# Does DaVinci Resolve Support ProRes RAW Footage?

> **Quick answer:** Yes. DaVinci Resolve has natively decoded Apple ProRes RAW and ProRes RAW HQ since version 20.2 (September 2025), on macOS, Windows, and Linux alike, in both free and Studio editions. You still can't export to ProRes RAW, since it's a capture-only format decoded from camera or recorder files, not something any editor writes.

*Published by [TryUncle](https://tryuncle.com) — the on-screen assistant that teaches DaVinci Resolve on your own screen.*
*Updated 2026-07-29 · DaVinci Resolve 21.0.3 (July 2026) · Canonical: https://tryuncle.com/learn/davinci-resolve/does-davinci-resolve-support-prores-raw-footage*

Someone hands you a card full of `.mov` files from an Atomos recorder, you drag them into DaVinci Resolve, and for years the honest answer to "will this work" was maybe, but plan on transcoding first. As of July 2026, running DaVinci Resolve 21.0.3, that's no longer true. The confusion still is, though, and it's worth clearing up properly instead of in a forum reply.

We've spent seven years cutting commercial video work in Resolve, and questions like this one show up constantly in the 100,000+ member editing community we run. "Does Resolve support ProRes RAW" is one of those questions where the internet's answer is stuck a version or two behind reality, so half the threads you'll find say no and half say yes, and neither one tells you which Resolve version they're talking about.

## Does DaVinci Resolve support ProRes RAW footage?

Yes. DaVinci Resolve natively decodes Apple ProRes RAW and ProRes RAW HQ, and has since version 20.2, which Blackmagic Design released on September 9, 2025 ([Newsshooter](https://www.newsshooter.com/2025/09/09/davinci-resolve-20-2-adds-prores-raw-support/)). Drop a ProRes RAW clip onto a Resolve 20.2 or later timeline and it plays, grades, and exports like any other RAW format Resolve already understood, no transcode required.

Before 20.2, the answer was genuinely no. Resolve could see a ProRes RAW file in the media browser but couldn't open it, and editors worked around the gap by transcoding to ProRes 422 or another intermediate codec in Final Cut Pro, Compressor, or a dedicated converter first. **DaVinci Resolve went without native ProRes RAW decoding for seven years after Apple launched the format alongside Final Cut Pro 10.4.1 in April 2018** ([Newsshooter](https://www.newsshooter.com/2018/04/06/prores-raw-is-here/)). That gap is the entire reason this is still a live question in 2026: a lot of tutorials, forum threads, and even some camera manuals were written while the answer really was no.

## When exactly did DaVinci Resolve add ProRes RAW support?

DaVinci Resolve 20.2 added it, released September 9, 2025, as a free update for both free and Studio users ([CineD](https://www.cined.com/davinci-resolve-20-2-brings-prores-raw-better-immersive-workflows-and-ai-fog-effects/)). Blackmagic Design's own release notes list "support for decoding Apple ProRes RAW clips" under the Codecs & I/O section of that update, alongside encoding support for Samsung's APV format and an expanded immersive video toolset for Apple Vision Pro ([Digital Production](https://digitalproduction.com/2025/09/10/davinci-resolve-20-2-ripple-discipline-prores-raw-and-ai-fog-on-demand/)).

Blackmagic CEO Grant Petty tied the update directly to hardware, not just software, when he announced it:

> "With the addition of ProRes RAW formats across our capture, playback and professional editing software products we are continuing our commitment to software updates for existing products. Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K customers have always been able to record in compressed ProRes 422 formats, but now they will be able to record ProRes RAW and natively playback the files in DaVinci Resolve." ([FilmInk](https://www.filmink.com.au/public-notice/blackmagic-design-announces-support-for-apple-prores-raw/))

That's a real, if easy to miss, detail: the same announcement that gave Resolve the ability to decode ProRes RAW also gave the Pocket Cinema Camera 4K, through a Blackmagic Camera 9.8 firmware update, the ability to record it. The two shipped together on purpose ([No Film School](https://nofilmschool.com/blackmagic-apple-prores-raw-update)).

Since 20.2, the feature has carried forward unchanged through every subsequent release: 20.3 in December 2025, DaVinci Resolve 21's final release on June 4, 2026, and the maintenance updates 21.0.1 and 21.0.3 that followed it through July 2026. None of those releases removed or gated it further.

## Is ProRes RAW support in DaVinci Resolve actually Mac-only?

No. This is the specific misunderstanding worth killing, because it's the one that persists even among people who know Resolve added ProRes RAW at all. Blackmagic Design's 20.2 release notes describe native decoding "on macOS, Windows, and Linux," not macOS alone ([Digital Production](https://digitalproduction.com/2025/09/10/davinci-resolve-20-2-ripple-discipline-prores-raw-and-ai-fog-on-demand/)).

The confusion has a real source, though, so it's worth naming instead of just correcting. Two separate things got conflated:

1. **Ordinary ProRes encoding** (rendering a normal ProRes 422 or 4444 export, nothing to do with RAW) really was restricted on Windows for years, because Apple's ProRes codec was Mac-only outside licensed hardware, until Blackmagic added ProRes encode support to Resolve on Windows and Linux in version 19.1.4, released March 2025 ([Puget Systems](https://www.pugetsystems.com/blog/2025/03/25/prores-encoding-in-davinci-resolve-19-1-4/)).
2. **ProRes RAW decoding specifically** never had a Resolve version where it worked on Mac but not Windows. It simply didn't exist in Resolve at all until 20.2, and when it arrived, it arrived on all three platforms simultaneously.

Final Cut Pro's own history reinforces the mix-up, since Final Cut Pro is Mac and iPad only by design, and it's had ProRes RAW since 2018. If your only reference point for ProRes RAW support is Final Cut Pro, "Mac-only" isn't an unreasonable guess. It's just wrong for current DaVinci Resolve.

Here's the platform picture as of DaVinci Resolve 21.0.3, current as of July 2026:

| Platform | ProRes RAW decode in Resolve | System requirement |
| --- | --- | --- |
| macOS | Yes, since 20.2 | macOS 14 Sonoma or later |
| Windows (x86) | Yes, since 20.2 | Windows 10 or 11, GPU with OpenCL 1.2 or CUDA 12.8 support |
| Windows on ARM | Yes, since 20.2 | Windows 11 for ARM, Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite processor, 16 GB RAM (32 GB for 4K or Fusion) |
| Linux | Yes, since 20.2 | Rocky Linux 8.6, GPU supporting OpenCL 1.2 or CUDA 12.8 |

*(Sources: [CineD](https://www.cined.com/davinci-resolve-20-2-brings-prores-raw-better-immersive-workflows-and-ai-fog-effects/), [Digital Production](https://digitalproduction.com/2025/09/10/davinci-resolve-20-2-ripple-discipline-prores-raw-and-ai-fog-on-demand/))*

**As of DaVinci Resolve 20.2, ProRes RAW decodes natively on macOS, Windows, and Linux, not just on a Mac.** That single sentence is the entire answer to the platform question, and it's the fact most existing pages on this topic get wrong or leave out.

