ProRes
Also known as: Apple ProRes, ProRes 422, ProRes 422 HQ
An Apple family of high-quality, lightly compressed video codecs built for editing. Files are huge but decode easily and survive heavy grading.
Updated
What it means
ProRes is an intermediate codec: it compresses each frame on its own, keeps a lot of detail, and is designed to be easy for editing software to play back. That makes it the opposite of the HEVC and H.264 files action cameras usually record, which squeeze footage hard to save space but are demanding to edit.
The family has several flavors, from Proxy and LT for lightweight work up to 422 HQ and 4444 for the highest quality. Higher versions carry more color information and detail, which helps when footage is pushed hard in grading or used for green screen and effects work.
How it works in practice
Some phones, drones and higher-end cameras can record ProRes directly, and editors often transcode action camera clips to ProRes before editing so the timeline plays smoothly. It is also a common delivery format between editors, colorists and post houses, usually inside a MOV container.
The trade-off is size. A few minutes of 4K ProRes 422 HQ can fill tens of gigabytes, many times the size of the same clip in HEVC. Fast storage and plenty of space are part of any ProRes workflow, and long action sessions in ProRes need serious drive capacity.
What to watch out for
Transcoding to ProRes does not add quality. It only makes footage easier to handle. A compressed camera file converted to ProRes still has the detail and artifacts it had before, just in a much bigger file. Keep the original files as your masters.
Upload and sharing are the other catch. Uploading huge ProRes files over a home connection can take a long time, and many web platforms and tools prefer H.264 or HEVC. For anything that leaves your editing machine, export a compressed copy unless the recipient specifically asks for ProRes, and check that your card or drive can keep up when recording it.
How RawClip handles it
RawClip accepts MOV files with H.264 or H.265 video. If your clips are ProRes MOVs, play it safe and export them to HEVC or H.264 first. That also makes the upload much faster before the AI builds your highlight.