Once upon a time, there was film stock. The definitions of Data Rate, Data Consumption, Bit Rate, Mb/sec and MB/min were relevant only for computer geeks. Nowadays, it seems that the geeks are cinematographers since they have to handle complex calculations of digital footage data transfer rates. Furthermore, every couple of months new cameras are invented or get updated with new sensors, that means new codecs, new RAW, firmware updates, new compression rates and more parameters that affect data consumption rates. That’s the goal for the chart below which shows digital cinema cameras data consumption rate in MB/Sec of the most popular cinema cameras that are capable of shooting internal RAW (no external recorders).

Definition of data consumption

The Data consumption in this chart is defined as recording in MAXIMUM RESOLUTION in the specific RAW format (ARRIRAW, REDCODE RAW, Cinema RAW Light, BRAW, etc.) in 24 FPS. 

Data

• ALEXA XT: ARRIRAW, OG 3.4K= 270 MB/s
• ALEXA LF/Mini LF: ARRIRAW, OG 4.5K= 500 MB/s
• ALEXA 65: ARRIRAW, OG 6.5K= 740 MB/s
• ARRI Amira: ARRIRAW, 2.8K= 165 MB/s
• RED MONSTRO: REDCODE 5:1, 8K= 260 MB/s
• RED GEMINI: REDCODE 3:1, 5K= 186 MB/s
• RED DRAGON-X: REDCODE 2:1, 5K= 250 MB/s
• RED RAVEN: REDCODE 3:1, 4.5K= 120 MB/s
• URSA Mini Pro: BRAW 3:1, 4K= 127 MB/s
• Canon C200: Cinema RAW Light, 4K= 125 MB/s

The Chart – Click on the image to get a larger view

Let’s know your insights regarding this chart. Comment below!