## What is ProRes RAW, and how is it different from regular ProRes?

ProRes RAW is Apple's raw video capture codec, built to hold a camera sensor's minimally processed data at ProRes-like file sizes and playback speed, rather than a fully debayered, color-baked image the way standard ProRes files are ([Apple Support](https://support.apple.com/en-us/118584)). Regular ProRes, the 422 and 4444 family, stores a finished RGB image ready to grade and deliver. ProRes RAW stores something closer to what the sensor actually saw, which gives you more room to change white balance, ISO, and exposure after the fact, the same trade colorists make with Blackmagic RAW, CinemaDNG, or R3D.

The two codecs share compression technology and a naming convention, which is exactly why they get confused in support threads. A camera or app that "supports ProRes" doesn't automatically support ProRes RAW, and vice versa. Apple's own ProRes RAW support page treats the RAW variant as a distinct, separately licensed format from ordinary ProRes, with its own list of authorized hardware and software implementations ([Apple Support](https://support.apple.com/en-us/118584)).

Apple's baseline spec puts ProRes RAW at 12-bit, and colorist Michael Ahlén's own workflow notes describe leaning on "a three-node density/saturation setup" specifically to make use of that 12-bit depth ([Michael Ahlén](https://www.michaelahlen.com/mastering-prores-raw-in-davinci-resolve-20-2-a-post-production-guide-part-2/)). Individual cameras can push past that baseline in their own capture modes, though: colorist Iain Anderson, writing for ProVideo Coalition, describes shooting his own Panasonic GH7 footage at "5728x3024, full sensor data, 16-bit," a camera-specific option rather than a change to the format's spec ([ProVideo Coalition](https://www.provideocoalition.com/data-rate-for-shooters-and-editors/)).

That licensing detail matters for the "why did this take so long" question. Unlike Blackmagic RAW, which Blackmagic Design designed and controls outright, or CinemaDNG, an open Adobe specification, ProRes RAW is Apple's property. Any company that wants to decode it, Blackmagic included, needs Apple's authorization first. **A camera or an external recorder creates a ProRes RAW file; no video editor creates one from scratch.** That's true of Resolve, Final Cut Pro, and Premiere Pro alike, and it's the root of the next question.

## What's the difference between ProRes RAW and ProRes RAW HQ?

Two flavors, not two formats. Every mention of "ProRes RAW" so far covers both variants, because Resolve decodes them identically, but they aren't the same size and they don't have the same quality ceiling.

**ProRes RAW HQ has data rates that fall between ProRes 422 HQ and ProRes 4444, while plain ProRes RAW sits between ProRes 422 and ProRes 422 HQ**, according to a side-by-side breakdown from Digital Camera World ([Digital Camera World](https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/news/prores-vs-prores-raw-whats-the-difference)). Put simply, RAW HQ is the heavier, more forgiving option, closer to how much data ProRes 4444 stores for a finished image. Regular RAW is the lighter option, closer to a standard delivery-grade ProRes file, just holding raw sensor data instead of a baked one.

| Variant | Data rate lands closest to | Best fit |
| --- | --- | --- |
| ProRes RAW | Between ProRes 422 and ProRes 422 HQ | Everyday shooting, smaller cards, faster offload |
| ProRes RAW HQ | Between ProRes 422 HQ and ProRes 4444 | Heavy VFX or grading work, more headroom before compression shows |

Bit depth doesn't come from the codec name at all. It comes from whatever the camera or recorder captures over its SDI or HDMI output: a 10-bit RAW signal in gives you a 10-bit ProRes RAW file, a 12-bit signal in gives you 12-bit out. That's also why Panasonic's GH7 can post the 16-bit figure Iain Anderson measured earlier in this piece. That's a camera-specific capture depth riding inside the same RAW or RAW HQ container, not a third variant of the format.

Whether you get a choice between the two usually comes down to your recorder, not Resolve. Atomos units that support ProRes RAW at all typically let you pick RAW or RAW HQ from the record menu before you start rolling, the same way you'd pick a bitrate on a regular ProRes export. Internal-recording cameras like the GH7 and S1RII mostly commit to one variant in firmware instead, and the spec sheet, not a menu toggle, tells you which. It's worth checking before you buy cards: choosing RAW HQ over plain RAW on a recorder that offers both pushes your storage math, the kind covered later in this guide, toward the heavier end of the range.

## Can DaVinci Resolve export or render a file to ProRes RAW?

No. **Neither DaVinci Resolve, nor Final Cut Pro, nor Premiere Pro will render an export in ProRes RAW; it's a capture-only format, not a delivery codec.** ProRes RAW gets created at the moment of recording, by a camera's own image processor or by an external recorder like an Atomos Ninja V reading a RAW signal over HDMI or SDI. Software editors decode existing ProRes RAW files; they don't manufacture new ones.

In practice, this means your Deliver page render settings in Resolve will never list ProRes RAW as an output codec, and that's expected behavior, not a missing feature. Once you've graded ProRes RAW footage, you render the result as ProRes 422 or 4444 for further finishing, DNxHR for a Windows-native intermediate, or H.264/H.265 for delivery, the same as you would with any other RAW source.

## Do you need DaVinci Resolve Studio to open ProRes RAW files?

No. Camera RAW format decoding in DaVinci Resolve, across Blackmagic RAW, RED, ARRIRAW, CinemaDNG, and now ProRes RAW, works identically in the free version and Studio ([CineD](https://www.cined.com/davinci-resolve-20-2-brings-prores-raw-better-immersive-workflows-and-ai-fog-effects/)). **Free and Studio editions of DaVinci Resolve decode ProRes RAW identically; the format isn't gated behind a paywall the way AI tools and advanced HDR grading are.**

That said, Studio still matters around the edges of a ProRes RAW workflow, even if it doesn't gate the decode itself:

| Feature | Free | Studio |
| --- | --- | --- |
| ProRes RAW decode and playback | Yes | Yes |
| Camera Raw panel controls (decode quality, RAW to Log) | Yes | Yes |
| Multi-GPU acceleration for smoother 4K+ playback | No | Yes |
| Advanced HDR grading (Dolby Vision, HDR10+) | No | Yes |
| AI Neural Engine tools (Super Scale, Speed Warp, object removal) | No | Yes |
| 10-bit H.264/H.265 export | No | Yes |

*(Source: [Blackmagic Design product comparison](https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve/studio))*

If you're grading a single ProRes RAW clip on a modern laptop, free Resolve genuinely gets you through the workflow. If you're cutting a multicam ProRes RAW timeline at 4K and fighting playback stutter, Studio's GPU acceleration is where the money actually goes, not the codec support itself.

## Which cameras and recorders actually shoot ProRes RAW?

The list is longer than most people expect, and it splits into two real categories: cameras that write ProRes RAW straight to their own memory card, and cameras that need an external recorder to do it.

