I presume the "full frame modes" use the full height or width of the sensor (or both depending on the aspect ratio),
That would mean that the camera is down scaling from the full resolution of the sensor to the output resolution.
But that would mean the data is not raw in the sense that it has to be debayered. Does this mean you can only have video output in the full frame modes, or is it kind of like 14 bit bitmap frames with a blue, red and green component for every pixel?
You are correct, the full frame video files are debayered and downscaled to 14bit YUV422. Usually this format is not called raw, it's an uncompressed intermediate format.
How does 14bit YUV422 compare to 14bit Bayer RAW? They are both designed to take less space than pure RGB (which takes at least 24bit per pixel) but they do this by imitating the sensibility of the human eye.
Bayer RAW
It is the closest to what the sensor records. All commonly used sensors are essentially black and white. Every "pixel" gets a color filter that makes it sensible to only one color. A color sensor usually has a repeating pattern of 2 green, 1 blue and 1 red "pixel": the Bayer pattern. The final RGB pixel you get on your screen is actually an R, G or B pixel, with the rest of the color calculated from neighboring pixels: this is called a debayered image.
YUV422
It's an intermediate format because it's always the output of some kind of transformation. No sensor will capture directly in YUV422 format.
In YUV422 every pixel has a brightness value, but color information is combined for every 2 pixels.
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You are correct, the full frame video files are debayered and downscaled to 14bit YUV422. Usually this format is not called raw, it's an uncompressed intermediate format.
How does 14bit YUV422 compare to 14bit Bayer RAW? They are both designed to take less space than pure RGB (which takes at least 24bit per pixel) but they do this by imitating the sensibility of the human eye.
Bayer RAW
It is the closest to what the sensor records. All commonly used sensors are essentially black and white. Every "pixel" gets a color filter that makes it sensible to only one color. A color sensor usually has a repeating pattern of 2 green, 1 blue and 1 red "pixel": the Bayer pattern. The final RGB pixel you get on your screen is actually an R, G or B pixel, with the rest of the color calculated from neighboring pixels: this is called a debayered image.
YUV422
It's an intermediate format because it's always the output of some kind of transformation. No sensor will capture directly in YUV422 format.
In YUV422 every pixel has a brightness value, but color information is combined for every 2 pixels.