparison between the URSA Cine and URSA Mini Pro with both pages open and setting 8K or 4K to the same compression with the same storage. There is a difference. This has to be attributed to the change in sensor scaling.

No matter I'm most impressed with the URSA Cine 12K. It's by far the most incredible sensor to date from Blackmagic. I've shot some content in 4K for a client to deliver a UHD H.265 10-Bit 422 LOG and they loved it. So it's as good as doing UHD ProRes 422 for clients in the past with various cameras.

I certainly will choose 8K or 12K for the projects that need higher quality and resolution. I'm sold on using 12K anytime I need the dynamic range. 8K for sensor speed. The versatility of this camera is incredible.

Give me a cross between the UMP and the PYXIS for the B-Cam and I'll be on it like a dog with a new bone.

I certainly will choose 8K or 12K for the projects that need higher quality and resolution. I'm sold on using 12K anytime I need the dynamic range. 8K for sensor speed. The versatility of this camera is incredible.

Obviously only you can choose what works best in your use scenarios. It's GREAT to be able to have such flexibility.

When I'm taking to people about BRAW, I usually talk about the rates that give me the same data rates in 12 bit ProRes equivalents.

It usually goes like this...

12K (17k??) we don't need that resolution...
What if the data rate is less than 4K ProRes?

12K is just too much data
The data rate is less than 4K ProRes and in Resolve, typically has the same if not faster frame rate for playback.

JB

I certainly will choose 8K or 12K for the projects that need higher quality and resolution. I'm sold on using 12K anytime I need the dynamic range. 8K for sensor speed. The versatility of this camera is incredible.

Obviously only you can choose what works best in your use scenarios. It's GREAT to be able to have such flexibility.

When I'm taking to people about BRAW, I usually talk about the rates that give me the same data rates in 12 bit ProRes equivalents.

It usually goes like this...

12K (17k??) we don't need that resolution...
What if the data rate is less than 4K ProRes?

12K is just too much data
The data rate is less than 4K ProRes and in Resolve, typically has the same if not faster frame rate for playback.

JB

I did a comparison in record duration available at each BRAW option for 1 TB against ProRes:

Screenshot 2025-04-20 at 3.43.49 PM.png (196.45 KiB) Viewed 968 times

Considering I never shot 4K or UHD ProRes 444 when I had it available with the UMPG2, it's clear the URSA Cine 12K is far more efficient and better when comparing like this.