**Records ProRes RAW internally, no external recorder needed:**

- Panasonic Lumix GH7, straight to CFexpress Type B cards ([Newsshooter](https://www.newsshooter.com/2024/06/05/panasonic-lumix-gh7-internal-prores-raw-recording-32-bit-float-audio-recording-arri-logc3/))
- Panasonic Lumix S1RII, to CFexpress Type B ([CineD](https://www.cined.com/panasonic-lumix-s1rii-announced-44mp-8k30-5-9k60-4k120-internal-prores-raw-and-more/))
- Nikon Z6III and the newer Nikon ZR, which record ProRes RAW alongside Nikon's own N-RAW format ([Nikon](https://onlinemanual.nikonimglib.com/z6III/en/raw_video_47.html))
- Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K, since the Blackmagic Camera 9.8 firmware update paired with Resolve 20.2 ([CineD](https://www.cined.com/blackmagic-pocket-cinema-camera-4k-gains-prores-raw-in-camera-9-8-update/))
- Apple iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max, launched September 19, 2025, though only to an external SSD, never internally ([DPReview](https://www.dpreview.com/news/5615963521/blackmagic-davinci-resolve-prores-raw-support))
- DJI Inspire 3, as a licensed add-on alongside CinemaDNG ([DJI Store](https://store.dji.com/product/dji-inspire-3-raw-license))

**Needs an external recorder over HDMI or SDI:**

- Older Panasonic hybrids like the GH6, outputting 12-bit RAW over HDMI to an Atomos Ninja V or V+, which writes the ProRes RAW file
- A wide range of Canon, Fujifilm, Sony, and other mirrorless and cinema cameras with RAW-over-HDMI output, captured the same way ([PetaPixel](https://petapixel.com/2025/09/09/davinci-resolves-new-prores-raw-support-makes-it-the-best-color-grading-software/))

If your camera doesn't record ProRes RAW internally and you don't own a compatible external recorder, you're not going to get ProRes RAW footage out of it no matter what Resolve version you're running. Resolve decoding the format doesn't create RAW output on a camera that never had it.

The list keeps growing on the capture side, too, both in hardware and in software. High-speed camera maker Pixboom has confirmed internal ProRes RAW is coming to its Spark camera as a firmware update later in 2026, following an earlier 12-bit readout update, and once it lands it "will not be restricted by resolution, frame rate, or bit depth, meaning it works across 10-bit, 12-bit, and any of the Spark's custom resolutions all the way up to the sensor's full 4.6K open gate" ([CineD](https://www.cined.com/pixboom-spark-ships-in-may-12-bit-raw-and-prores-raw-coming-next/)). And on the software side, Apple's own Final Cut Camera app added ProRes RAW recording in its 2.0 update alongside genlock support, giving iPhone shooters a dedicated capture app instead of relying on the stock Camera app for RAW ([Neowin](https://www.neowin.net/news/apples-final-cut-camera-20-lands-with-prores-raw-and-center-stage-camera-support/)).

## What resolution, frame rate, and bit depth can each of these cameras actually deliver?

Knowing that a camera "shoots ProRes RAW" doesn't tell you what actually lands on your Resolve timeline. The format scales with the sensor and the firmware, so the numbers vary a lot from one body to the next.

| Camera or recorder | Max resolution (ProRes RAW) | Max frame rate | Recording destination |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Panasonic Lumix GH7 | 5.7K (5728x3024), or C4K (4096x2160) | 30p at 5.7K, up to 59.94p at C4K | CFexpress Type B card, internal |
| Panasonic Lumix S1RII | 5.8K (5760x3040) | 24, 25, or 30p | CFexpress Type B card, internal |
| Nikon Z6III | Up to 6K, ProRes RAW HQ | 30p (N-RAW on the same body reaches 60p) | Internal card |
| Nikon ZR | 6K, oversampled, 12-bit | 30p (N-RAW on the same body reaches 60p) | Internal card |
| Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K (Camera 9.8+) | 4096x2160 (4K DCI) | Up to 60fps at 4K DCI/UHD, up to 120fps at 1080p | Internal card |
| Apple iPhone 17 Pro / Pro Max | 4K open gate (4224x3024) | Up to 60fps | External SSD only, no internal recording |
| DJI Inspire 3 (Zenmuse X9-8K Air, RAW license) | Up to 8K | Up to 75fps | Internal, licensed add-on |

*(Sources: [Newsshooter](https://www.newsshooter.com/2024/06/05/panasonic-lumix-gh7-internal-prores-raw-recording-32-bit-float-audio-recording-arri-logc3/), [CineD S1RII](https://www.cined.com/panasonic-lumix-s1rii-announced-44mp-8k30-5-9k60-4k120-internal-prores-raw-and-more/), [Nikon Z6III manual](https://onlinemanual.nikonimglib.com/z6III/en/raw_video_47.html), [Nikon ZR manual](https://onlinemanual.nikonimglib.com/zr/en/19-12.html), [CineD BMPCC4K](https://www.cined.com/blackmagic-pocket-cinema-camera-4k-gains-prores-raw-in-camera-9-8-update/), [CineD Inspire 3](https://www.cined.com/dji-inspire-3-with-zenmuse-x9-8k-air-announced-up-to-8k-75fps-prores-raw/))*

Two things jump out. **DJI's Inspire 3 is the only ProRes RAW source on this list that reaches into true 8K territory, at up to 75 frames per second, and it costs an extra license to unlock.** And the iPhone 17 Pro is the odd one out in the internal-versus-external split: it shoots ProRes RAW, but it will not write it to the phone's own storage under any setting. You need an external SSD attached over USB-C, the same basic arrangement as an Atomos recorder bolted to a mirrorless body, just smaller.

That gap between "shoots ProRes RAW" and "shoots it at a resolution and frame rate that matches your delivery spec" is worth checking before you buy a camera for this reason alone. A camera capped at 30p in ProRes RAW, like the GH7 at full 5.7K or the S1RII, won't cover a 60fps slow-motion shot in that mode; you'd drop to a lower resolution or a different codec for that shot instead.

## How does audio work with ProRes RAW recordings?

ProRes RAW is a video codec, not an audio codec, so the sound riding alongside it depends entirely on what's capturing it, camera or recorder, and how you've wired it up.

Atomos's Ninja RAW, one of the more common recorders paired with ProRes RAW-over-HDMI cameras, embeds 8-channel, 24-bit audio over HDMI, plus a basic 2-channel input and output through its 3.5mm headphone jack ([Atomos](https://www.atomos.com/tech-specs/ninja-raw/)). There's no XLR input on that particular model, so anything beyond a simple stereo feed means routing through the camera first or stepping up to a larger recorder.

That's where a unit like the Sumo 19SE comes in. It adds two balanced XLR inputs with 48V phantom power for real microphones, gain controls, meters, and per-channel delay, and it syncs that external audio with the embedded HDMI or SDI feed at 24-bit/48kHz, frame-accurately, alongside the video ([Atomos](https://www.atomos.com/explore/sumo-19se/)). If your ProRes RAW workflow depends on a boom mic or a mixer feed rather than a camera-top shotgun, that's the class of recorder built for it.

