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Professional Profile - November 2010

ALEXA is the new compact and lightweight digital camera from ARRI designed for broadcast and feature film productions. The camera is simple to operate, reliable and versatile to cover a wide range of workflows and budget requirements.

At the core of the camera is the ALEXA's new Super 35 format CMOS Bayer sensor that delivers the most organic and film-like image with a base sensitivity of 800 ISO equivalent, low noise and an unsurpassed dynamic range of more than 13.5 stops. It also shows an excellent color separation, which is important for green screen and VFX works.

ALEXA has the most versatile, quickest and simplest method from the set to post and distribution for HD and 2K DI workflows. Like the ARRIFLEX D-21, ALEXA outputs uncompressed HD video over HD-SDI and full sensor uncompressed ARRIRAW data through the T-Link interface. In addition to these outputs, ALEXA features the completely new Direct to Edit (DTE) workflow. This straight online workflow allows recording QuickTime files containing ProRes encoded images onto SxS cards. ALEXA's on-board recorder encodes Apple ProRes 422 HQ or ProRes 4444 images, along with audio, metadata and Final Cut Pro (FCP) XML files. These files load directly into FCP for editing, coloring and finishing work. Furthermore, the extremely high quality of Apple ProRes 422 HQ and ProRes 4444 codecs means that the edited result can be immediately distributed.

For productions that choose the highest possible image quality by recording uncompressed HD or ARRIRAW for an offline/online workflow gain another benefit from the DTE. The Apple Quicktime offline editing proxy files are created directly in the camera carrying the same images, audio, timecode and metadata as the online HD or ARRIRAW images. This removes the time-consuming extra steps of ingesting and creating an offline copy and ensures a complete congruency between offline and online versions.

ALEXA accepts either 24V power cable from a power supply or battery, or can be powered using 12V on-board V-Lock or Gold mount batteries. Batteries can be hot-plugged as the camera can auto-switch to the power source with the highest voltage.

ALEXA is compatible with the wide range of ARRI mechanical and electronic accessories including matte boxes, follow focus, bridge plates and wireless remote systems. This includes other accessories developed specially for the ALEXA.

The ALEXA comes with the high resolution ARRI Electronic Viewfinder, a viewing system that combines a state-of-the-art temperature stabilized 1280x768 display with an innovative auto-calibrating LED light engine and high quality coated glass.


For further details about the ALEXA go to www.arridigital.com

ALEXA is now available in Australia from Cinoptix, the Sydney-based film equipment rental house. Enquiries can be forwarded to info@cinoptix.com.au

 

 

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Arri Alexa from Cinoptix