Table of Contents Show
For readers unfamiliar with BlackRAW Studio: this iPhone and iPad app is built to review, trim, and colour-grade video, especially Blackmagic RAW (BRAW) and Apple ProRes RAW. It works with camera originals on connected storage, generates proxies, saves RAW adjustments, and exports LUTs, video, EDL, or FCPXML for further post-production. Think of it as a preparation and review tool rather than a full desktop editing suite.
This app was born as BlackRAW Visor, but has grown rapidly and is now called BlackRAW Studio (BlackRAW for short). It runs on iPhones and iPads, and even on Mx-Mac computers. There are already plenty of editing apps for smartphones, our favourite being LumaFusion. Who needs another one? Well, those who shoot RAW, ProRes RAW or Blackmagic RAW (aka BRAW)!
Hardware
We wouldn’t even try an iPhone before 15, since the app works directly with your originals, with no copying involved. For RAW, you would normally keep these on external storage. You’ll want USB-C, so you don’t spend your life waiting for Lightning to strike. Like any NLE, it doesn’t change your sources, but it generates an export and sidecars when you ask for it. We tested it on an iPhone 15 Pro Max, but the ProRes RAW footage came from the 17 Pro.
BlackRAW works with any storage you can connect to your phone (as long as it’ll deliver the data rate). We tested it with SSDs, original camera cards connected via a reader, and even a spinning disk for laptops. Well, the phone probably won’t last long when powering the latter. With the other devices, you’ll also want a hub and an external power supply for extended use. And backups, for sure, even if the app didn’t misbehave in this respect while testing.
If you have a larger screen, most of the interface stays the same, but the preview is getting larger (see title). In horizontal mode on an iPad or Apple’s new luxury item (also called iPhone Duo), you’ll get a much better view of your footage. Let’s hope the new iPad Mini, due soon, will be a cheaper alternative. Rumour has it that it’ll have an OLED screen, and if that also means reference modes like the Pro models, it should be a great option.
Format support
At first glance,w it’s simply shocking to see BRAW in 17K open gate, Q3 in this case, playing back smoothly on a smartphone. Pure Sci-Fi! Of course, it’s not playing in full resolution, which can’t be shown anyway. BlackRAW uses fractional decoding, and it does it very efficiently with BRAW, down to one-eighth. Of course it has no problems whatsoever playing back 6K BRAW. The app also supports ProRes RAW (PRR for short), which LumaFusion doesn’t support.
The high data rate of PRR HQ at 24 fps drives it to the limit, and we experienced some audio dropouts. Standard PRR works smoothly, even in open gate, as do recordings from other cameras with the Atomos Ninja. But as we’ve seen in other software, the range of RAW features is limited compared to Final Cut Pro (FCP for short); see here. You should always get white balance, hue, exposure, ISO, and highlights repair in RAW. Apple recently expanded the PRR SDK with more third-party support, so some of those missing features may arrive sooner or later.
BlackRAW also supports every video codec you can regularly play on an iPhone, and it even has transforms for many popular log formats. But only BRAW can be trimmed losslessly, like Media Management in DaVinci Resolve (DR for short). BRAW support comes impressively close to DR; it’s obviously the area that got the most work. And you wouldn’t really want to runDR’ss crowded GUI on a phone, would you?
Speed
Beyond simple playback and metadata checks, you can try looks and corrections on your footage. You can export a BRAW sidecar with your results, which lets you make all kinds of changes later in post. For other formats, you can only hand over a LUT or bake the look into a file for the team. Speed matters, of course, since you’ll need to keep the app open while exporting. Exporting a clip from a source in 6K BRAW at 25 fps to H.265 with some corrections takes about one-third of real time. A Mac mini M4 Pro is faster, exporting the same clip in under half the runtime, but come on, it’s a phone!
BRAW trims about as fast as DR on an M4 Pro, but of course we tested it on a single SSD. Even generating proxies on the phone is only marginally slower than in DR, but a computer with two fast storage devices to move the footage might be faster. With a fast SSD, the difference between exporting in UHD or HD is minimal. After all, the iPhone has the necessary hardware encoders. Rendered exports currently use SDR Rec. 709. So, HDR sources need an SDR output transform before final delivery.