Cameras that output RAW over HDMI don't always send every channel by default, either. Sony's FX3, for one, defaults to sending only channels 1 and 2 over HDMI to an Atomos recorder; getting channels 3 and 4 instead means changing a setting under Setup > External Output > HDMI Output Settings on the camera itself, not anything you'll find in Resolve ([Filmmaker Tools](https://www.filmmaker.tools/sony-fx3-prores-raw-atomos)). **Audio channel routing for ProRes RAW gets decided at the camera or recorder, long before the file ever reaches Resolve's Camera Raw panel.**

Cameras that record ProRes RAW internally sidestep the HDMI handoff problem entirely, and some pair it with audio features RAW itself doesn't offer. Panasonic's GH7, for instance, records 32-bit float audio internally at the same time it records ProRes RAW video, a separate feature from the RAW codec but one that lets you fix badly gained audio after the fact without touching the picture ([Newsshooter](https://www.newsshooter.com/2024/06/05/panasonic-lumix-gh7-internal-prores-raw-recording-32-bit-float-audio-recording-arri-logc3/)). Once that file lands in Resolve's Media Pool, the audio behaves exactly like audio from any other clip: it opens in Fairlight, it syncs to other angles the normal way, and none of Resolve's ProRes RAW-specific handling in the Camera Raw panel touches it at all.

If you're recording audio separately from a ProRes RAW-shooting camera, whether through a mixer, a lav rig, or a standalone recorder entirely, syncing it back up in Resolve works the same way it does with any other footage. Our guide on [how to sync audio in DaVinci Resolve](https://tryuncle.com/learn/davinci-resolve/sync-audio) covers the waveform and timecode methods for exactly that situation.

## How much storage and card speed does a ProRes RAW workflow actually need?

ProRes RAW is built for editing speed, not for small file sizes. **The ProRes RAW data rate really is about 20 times larger than regular HEVC**, in the words of colorist Iain Anderson, writing for ProVideo Coalition in October 2025 ([ProVideo Coalition](https://www.provideocoalition.com/data-rate-for-shooters-and-editors/)). That comparison is the whole reason cards and drives matter as much as the codec itself.

Anderson's own numbers give a sense of the range. Shooting a GH7 at full sensor resolution, 5728x3024, 16-bit, he clocks the data rate at up to 2.3Gbps, though he notes it can run closer to 1.6Gbps in practice. Run the math on the higher figure and a 20-minute interview shot that way eats roughly 345GB. At the lower figure, the same 20 minutes costs about 240GB. Either way, that's a single interview, not a full shoot day.

The iPhone 17 Pro Max tells a similar story from a different angle. Anderson puts its ProRes RAW HQ open-gate data rate at up to 1.2Gbps, or about 150MB/s. Storage vendor Lexar, writing about its own ES5 Magnetic Portable SSD, estimates 4 to 5GB of data per minute at 4K60 ProRes RAW, and pegs a 2TB drive at roughly 7 to 8 hours of recording capacity before it fills up ([Lexar](https://americas.lexar.com/lexar-es5-magnetic-ssd-iphone-17-pro-prores-raw/)). That estimate is also why the iPhone can't record ProRes RAW to its own storage at all, only to an external SSD, and why Apple's own documentation specifies minimum sustained write speeds, 220MB/s for 4K60 and 440MB/s for 4K120, before that SSD will keep up ([MacRumors](https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/iphone-17-pro-prores-raw-format/)).

Practical takeaways for building out a ProRes RAW workflow:

- **Card speed matters more than card capacity.** Panasonic's own documentation notes that "the CFexpress Type B slot is necessary to record higher bitrate formats like Apple ProRes RAW" on the GH7 ([Newsshooter](https://www.newsshooter.com/2024/06/05/panasonic-lumix-gh7-internal-prores-raw-recording-32-bit-float-audio-recording-arri-logc3/)); a standard SD card, even a fast one, won't sustain that write speed on most internal-recording cameras.
- **External SSDs need a rated sustained write speed, not just a big number on the box.** The iPhone's 220MB/s and 440MB/s thresholds are a useful floor to check against any drive you're considering for RAW-over-HDMI recording too.
- **Your edit drive needs the same headroom as your capture drive.** Playing back 2.3Gbps footage off a slow archive drive will stutter in Resolve regardless of how fast your GPU is, since the bottleneck is read speed, not decode power.

## Worked example: how much drive space does a multi-camera ProRes RAW shoot actually eat?

The numbers above are useful in the abstract, but a shoot day makes them concrete. Take the GH7 data rates already cited: up to 2.3Gbps at full 5.7K, or closer to 1.6Gbps in Iain Anderson's more typical shooting conditions ([ProVideo Coalition](https://www.provideocoalition.com/data-rate-for-shooters-and-editors/)).

| Source | Data rate | Storage per hour | Storage for 2 hours of usable footage |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| GH7, typical shooting | ~1.6Gbps | ~720GB | ~1.44TB |
| GH7, full sensor peak | ~2.3Gbps | ~1.04TB | ~2.07TB |
| iPhone 17 Pro Max | ~1.2Gbps (~150MB/s) | ~540GB | ~1.08TB |

Run the lower, more typical GH7 figure across a single camera rolling for two hours of usable footage across a shoot day, a fairly ordinary ratio for a documentary-style shoot with multiple takes, and you land at roughly 1.44TB just for that one camera's ProRes RAW files. Put two GH7s on set, an A-cam and a B-cam covering the same scene, and you're planning storage for closer to 2.9TB before you've touched a single audio file or a proxy.

That's not a hypothetical edge case. It's the arithmetic anyone shooting ProRes RAW on more than one camera runs into by the second day of a multi-day shoot, and it's the real reason a lot of ProRes RAW shooters plan card rotation and same-day offload as carefully as they plan the shot list. A single 1TB CFexpress Type B card fills up in well under an hour at that data rate, so the practical question stops being "how big is my archive drive" and becomes "how many cards do I own, and how fast can I clear one while the next one's rolling."

This math scales down just as fast as it scales up. Drop to the iPhone 17 Pro Max's roughly 150MB/s ProRes RAW HQ rate, and that same two hours costs about 1.08TB instead, still well past what fits on a phone's internal storage, which is exactly why Apple restricts ProRes RAW recording to an external SSD on that device and no other option at all.

And that's before you count the copies. A responsible backup plan for ProRes RAW footage, the same 3-2-1 discipline you'd apply to any irreplaceable source media, means at least two copies off the original card before you format it, and a third somewhere off-site or in the cloud. Double or triple the numbers in the table above, and a two-camera GH7 day that ate 2.9TB in camera-original files turns into 6 to 9TB of total drive space once your backups and your Resolve project's cache and render files are sitting alongside it.

