Nikon N-RAW workflow.
Edit, review, deliver.

N-RAW keeps the sensor’s 12-bit data instead of a finished picture. White balance and ISO travel as metadata, so those calls happen in the grade on a calibrated display, not permanently at record time. The trade is weight, and Nikon is unusually direct about it: the Z9 reference manual lists an approximate average bit rate for every N-RAW frame size and rate, in both High and Normal quality.

The top of that table is serious storage. At 8256x4644, the 8.3K frame, High quality 60p averages approx. 5,780 Mbps. Apple’s target for ProRes 422 HQ at UHD 60p is 1,768 Mbps, so the heaviest N-RAW setting writes more than three times the rate of the fattest common intermediate, at a larger frame. Normal quality runs about 40 percent lighter at every size, and the per-minute arithmetic is below.

The uncompressed.io macOS app decodes N-RAW natively, next to RED R3D and Blackmagic BRAW, and plays camera masters up to 15,000 Mbps, so every row of the Z9 table plays as recorded, no proxies. The grading chair is DaVinci Resolve; Blackmagic’s release notes are the authority on which camera formats your version decodes, so confirm before committing a job. The hard boundary is the browser: no browser on any host decodes camera RAW, ours included, which is why the web side of this workflow streams an HEVC export you control.

Review runs through the room at /review: the share link is the auth, so a director opens it with no account, comments carry timecode, drawings sit on the exact frame, and approvals land red or green per version. New versions keep the same link, so v3 never scatters into a second email thread.

RAW is not automatically the biggest file in the bag. Nikon’s 4128x2322 24p High rate is approx. 700 Mbps, under Apple’s 884 Mbps target for ProRes 422 HQ at UHD 30p: different frames, same shelf of drives. The blowout lives at the other end, where 8.3K 60p High averages approx. 5,780 Mbps, about 43 GB a minute, and that number belongs in the budget before it is on a card.

One path wastes the format: transcoding .NEV to ProRes on ingest, grading the ProRes, and archiving that as the master. The 12-bit latitude you carried through the shoot dies quietly in that first render. Transcode for editorial convenience if the machine demands it, then conform back and grade from the negative.

In the macOS app, a .NEV posted to the room plays as recorded, full rate, exact frames. The DP approving a look on an 8.3K job is judging the negative, not a streaming rendition of it. Platforms built on browser playback cannot offer that: Frame.io documents converting uploads into H.264/H.265 MP4 proxies for playback (the Frame.io comparison has the details), and Vimeo’s own guidelines cap a 4K stream at 22 Mbps.

Browser reviewers still get a faithful stream. Export an HEVC 10-bit twin in the 100 to 150 Mbps no-drop band and post it beside the master: we stream the exact bytes you upload, so the twin arrives with its gradients intact instead of re-quantized into bands. When notes land, free NLE sync returns them to the timeline: a Resolve script places comments as markers, a signed Premiere panel does the same, and Final Cut takes a one-drag bundle with drawing stills.

Delivery closes the loop in the same link. The graded master uploads resumable to 50 GB per file, the owner switches on original-file downloads, and the client pulls the exact export from the page where they approved it. For choosing and sizing that master, the ProRes delivery guide has Apple’s full rate table with the per-minute arithmetic done.