The arrival of the Arri Alexa 35mm digital motion picture camera represents a benchmark, not only in the quality and clarity of the images produced, but also in the efficiency of the acquisition workflow. Configured to write to proprietary solid state media (SXS cards) with globally acceptable Apple ProRes codecs, Alexa records material that is instantly reviewable at full resolution in a shooting environment.
Of course uncompressed native HD and ARRIRAW outputs are also available with the consequent on set data handling implications. With the Alexa, Arri has released a camera with the pedigree lineage of Oscar winning technical innovation in a package designed to produce stunning results in the contemporary marketplace.
This camera has become the standard in Drama and features use as the camera of choice for DoPs, due to its very simple operating interface and reliable and robust construction.
Shoots Apple FCP Prores 4:2:2 or 4:4:4
This is a stunning high-end camera shooting to low-cost SxS Express Cards in a reliable format using native Apple FCP Prores 4:2:2 or 4:4:4 format which can be easily ingested and edited.
Our opinion on the ARRI Alexa is that with the Alexa's pro-focused build and simple post production workflow, that if the workflow is reliable enough to mean that you don't need to pay a DIT to be on location, then it shouldn't cost any more than using a RED and really go mainstream!
A Super 35 CMOS Bayer sensor can shoot uncompressed 2K resolutions output in native Prores 4:2:2 onto internal SxS card flash memory.
You can shoot high end 1080p video with the camera and have it encoded in Final Cut Pro native codecs (Apple's ProRes 4:2:2 and ProRes 4:4:4) to allow editing as you shoot without conversion - a rarity in the cinematic HD world or you can record off-board to many off-board recorders to record full uncompressed 4:4:4 HD from Summer 2011.
