DataCalc
Camera ↔︎ File Size Calculator
Professional camera storage calculator. Estimate video file sizes and recording time for popular cinema cameras including ARRI, RED, Blackmagic, Sony, Canon, and more!
How this calculator works
The Camera ↔︎ File Size calculator estimates recording file sizes and card capacity using real data rates for professional cameras — ARRI, RED, Blackmagic, Sony, Canon, Panasonic, DJI, and more. Pick a camera, codec, resolution, and frame rate, and it tells you how much storage a take, an hour, or a full shoot day will consume, or how many minutes fit on a given card.
Camera RAW formats (ARRIRAW, REDCODE, BRAW, X-OCN) and on-board ProRes each have very different appetites: the same one-hour interview might be 200 GB on one setup and well over a terabyte on another. Checking before the shoot beats reformatting cards mid-take.
Recording time from card capacity
Recording time (min) ≈ Card capacity (GB) × 8,000 ÷ Bitrate (Mb/s) ÷ 60
Example: a 512 GB card at 400 Mb/s → 512 × 8,000 ÷ 400 ÷ 60 ≈ 170 minutes.
| Data rate | Typical of | Time per 1 TB |
|---|---|---|
| 100 Mb/s | Mirrorless H.265 / XAVC | ≈22 hours |
| 400 Mb/s | High-end mirrorless RAW / All-I | ≈5.5 hours |
| 800 Mb/s | Cinema camera ProRes HQ UHD | ≈2.8 hours |
| 1,600 Mb/s | Compressed cinema RAW | ≈1.4 hours |
| 3,200 Mb/s | High-resolution / high-fps RAW | ≈42 minutes |
Illustrative rates — select your exact camera and codec in the calculator for precise numbers.
Frequently asked questions
How long can I record on a 512 GB card?
Divide capacity by data rate: at 100 Mb/s (common mirrorless H.265) about 11 hours; at 800 Mb/s (cinema ProRes) around 85 minutes; high-data-rate RAW formats can be under half an hour. Select your camera and codec in the calculator for the exact figure.
What affects camera file size the most?
Codec first, then resolution and frame rate. Moving from a long-GOP codec to RAW can multiply storage 5–10×, doubling resolution roughly quadruples pixel count, and doubling frame rate roughly doubles intraframe data rates.
Do higher frame rates use more storage?
Yes. RAW and intraframe codecs scale almost linearly with frame rate — 120 fps consumes about five times the storage of 24 fps at the same settings.
How much storage does a shoot day need?
A documentary day on mirrorless cameras might produce 250–500 GB, while a narrative day on a RAW cinema camera can exceed 4–6 TB before backup copies. Estimate per-camera daily footage here, then plan total production storage with the Dailies Calculator.
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