Even an original in 17K at 24 fps is exported to UHD, but that needs twice the clip’s runtime. OK, we get the absurdity, since a team using the URSA Cine 17K will have a full-blown video village and won’t resort to a phone to check footage. Or maybe? Nevertheless, it’s crazy impressive, and these little pocket devices get faster with every generation. The iPhone 17 Pro and newer models even have the hardware to decode ProRes RAW and should run that format smoothly in HQ too.
Workflow
Yes, it’s technically possible. But it must be an emergency or masochism if anyone is finishing a movie on a phone. Admittedly, LumaFusion can even output video to an external display. Blackmagic RAW isn’tmeant for that, but for prep. So, you can arrange clips on a timeline, trim them, even swap a clip with the one next to it, but that’s it for editing. Grading can go further; you can do most primary colour corrections offered in DR, wheels, curves, and even specialities like Colour Slice.
You can also grade from an imported LUT as a starting point. Finally, you can export the resulting look as a LUT for serious post. You can apply looks to a single clip or several clips. For BRAW, you can even export a sidecar file, compatible with DR for RAW corrections. You can still apply a LUT on top of that. For PRR, you can also save corrections in a JSON sidecar. Still, only the app understands it, not DR. Unfortunately, this also applies to most geometric operations, but de-squeezing is an exception.
You can render your whole timeline with that first light (often called one-light) grading in H.264, H.265, or ProRes 422, in HD or UHD. To edit further in DR or FCP, export an EDL or, better, an FCPXML. You may have to relink your originals in post, but even off-speed clips from the camera work if their target frame rate matches the timeline. The first clip, similar to DR, sets the timeline frame rate.
Things get a bit more complex for a timeline with clips at different original frame rates. Clips that aren’t at the same speed as the timeline will arrive in DR as compound clips, so you won’t get to the RAW tab directly for them. With mixed frame rates, a BRAW trim in Blackmagic RAW can go wrong, and reference clips can be slightly off. This is unavoidable, or do you seriously expect a frame-rate-agnostic timeline with speed-correction algorithms on a phone? DR can struggle with such timelines, even on stronger hardware.
Teamwork is at the core of any serious production, and BlackRAW supports it via iCloud or AirDrop. If you are on the same WLAN, you can drop an FCPXML, EDL, LUT, or ASC-CDL (XML) to others’ devices, or publish to iCloud. Exported clips start with a 1-hour TC, as most professional NLEs do. You can use them as a reference clip in DR, or cut a high-quality version up from the exported EDL by importing it as a pre-conformed EDL. In this case, the project frame rate in DR must be correct.
Features
We won’t list the impressive features here; see our screenshots above instead. BlackRAW remembers its own projects and will ask for the media if it’s not connected. In addition to supporting DR-compatible sidecars and handling things like de-squeezing (if your camera doesn’t), it writes its own JSON sidecars for RAW sources. They preserve individual settings, including those DR doesn’t read.
Handling
While the manual still needs a bit of work, the GUI is intuitive for folks familiar with editing and colour grading in DR or similar software. We didn’t test integration with other software, but any NLE that understands FCPXML version 1.10 should be fine. Others will be limited to what an EDL can handle. Responsiveness is generally good, but you may need to rest your finger on the button for a split second for a slider to react (at least on our slightly older phone).
During our in-depth testing, we found a few things that needed polishing, and the author responded quickly and made great improvements soon after. BlackRAW supports several European and Asian languages, but professional users may prefer English, since not every translation fits the small screen very well.
Conclusion
For those shooting BRAW or ProRes RAW, nothing on the iPhone comes close. Even for other video formats,s you get the deepest colour grading tools this side of DaVinci Resolve. BlackRAW Studio on an iPhone is a great tool for preparing and demonstrating footage to the team, all while it stays in your pocket.
Try it with a 7-day free trial, after which it becomes a player only. The full version costs a reasonable 5,99 € per month, or 44,99 per year. If you hate subscriptions, you can also get a lifetime version for 79,99 €. As usual, the prices may vary depending on local taxes.