## How does DaVinci Resolve's ProRes RAW support compare to Final Cut Pro, Premiere Pro, and Avid Media Composer?

Resolve is the most recent of the four to get it, by a wide margin, but it's not the only one that took a while. Here's the honest history, not the version everyone remembers:

| Editor | Native ProRes RAW decode since | Platforms | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Final Cut Pro | April 2018, version 10.4.1 | macOS and iPadOS only | Launched alongside the format itself; Apple's own app, so support came first |
| Premiere Pro | October 2020 | macOS and Windows | Windows support started Nvidia-only, then expanded to Intel and AMD GPUs; Mac required a ProVideo Formats update ([Newsshooter](https://www.newsshooter.com/2020/10/21/prores-raw-decoding-now-native-in-premiere-pro/)) |
| Avid Media Composer | 2019, expanded in version 2020.10 | macOS and Windows | Linking and playback only, through Avid's UME plug-in; export was never added ([CineD](https://www.cined.com/avid-media-composer-2020-10-update-prores-raw-support/)) |
| DaVinci Resolve | September 2025, version 20.2 | macOS, Windows, and Linux | Arrived on all three platforms at once, no staged rollout ([CineD](https://www.cined.com/davinci-resolve-20-2-brings-prores-raw-better-immersive-workflows-and-ai-fog-effects/)) |

Final Cut Pro's seven-year head start makes sense once you remember Apple owns both the app and the format. Premiere Pro's two-and-a-half-year gap after that, and its staged GPU rollout, reflects Adobe negotiating licensed access the same way Blackmagic eventually did. Avid's approach is the most limited of the four even today: Media Composer links to and plays ProRes RAW media through a separate plug-in rather than decoding it as a first-class native format the way Resolve does, and Avid never added export support at all, matching every other editor on this list. Resolve's near-simultaneous three-platform launch is arguably the cleanest rollout of the four, even though it's the latest.

**Choose Final Cut Pro if** you're already Mac-only, don't need Windows or Linux compatibility, and want the deepest ProRes RAW-specific controls, including per-clip ISO and white balance adjustments that Adobe's own documentation admits Premiere Pro still doesn't fully match ([DPReview](https://www.dpreview.com/news/9056306226/adobe-premiere-pro-can-now-natively-decode-prores-raw-video-files/)).

**Choose Premiere Pro if** your pipeline is already built around After Effects, Dynamic Link, and other Adobe apps, and cross-platform support with a five-year track record matters more than being first.

**Choose Avid Media Composer if** your post house already standardizes on Avid for narrative or broadcast delivery and you're mainly linking to ProRes RAW dailies rather than grading them natively, since export was never part of the deal there either.

**Choose DaVinci Resolve if** you want ProRes RAW alongside every other RAW format in one grading-first tool, on whichever operating system you're actually running, without paying for a separate NLE license to get RAW compatibility no other app in your pipeline needs.

## What does ProRes RAW footage actually look like when you bring it into Resolve?

Flat. Deliberately, aggressively flat, more than log footage from the same camera usually looks. Colorist Michael Ahlén, writing a hands-on workflow guide right after 20.2 shipped, put it plainly: "ProRes RAW imports flat, a blank canvas I love as a colorist" ([Michael Ahlén](https://www.michaelahlen.com/mastering-prores-raw-in-davinci-resolve-20-2-a-post-production-guide-part-2/)). That flatness is the whole point of RAW. Resolve hasn't baked in a color decision yet, so you're grading from the sensor's actual dynamic range instead of from someone else's guess at what the image should look like.

Inside the Camera Raw panel, ProRes RAW clips expose a "RAW to Log" dropdown rather than the separate ISO and color space controls RED or Blackmagic RAW footage gets. Ahlén's guide recommends setting it to "None" to preserve linear gamma, in his words, "for maximum flexibility," if you're planning a full Color Space Transform-based grade. If you're new to that concept, our guide to [Resolve Color Management vs. ACES](https://tryuncle.com/learn/davinci-resolve/resolve-color-management-vs-aces-which-should-i-use) covers the working-space decision in more depth.

A few limitations Ahlén flags in current builds: the exposure bias slider in the Camera Raw panel "ranges from -1 to +1" rather than in stops, so you'll lean on ISO adjustment for stop-level exposure correction instead; there's no dedicated shadow or highlight recovery control yet, unlike RED's or Blackmagic RAW's panels; and tint adjustment "requires the offset wheel in a single node to correct casts" since there's no direct tint slider for ProRes RAW specifically. None of these break the format, they just mean Resolve's ProRes RAW controls are newer and less mature than its Blackmagic RAW or CinemaDNG controls, which have had years longer to develop.

The actual debayering step, the process that turns that flat mosaic of sensor data into a real image, works the same way for ProRes RAW as it does for every other RAW format Resolve supports, and it's genuinely worth understanding if RAW playback is stuttering on your machine. Our full explainer on [what debayering is in DaVinci Resolve](https://tryuncle.com/learn/davinci-resolve/what-is-debayering-in-davinci-resolve) covers the Decode Quality setting, how to lower it for smoother playback, and how to make sure it's back at full resolution before you render.

## Step by step: how do you actually bring a ProRes RAW clip into Resolve and start grading it?

Reading that ProRes RAW works in Resolve and actually getting a clean grade out of a clip are two different problems. Here's the sequence Ahlén's post-20.2 workflow guide lays out, condensed into something you can follow the first time you try it:

1. **Confirm your Resolve version before you do anything else.** Open Help > About DaVinci Resolve and check for 20.2 or later. If you're on anything older, the clip won't even show a thumbnail, and no setting inside the app will fix that.
2. **Import the ProRes RAW files into the Media Pool as normal.** They behave like any other camera-original clip in the browser, no special import mode required.
3. **Match your project or timeline frame rate to the clip's native frame rate** before you start grading, the same rule that applies to any RAW or log source, to avoid a conform mismatch later.
4. **Open the Camera Raw panel** for the clip, either per-clip (right-click the clip > Camera Raw Settings) or as a project-wide default (Project Settings > Camera Raw).
5. **Set "RAW to Log" to None** if you're planning a full Color Space Transform grade. Ahlén's own guidance: this keeps you "in a linear gamma, preserving the raw sensor data" for maximum flexibility downstream.
6. **Add a Color Space Transform node.** Set the input to the camera's native color space, at linear gamma, and the working space to DaVinci Wide Gamut. Set the output to whatever your delivery target needs, Rec. 709 Gamma 2.4 for a standard YouTube upload, for instance.
7. **Use ISO to correct exposure in stops, not the exposure bias slider,** since that slider only covers a -1 to +1 range rather than a full stop scale.
8. **Lower the Camera Raw decode quality to Half or Quarter for editing and scrubbing,** then set it back to Full before you render your final output. This trades preview sharpness for smoother playback while you're cutting, and costs you nothing at export.
9. **Build your grade in parallel nodes,** one each for lift, gamma, and gain, the structure Ahlén recommends specifically to make full use of ProRes RAW's dynamic range.
10. **Render to a delivery codec, never to ProRes RAW.** ProRes 422, ProRes 4444, DNxHR, or H.264/H.265 are your options on the Deliver page, same as with any other RAW source.

One cosmetic quirk worth knowing about before it worries you: black bars can appear over the image on the Edit page timeline while you're working with ProRes RAW clips. Per Ahlén's guide, they resolve during actual playback and don't show up in your render, so there's nothing to fix, just something to expect.

## Does DaVinci Resolve support proxies for ProRes RAW footage, the way it does for other formats?

Yes, and if you've been assuming ProRes RAW is stuck playing at full weight because it's "RAW," it isn't. Resolve's Optimized Media system, the same one that already handles S-Log3, H.265, and other demanding sources, treats ProRes RAW the same way it treats everything else: it transcodes the source into a processor-friendly stand-in codec for editing, then swaps back to the original for your final render ([Writing With a Camera](https://writingwithacamera.com/Courses/Transition-to-Resolve/Optimizing-performance)).

