Arri 'Alexa' New Line of the D-21

Ryan Patrick O'Hara

Ryan Patrick O'Hara

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http://fdtimes.wordpress.com/2009/09/11/arri-blue/

http://fdtimes.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/arri_alexa-blue_fdtimes27.pdf

Any of you cinematographers who haven't heard about this yet are going to be very interested in Arri's new camera line.

Some have nick-named the cameras 'Blue'... Jon Fauer, ASC offers many reasons in his article... except the elephant in the room. Without going into that debate... I am super excited for these cameras to hit the market. Although pricey for an indie cameraman to purchase (40,000 Euros +), the new line of D-21 like cams seem to be eagerly awaited.

Some key points they have over their previous D-21 brothers is increased latitude, sensitivity and decreased noise. The camera is now an impressive iso/asa 800. A huge improvement over the previous 200 area.

It seems Arri's focus is more on these factors of the image than on resolution numbers. By having less photosites on a large sensor area, sensitivity and signal cleanliness improve. The 3.5k sensor is downsampled to a great quality 2k and is, by Arri's definition, completely RAW, unlike other RAW formats which in the past do undergo some sort of proprietary compression. I need to further look into the Arri RAW system of data, but thus far they are impressing the pants off me.

Is this affordable? No. But the price is drastically less expensive then say other cams in it's class (F35, genesis, etc) and for sure the previous D-21's! At 40k in Euros, the rental rate will hopefully be less then the current D-21 which is about $3,000usd per day!

I love the company Arri, and can't wait to see this camera!


Hopefully this thread can be updated when more news comes out!
 
I hope for Arri's sake that they sell a lot of these.
I have it from a trusted source that Arri's camera manufacturing employees in Germany are only currently working a 1-2 day work week! They just aren't selling enough new film cameras. Hopefully their new digital cameras will make them busier once they start rolling the Alexa out in quantity.

40K euros will be a premium compared to the new Epics coming out, but still competitive.
Arri's strong suit will not only be sensitivty, but I think what they are most famous for - reliability.

Then again, my Arri 16BL motor just died after what - 40 years? What's wrong with Arri, come on just 40 years, why not 41?.... Argh, just before I was about to sell it I'm so let down!! It's easy to replace contrary to what people read on the web - I just don't like the thought of putting out a few hundred dollars for another motor. If someone has one that can sell it cheap, PM me.
 
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the day we start crying for Arri because the aren't busy enough is the day that I have millions of dollars to spend on $5000 matte boxes and Follow Focusses
 
How do you mean? Panavision Genesis and the Sony Cinealta line use Sony SRW recorders, Red uses Red Drives, Viper is teathered or to drive... it seems only the Panasonic Varicam is the only high-up level camera that still can record totally within the camera body. (Ok... red has cards... but seriously, they only get away with that because of the 10:1 / 8:1 compression. Arri is technically 'more raw' then RED raw, thus I expect their data stream to be a bit more torrent)

Almost all cine-packages use a magazine style external harddrive or solid state style devices. I doubt you will be seeing internal drives or cards in the camera body itself.
 
blaremedia said:
the day we start crying for Arri because the aren't busy enough is the day that I have millions of dollars to spend on $5000 matte boxes and Follow Focusses
Click to expand...

Arri has made great cameras for, what, over 90 years and, have had a great impact on independent filmmaking as we have come to know it . Now if they can't compete in the digital age, then so be it. However, I think that they will be able to innovate and help keep pushing the upper level image making envelope higher and higher. Will I be able to afford to purchase one of these cameras? No, but I am very glad that there will be an Arri digital option available for rental now and in the future. More camera choices is a great thing.
 
I believe S1-2k can shoot 1:1 uncompressed or 4:1 compression in camera. Straight to .mov files. With 11.3 stops of latitude, 12bit video and universal lens mount and a tone of break through features. All for 1,200 a day. Well just for the body that is.

Also, I would figure Arri would have variable iso/ASA option.

The D-21 probably has an incredible picture but it seems you need to be Hollywood to afford it, workflow cost and now the ND filters for exteriors.
 
My first camera was an Arri 16 BL. I have had an SR an SR II, an SRII High Speed, a 35 BL III and a 535 all rock solid amazing German engineering. I can imagine any digital camera Arri makes will be of the same impeccable quality. I can be assured it will suffer none of the over heating problems that plaque the Reds when operating out here in the great american desert. Yes folks, heat is a problem with the RED, there I said it. The red is a great camera but.......
 
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