How big will your rushes be?
How many gigabytes a shooting day takes, from the camera, the codec and the resolution — and which cards to bring.
Gigabytes per hour, from Apple's published rates
These are the figures Apple publishes for ProRes, converted to storage. Nothing here is estimated: a data rate in megabits per second becomes gigabytes per hour by multiplying by 3600, dividing by 8, and dividing by a thousand.
| Codec | 1920×1080 | 3840×2160 | 4096×2160 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 422 Proxy | 17 GB/h | 68 GB/h | 73 GB/h |
| 422 LT | 38 GB/h | 154 GB/h | 164 GB/h |
| 422 | 55 GB/h | 221 GB/h | 236 GB/h |
| 422 HQ | 83 GB/h | 332 GB/h | 354 GB/h |
| 4444 | 124 GB/h | 498 GB/h | 531 GB/h |
| 4444 XQ | 187 GB/h | 747 GB/h | 796 GB/h |
At 50 fps, double them. ProRes compresses each frame on its own, so the data rate follows the frame rate almost exactly — Apple's own table confirms it across every resolution.
Why the other codecs are not in a dropdown
You will find sites listing a data rate for “H.265 4K” or “BRAW”. Those numbers were invented once and copied a thousand times, because the manufacturers do not publish them — and they cannot, because the rate depends on settings you choose in the camera: a quality level, a compression ratio, a bit depth, sometimes the content itself.
So this tool does something less impressive and more useful: it asks you for the number. Your camera shows it, in the recording format menu, in Mb/s. That reading is worth more than any table we could publish, because it describes the camera you are actually holding, on the setting you are actually using.
If your camera only names a quality level, record ten seconds and look at the file: size in megabytes, divided by ten, times eight, gives the rate in Mb/s. It takes a minute and it settles the question for that camera for good.
Plan for more than the rushes
The raw total is never the number to buy against. On the day you need a second copy, because a single copy of a shooting day is not a backup — it is a single point of failure with a whole crew's work on it. And no shooting day has ever finished exactly where it was scheduled to.
The figure this tool suggests adds thirty percent, which is the smallest margin that has never left anybody deleting takes at eleven at night to make room.
Frequently asked
How many GB is an hour of ProRes 422 HQ?
At 1920×1080 and 25 fps, 83 GB per hour. At 3840×2160 and 25 fps it is 332 GB per hour. The arithmetic is 220 Mb/s × 3600 ÷ 8 ÷ 1000 for the HD figure, and every number in it comes from Apple's published table rather than from an estimate.
Why do you only have rates for ProRes?
Because Apple is the only one that publishes a usable table. H.264, H.265, BRAW, R3D and DNx all vary with settings the camera menu controls — quality level, compression ratio, bit depth — and no manufacturer publishes a figure you could apply blind. Rather than copy a guess that some blog made up and a thousand sites repeated, this tool asks you for the rate your camera displays. It takes five seconds and it is right.
Where do I find my camera's data rate?
In the recording format menu, next to the codec name, usually in Mb/s (sometimes written Mbps). Sony, Canon, Panasonic and Blackmagic all show it. If yours shows only a quality name, record ten seconds, look at the file size in megabytes, and multiply by 0.8 to get Mb/s.
Does frame rate really double the file size?
For an intra-frame codec like ProRes, yes, near enough: each frame is compressed on its own, so twice the frames is twice the data. Apple's own table shows it — 1920×1080 runs at 38, 76 and 91 Mb/s for 25p, 50p and 60p in Proxy. Long-GOP codecs like H.265 behave differently, which is another reason to read their rate off the camera.
How much drive space should I actually plan for?
More than the rushes. You need a second copy on the day — one copy is not a backup — and a shooting day never stops where the schedule said it would. The figure shown here adds 30 % on top of the raw total, which is the smallest margin that has never caused a problem.
Is a 128 GB card really 128 GB?
In the manufacturer's arithmetic, yes: 128,000,000,000 bytes. Your computer may divide by 1024 three times and display 119 GB — same card. This tool uses the manufacturer's convention, so its figures match what is printed on the card. Cameras also stop recording slightly before the card is physically full, so plan for a little less than the calculation shows.