**A half-resolution DNxHR or ProRes proxy doesn't care how exotic the source file was; RAW clips take Optimized Media exactly like any other footage in the Media Pool.** Turn it on in Project Settings > Master Settings > Optimized Media and Render Cache, pick ProRes on a Mac or DNxHR on Windows as the intermediate codec, and Resolve builds lighter stand-ins you can scrub and cut on, without ever touching the original ProRes RAW files on your card or drive.

Optimized Media and Render Cache solve different problems, and it's worth knowing which is which before you turn one on expecting it to fix the other. Optimized Media replaces the source itself with something easier to decode. Render Cache stores the result of processing you've already applied, your grade, your Fusion comp, your retimes, so Resolve doesn't have to recompute it on every frame of playback. The two stack. On a heavy ProRes RAW timeline, you'll often want both running at once: Optimized Media so scrubbing doesn't fight the RAW decoder, Render Cache so your grade doesn't get recalculated in real time underneath it. It's the same relationship as Camera Raw decode quality and Smart render cache, covered in the troubleshooting table below, just applied before you start cutting instead of after playback already stutters.

One habit worth building: generate Optimized Media before you start grading, not after you've built forty nodes across a hundred clips. Resolve builds proxies for whatever's already sitting in the timeline or bin, and building them early means every editing session afterward benefits, instead of just the next one.

## How do you cut ProRes RAW footage into a multicam or mixed-frame-rate timeline?

Nothing about ProRes RAW breaks Resolve's normal multicam tools, but the format's weight makes the usual mixed-frame-rate mistakes hurt more than they would with a lighter codec.

Start with the frame rate itself. **The safest rule for any multicam or mixed-format timeline, ProRes RAW included, is to match your project's frame rate to your original camera files instead of forcing footage to conform after the fact**, since that's what preserves the timecode link back to the source. Frame.io's own workflow guide to mixed frame rates in Resolve calls this "the standard choice for commercial workflows," specifically because it protects timecode for later conforming with an outside vendor or colorist ([Frame.io](https://blog.frame.io/2019/10/24/mixed-frame-rates-part-4/)). A GH7 shooting 5.7K ProRes RAW at 30p sitting next to a 24p A-cam isn't a problem Resolve can't handle, but deciding which rate the timeline itself runs at, and doing it before you start cutting, saves you a rebuild later.

From there, the fix for a stuttering multicam ProRes RAW timeline is the one covered above: Optimized Media. Multicam angles compound the decode load, since Resolve is potentially decoding two, three, or four RAW streams for every frame you scrub instead of one, and a timeline that plays a single ProRes RAW clip smoothly can still choke once you group four of them into a Multicam Clip. Building Optimized Media for every angle before you group them turns that same timeline back into something you can scrub in real time.

Picture a real setup: a two-camera interview with a GH7 shooting ProRes RAW as the A-cam, an iPhone 17 Pro Max shooting ProRes RAW to an external SSD as a wide B-cam, and a lav mic feeding a separate audio recorder. That's three different data rates, two different RAW variants, and one audio source that has to sync to both, all on one Multicam Clip. None of that is unusual, and none of it is a problem Resolve can't solve, but it's exactly the kind of timeline where skipping Optimized Media on even one angle turns into the one that stutters and drags the whole group down with it.

A couple of habits that matter more with ProRes RAW specifically than with a lighter codec:

- **Separate your RAW angles from your non-RAW angles in the Media Pool**, in their own bins, before you build the Multicam Clip. It doesn't change how Resolve groups them, but it makes it obvious at a glance which angles are going to carry the heavier decode cost if playback stutters later.
- **Set Camera Raw decode quality low across every RAW angle at once**, rather than clip by clip, using Project Settings > Camera Raw as a project-wide default instead of the per-clip override. On a multicam timeline you don't want three of four angles at Full decode quality and one at Quarter; that mismatch is often what looks like a sync problem but is actually just one angle struggling to keep up.
- **Render your final multicam-flattened output before you archive**, not just the individual angles. A flattened Rec. 709 or DNxHR master plays anywhere; the original ProRes RAW angles still need Resolve 20.2 or later and RAW-capable hardware to open at all.

## DaVinci Resolve won't import or play back my ProRes RAW file, what's actually wrong?

Most ProRes RAW problems in Resolve trace back to one of a handful of causes, and they're worth checking in order rather than guessing.

| Symptom | Likely cause | Fix |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Clip won't show a thumbnail or won't import at all | Resolve version older than 20.2 | Update Resolve; there's no setting that substitutes for the native decoder |
| Clip imports but plays back stuttering or dropping frames | Camera Raw decode quality set too high for your hardware, or no Optimized Media built for the clip | Lower decode quality to Half or Quarter in Project Settings > Camera Raw; generate Optimized Media for the RAW clips, then enable Smart render cache, which specifically targets "playback intensive clips (H.264, H.265, DCP, JPEG2K and camera raw clips)" ([ELEMENTS](https://elements.tv/blog/davinci-resolve-performance-and-troubleshooting-guide/)) |
| Playback is choppy even at low decode quality | GPU below Blackmagic's minimum spec | Confirm a discrete GPU with at least 2GB of VRAM and OpenCL 1.2 or CUDA support; RAW decoding is one of the more demanding tasks Resolve asks of a GPU ([ELEMENTS](https://elements.tv/blog/davinci-resolve-performance-and-troubleshooting-guide/)) |
| Render cache files pile up and playback is still slow | Cache stored on a slow drive | Point render cache at fast-tier storage, an internal SSD or fast external drive, not a spinning archive disk |
| Black bars appear over the image on the Edit page | Known cosmetic behavior with ProRes RAW proxies on the Edit page | Hit play; per Michael Ahlén's guide, the bars resolve during playback and never show up in the render ([Michael Ahlén](https://www.michaelahlen.com/mastering-prores-raw-in-davinci-resolve-20-2-a-post-production-guide-part-2/)) |
| Whole timeline stutters, not just the RAW clip | Timeline resolution set higher than needed for the edit pass | Temporarily lower the timeline resolution in Project Settings, then restore it before your final render ([ELEMENTS](https://elements.tv/blog/davinci-resolve-performance-and-troubleshooting-guide/)) |
| You're stuck on a Resolve version older than 20.2 and can't update right now | ProRes RAW decoding genuinely doesn't exist in that build | Transcode the ProRes RAW files to ProRes 422 or another intermediate codec in Final Cut Pro, Compressor, or a dedicated RAW converter first, the same workaround editors used before 20.2 shipped |

Two of those causes deserve a little more explanation. **Decode quality, Optimized Media, and render cache are three different settings that solve three different symptoms**, and it's easy to adjust one and wonder why the problem hasn't gone away. Decode quality controls how much of the RAW file Resolve actually processes for a given preview frame. Optimized Media replaces the source file itself with a lighter stand-in before Resolve even has to decode the original. Render cache controls whether Resolve pre-renders whole clips in the background so playback doesn't have to decode or reprocess them live at all. A heavy ProRes RAW timeline often needs all three dialed in together, not just one.

The version check matters more than it sounds like it should. If you searched for this exact question, there's a real chance you're running a Resolve build from before September 2025 without realizing it, since Resolve doesn't force updates and plenty of editors are still on whatever version shipped with their current project. Checking the About screen takes ten seconds and rules out the single most common cause before you touch a single project setting.

