Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

Register Log in
  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

alexa M naming epic M ripp off?

C

Cüneyt Kaya

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 1, 2007
Messages
3,909
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Location
good old Berlin
Website
www.allahead.de
am i the only one thinking its lets say strange that arri called their new small cam
alexa M?
beside the name the size is similar but you additionaly also need a back pack (recorder), so me personally think its inferior to epic. more comparable to the si-2k design.
but come on, alexa M? that cant be serious.
and why is mr cameron preferring that back pack prototype over epic?
dont know if you can actually call it ripp off, maybe thats the wrong word,
but it is weird.
 
Cüneyt Kaya said:
am i the only one thinking its lets say strange that arri called their new small cam
alexa M?
beside the name the size is similar but you additionaly also need a back pack (recorder), so me personally think its inferior to epic. more comparable to the si-2k design.
but come on, alexa M? that cant be serious.
and why is mr cameron preferring that back pack prototype over epic?
dont know if you can actually call it ripp off, maybe thats the wrong word,
but it is weird.
Click to expand...

I for one am not going to lose any sleep over this.

R.
 
in the words of S.J

"It's a non-issue"

If they want to call it Alexa M, go ahead.... RED don't care...REDs EPIC speaks for itself as does the Alexa M, each have their ups but RED prefers to duke it out on the big screen with what its capable of and the list of movies, indie and blockbuster building around the EPIC...

The issue would come with if they had a similar or same form factor and called it Alexa M...and it was 5K. Their clearly still asleep...alas thats life
 
If you can't beat them, join them? I've been following the Alexa and the RED for some time now, asking questions, learning, and I really don't get the new M (Alexa, that is) at all. So the head is smaller - but you've still got the weight and the tether and the Epic is small and light to begin with.

Albert
 
Ruairi Robinson said:
I for one am not going to lose any sleep over this.

R.
Click to expand...
I shall not either...... they both are great camera systems and I feel its about having the right tool for the right job and have chosen to own both.
 
It's called "paying homage" ... x)
 
"M" is such a sexy letter of the alphabet that I'm sure ARRI is thinking that it will increase sales by 500%...

Yes, the whole world thinks of Red when they see the letter "M" so clearly this is some sort of copyright infringement. But wait, what about the famous Arri-S, let alone Arri-SB, Arri-M, Arri-BL, Arricam-ST, Arricam-LT... does ARRI have first dibs on all those letters? So when Red goes to the Epic-S, they will be ripping off the Arri-S?

Honestly, why is this an issue? A letter of the alphabet? What about all those competing DSLR's with "D" in their name? What about all those video cameras with the numbers "100" in the name?
 
Sony has had a version of the 950 camera with a separate imaging head (the HKC-T950 CCD Block Adapter) for a number of years now (over 10 years, in fact - it was introduced in 2000). That's what Vince Pace has used on his 3D rigs for quite some time and is what was used for the live action sections of "Avatar." Arri's Alexa M unit is a very similar approach, and that is likely both part of the design criteria, and the reason Pace and Cameron committed to it for their new rigs. In fact, I would say that the Arri product is far more influenced by the Sony camera than it is by either SI or Red.
 
Eh. The name isn't too big of a deal. What's interesting was that when I was at the Arri booth, I asked what "M" stood for. They said "M stands for 'Modular', as we are enabling people to take the modular approach by allowing people to go as small as they want, or as big as they want."

Perhaps RED is doing a thing or two right...
 
Naming totally aside (as it means nothing here), the modularity aspect is of great interest. Sony and Arri are showing off modular concepts that follow what RED is pioneering with the DSMC system. I can totally understand why RED can't be 100% transparent and forthcoming with future plans now. If not for the success of the RED One and the subsequent modular Epic/Scarlet system, Sony's 4K+ camera head module and the Alexa-M would not exist. I'm pretty confident of that. I do believe that Alexa would have come along either way. To me, it's just the natural evolution from the ARRI-D21. Now the marketing and more aggressive pricing from ARRI for the Alexa most certainly has something to do with RED.

To me this is the most exciting time to be in motion picture industry other than perhaps the dawning era of Hollywood itself.
 
I can see why Mullen an M Most appreciate the letter. ( :

"Modular" is as good a reason as any other.
 
IMHO ... "Chopping the camera into two pieces"* is a half-assed (no pun intended) way to make a camera modular.

* Marc Shipman-Mueller
 
That's another discussion, Mr. Matthes. ( :


And for the sake of Redusers' integrity: let's try introducing such topics in a more reflective manner, don't leap in with "RIPP OFF's" and the likes. A simple "Does anyone know why ..." is much more preferable.
 
There is certainly no denying Red's influence in accelerating development of these things, but once again, a bit of historical context might be in order. As I already mentioned, Sony introduced a "modular" camera in 2000 that was used as the basis for the Pace rigs (and a number of 3ality designs as well) to this day. They also introduced a shipping model of their 4K projector in 2005, before the Red One was even publicly unveiled. It was pretty inevitable that they would ultimately develop 4K digital cameras as well, in fact, I'm surprised it took them this long.

As I said, Red has had a very deep and significant influence on many products that have appeared, as well as their development schedules and perhaps most significantly, their price points. But there have been other contributors, too, and if one looks at some of the things being introduced now, all of those influences are evident.
 
As for modularity Red isn't the first to design a camera to be modular. The components of the Viper were also modular and designed to be upgradable. Grass Valley just didn't make any upgrades for the cameras because they lost their shirt on developing it and stopped the camera line. Red is certainly the first to offer the ability to replace the sensor though, which Sony is offering to do with the F65.

The separated head on the Alexa had been in the plan from the beginning, modeled after Sony doing that with their F950 many years ago. It was imperative for Arri to offer that design if they wanted to be a player in this 3D hyped world and they knew that. Epic had nothing to do with it.

I think the biggest, if not the only, design aspects Red had influence on on the Alexa was the price and the software based camera design. The software based camera is another important design aspect that Red has introduced, even though it comes with many many problems and has it's drawbacks. But the greatest positive affect of software based cameras is price.
 
Really? This thread has to exist? Is that really necessary?

I suppose we'll be getting into Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 arguments as well soon won't we....
 
I overheard One of the Arri guys at their NAB booth explaining that the M was an in-joke from the design team that stood for Marie antoinette, as it has had its head cut off.

That versus the Epic M where it stands for Machined, right?

Pretty sure this is a coincidence. Not worth losing any sleep over.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top