## Should you shoot ProRes RAW for a Resolve workflow, or is another RAW format a better fit?

This depends more on your camera and delivery target than on Resolve, since Resolve now handles ProRes RAW, Blackmagic RAW, CinemaDNG, ARRIRAW, and R3D all natively.

If your camera records **Blackmagic RAW** internally, like most Blackmagic cinema cameras do, stick with it. Blackmagic Design built and controls that codec specifically for Resolve, it has the deepest, most mature Camera Raw controls of any format in the app, including per-clip highlight and shadow rolloff sliders ProRes RAW still lacks, and it isn't tied to Apple's licensing terms.

If your camera only offers **ProRes RAW** internally, as the GH7, S1RII, Z6III, and ZR do, you don't have much of a choice, and that's fine. As of 20.2, you're not giving anything up compatibility-wise by shooting it, and you get RAW flexibility at file sizes closer to compressed ProRes than to full RED or Blackmagic RAW files, though as the storage numbers above show, "closer to ProRes" still means planning your cards and drives around a genuinely demanding codec, and building Optimized Media into your workflow from day one rather than after playback starts stuttering.

If you're shooting on a camera with **HDMI RAW output** and deciding what an external recorder should write, ProRes RAW's main practical edge over CinemaDNG is file size and read speed during editing; CinemaDNG's edge is that it's an open specification with no licensing dependency on Apple at all. That decision also touches audio, covered above: a recorder like the Ninja RAW handles embedded HDMI audio fine, but if you need real XLR inputs and phantom power on the recorder itself, that narrows your options to larger units like the Sumo 19SE.

One more scenario worth naming: if you're shooting handheld run-and-gun documentary work where card space and battery life matter more than maximum dynamic range, ProRes RAW's data rate can genuinely work against you compared to a well-graded log format at half the bitrate. RAW buys you flexibility you pay for in storage and drive speed, on every camera on this list, not just the demanding ones.

## Getting unstuck on a RAW workflow question while you're actually inside Resolve

TryUncle is the on-screen assistant for DaVinci Resolve on macOS. Ask in plain words, and Uncle points at the exact control on your screen. We've taught more than 100,000 students DaVinci Resolve and related creative software through Udemy, where we're an official Udemy Business Partner, and the pattern we see over and over is that reading about a setting and finding it on your own screen, mid-edit, are two different skills. **Guided practice inside Resolve beats watching courses about Resolve.**

If you're not sure whether the copy of Resolve on your machine is new enough to decode a ProRes RAW card you just imported, or you can't find the Camera Raw panel a tutorial mentioned, Uncle can point at the version number in Resolve's About screen or the exact menu path to Project Settings, live, on your actual project, instead of you cross-referencing a screenshot from a six-month-old video. TryUncle is a paid subscription, $29.99 a month at the current founder rate for the first 100 seats, cancel anytime, and it never edits your timeline or renders on your behalf; it points, you decide. See [TryUncle](https://tryuncle.com/?utm_source=learn&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=does-davinci-resolve-support-prores-raw-footage) for the current rate before subscribing, since founder pricing is limited by seat count, not by date.

TryUncle isn't the only assistant-shaped tool in this space, and we'd rather name the alternatives than pretend they don't exist. Tools like Sottocut, PremiereCopilot, and cutagent.ai automate parts of the edit itself, cutting silences or assembling rough sequences from a prompt, closer to what people mean when they search for an AI tool to learn DaVinci Resolve that does the work rather than teaches it. Uncle doesn't touch your timeline at all; it watches your screen and tells you where to click, a narrower job on purpose, aimed at the moment you're stuck, not the moment you want something done for you. Our fuller rundown of [AI tools to learn DaVinci Resolve](https://tryuncle.com/learn/davinci-resolve/ai-tools-to-learn-davinci-resolve) covers where each one actually fits.

## The bottom line on DaVinci Resolve and ProRes RAW

If you're running DaVinci Resolve 20.2 or newer, which includes every current release through 21.0.3, you can already open, play, and grade ProRes RAW footage, on a Mac, a Windows PC, or Linux, in either the free version or Studio. If you're running anything older than 20.2, that's your actual problem, not your operating system, and the fix is an update, not a transcode. Check Resolve's version number in the About screen before you assume the format itself is the obstacle, and check your GPU against Blackmagic's minimum spec before you assume the codec is broken if playback stutters.

The one thing that hasn't changed and won't: you still can't render a new ProRes RAW file out of any editor, Resolve, Final Cut Pro, Premiere Pro, or Avid Media Composer alike. It comes from a camera or a recorder, gets decoded and graded, and leaves as something else. Know that going in, budget your cards and drives for a genuinely demanding codec, build Optimized Media into your workflow before playback starts fighting you, and the rest of the workflow is just RAW grading, the same discipline you'd apply to any other format Resolve already knew how to read.

## FAQ

### Does DaVinci Resolve support ProRes RAW footage?

Yes. DaVinci Resolve has natively decoded Apple ProRes RAW and ProRes RAW HQ since version 20.2, released in September 2025. Before that, Resolve couldn't open a ProRes RAW file at all, and editors had to transcode it to ProRes 422 or another format first. As of DaVinci Resolve 21.0.3 in July 2026, that native decode is still there and unchanged.

### What DaVinci Resolve version added ProRes RAW support?

DaVinci Resolve 20.2, released September 9, 2025. Blackmagic Design added it alongside a matching firmware update, Blackmagic Camera 9.8, that let the Pocket Cinema Camera 4K record ProRes RAW for the first time. Every Resolve release since, including 20.3 and the 21.x line, has kept native ProRes RAW decoding.

### Is ProRes RAW support in DaVinci Resolve Mac-only?

No, and this is the single most common misunderstanding about it. Blackmagic Design's own 20.2 release notes describe native ProRes RAW decoding on macOS, Windows, and Linux, all three, at the same time. The Mac-only reputation comes from ProRes RAW's history in Final Cut Pro and from ordinary ProRes encoding, which really was Mac-only for years. Decoding ProRes RAW in Resolve never carried that restriction.

### Do I need DaVinci Resolve Studio to open ProRes RAW files?

No. Camera RAW format decoding, including Blackmagic RAW, RED, ARRIRAW, CinemaDNG, and now ProRes RAW, works the same way in the free version as in Studio. Blackmagic gates AI Neural Engine tools, advanced HDR grading, multi-GPU acceleration, and extra ResolveFX behind Studio, not RAW codec decoding itself.

### Can DaVinci Resolve export or render a file to ProRes RAW?

No, and neither can Final Cut Pro, Premiere Pro, or Avid Media Composer. ProRes RAW is a capture format, built into camera and recorder firmware under an Apple license, not a delivery codec any NLE writes to. You can decode a ProRes RAW file, grade it, and render the result as ProRes 422, ProRes 4444, DNxHR, or H.264, but you cannot render a new ProRes RAW file out of Resolve.

### Which cameras and recorders shoot ProRes RAW?

Panasonic's Lumix GH7 and S1RII record it internally, Nikon's Z6III and ZR record it alongside N-RAW, Blackmagic's Pocket Cinema Camera 4K gained it through the Camera 9.8 firmware update, DJI's Inspire 3 supports it as a licensed add-on, and Apple's iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max can shoot it to an external SSD. Older and lower-end cameras that lack internal support, including many Panasonic and Sony hybrids, can still output RAW over HDMI to an Atomos recorder like the Ninja V, which writes the ProRes RAW file instead.

### Why won't DaVinci Resolve import or play my ProRes RAW file?

The most common reason is simply running a Resolve version older than 20.2, which has no ProRes RAW decoder at all, so check Help > About DaVinci Resolve first. If Resolve sees the file but stutters on playback, the usual fix is lowering Camera Raw decode quality in Project Settings, turning on Optimized Media for the RAW clips, and adding Smart render cache on top. A GPU below Blackmagic's minimum spec, meaning less than 2GB of VRAM or no OpenCL 1.2 or CUDA support, will also block smooth RAW playback no matter which Resolve version you're running.

## Sources

- [Newsshooter: DaVinci Resolve 20.2 Adds ProRes RAW Support](https://www.newsshooter.com/2025/09/09/davinci-resolve-20-2-adds-prores-raw-support/)
- [CineD: DaVinci Resolve 20.2 Brings ProRes RAW, Better Immersive Workflows, and AI Fog Effects](https://www.cined.com/davinci-resolve-20-2-brings-prores-raw-better-immersive-workflows-and-ai-fog-effects/)
- [Digital Production: DaVinci Resolve 20.2: Ripple Discipline, ProRes RAW, and AI Fog on Demand](https://digitalproduction.com/2025/09/10/davinci-resolve-20-2-ripple-discipline-prores-raw-and-ai-fog-on-demand/)
- [Michael Ahlén: Mastering ProRes RAW in DaVinci Resolve 20.2, A Post-Production Guide (Part 2)](https://www.michaelahlen.com/mastering-prores-raw-in-davinci-resolve-20-2-a-post-production-guide-part-2/)
- [FilmInk: Blackmagic Design Announces Support for Apple ProRes RAW](https://www.filmink.com.au/public-notice/blackmagic-design-announces-support-for-apple-prores-raw/)
- [PetaPixel: DaVinci Resolve's New ProRes RAW Support Makes it the Best Color Grading Software](https://petapixel.com/2025/09/09/davinci-resolves-new-prores-raw-support-makes-it-the-best-color-grading-software/)
- [CineD: Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K Gains ProRes RAW in Camera 9.8 Update](https://www.cined.com/blackmagic-pocket-cinema-camera-4k-gains-prores-raw-in-camera-9-8-update/)
- [No Film School: Apple ProRes RAW Support Coming to DaVinci Resolve and the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K](https://nofilmschool.com/blackmagic-apple-prores-raw-update)
- [Newsshooter: ProRes RAW is Here (2018 launch with Final Cut Pro 10.4.1)](https://www.newsshooter.com/2018/04/06/prores-raw-is-here/)
- [Newsshooter: ProRes RAW Decoding Now Native in Premiere Pro](https://www.newsshooter.com/2020/10/21/prores-raw-decoding-now-native-in-premiere-pro/)
- [DPReview: Adobe Premiere Pro Can Now Natively Decode ProRes Raw Video Files](https://www.dpreview.com/news/9056306226/adobe-premiere-pro-can-now-natively-decode-prores-raw-video-files/)
- [DPReview: Finally, DaVinci Resolve is Getting Support for ProRes Raw](https://www.dpreview.com/news/5615963521/blackmagic-davinci-resolve-prores-raw-support)
- [Apple Support: Apple ProRes and ProRes RAW Authorized Products](https://support.apple.com/en-us/118584)
- [Newsshooter: Panasonic Lumix GH7, Internal ProRes RAW Recording, 32-Bit Float Audio Recording, ARRI LogC3](https://www.newsshooter.com/2024/06/05/panasonic-lumix-gh7-internal-prores-raw-recording-32-bit-float-audio-recording-arri-logc3/)
- [DJI Store: DJI Inspire 3 RAW License](https://store.dji.com/product/dji-inspire-3-raw-license)
- [ProVideo Coalition: Data Rate for Shooters and Editors, by Iain Anderson](https://www.provideocoalition.com/data-rate-for-shooters-and-editors/)
- [CineD: Panasonic Lumix S1RII Announced, 44MP, 8K30, 5.9K60, 4K120, Internal ProRes RAW](https://www.cined.com/panasonic-lumix-s1rii-announced-44mp-8k30-5-9k60-4k120-internal-prores-raw-and-more/)
- [CineD: DJI Inspire 3 with Zenmuse X9-8K Air Announced, Up to 8K 75fps ProRes RAW](https://www.cined.com/dji-inspire-3-with-zenmuse-x9-8k-air-announced-up-to-8k-75fps-prores-raw/)
- [Nikon Online Manual: Z6III RAW Video](https://onlinemanual.nikonimglib.com/z6III/en/raw_video_47.html)
- [Nikon Online Manual: ZR RAW Video](https://onlinemanual.nikonimglib.com/zr/en/19-12.html)
- [Lexar: Why the ES5 Magnetic Portable SSD Is Essential for iPhone 17 Pro ProRes RAW Recording](https://americas.lexar.com/lexar-es5-magnetic-ssd-iphone-17-pro-prores-raw/)
- [MacRumors: iPhone 17 Pro, Shooting in Apple's ProRes RAW Format](https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/iphone-17-pro-prores-raw-format/)
- [ELEMENTS Media Storage: DaVinci Resolve, Performance and Troubleshooting Guide](https://elements.tv/blog/davinci-resolve-performance-and-troubleshooting-guide/)
- [CineD: Avid Media Composer 2020.10 Update, ProRes RAW Support](https://www.cined.com/avid-media-composer-2020-10-update-prores-raw-support/)
- [Digital Camera World: ProRes vs ProRes RAW, What's the Difference?](https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/news/prores-vs-prores-raw-whats-the-difference)
- [Atomos: Ninja RAW Tech Specs](https://www.atomos.com/tech-specs/ninja-raw/)
- [Atomos: Sumo 19SE](https://www.atomos.com/explore/sumo-19se/)
- [Filmmaker Tools: Sony FX3 ProRes RAW via Atomos Ninja (All Settings Explained)](https://www.filmmaker.tools/sony-fx3-prores-raw-atomos)
- [Writing With a Camera: Optimizing the Performance of DaVinci Resolve](https://writingwithacamera.com/Courses/Transition-to-Resolve/Optimizing-performance)
- [Frame.io: Mixing Frame Rates in DaVinci Resolve, Part 4: Proxies](https://blog.frame.io/2019/10/24/mixed-frame-rates-part-4/)
- [CineD: Pixboom Spark Ships in May, 12-Bit RAW and ProRes RAW Coming Next](https://www.cined.com/pixboom-spark-ships-in-may-12-bit-raw-and-prores-raw-coming-next/)
- [Neowin: Apple's Final Cut Camera 2.0 Lands with ProRes RAW and Center Stage Camera Support](https://www.neowin.net/news/apples-final-cut-camera-20-lands-with-prores-raw-and-center-stage-camera-support/)