Doubt(s) about ALEXA

[Shane Kelly]

Sanjin,
if it was ergonomic I wouldn't need my mantis and my easyrig. Anyway, the epic will hopefully be the modular camera that we are all looking for. I'll strip it down for handheld and you can put a bunch of mikes and recorders on it and we'll both be happy.

 

[Chris Armstrong]

3 months from now, EPIC is going to show up here in 1000 different configurations and you are going to say... "oh."

Jim

Is that the shipping to general public (stage 2 and beyond) version or Tattoo?



-Chris

 

[Ruairi Robinson]

ARRI Alexa stays in competition with RED stuff (Alexa's 3.5K recording resolution is OK but is not good enough like a 4.5K/5K with R1/Epic)...

"There is no point in having sharp images when you've fuzzy ideas."

I agree with the second quote.

I would also

like to point out

that

I

love

irony.

It keeps me entertained

on cold

and lonely nights.

R.

 

[Hans von Sonntag]

I've put an Alexa mock-up on my shoulder. And it is interesting to see that a design that looks uncomfy does not necessarily be unergonomic, on the contrary.

From time to time I'm shooting with my RedOne documentary projects that cannot make use of a shoulder rigs because the switch from the sticks to shoulder, knee, floor whatever must be quick. While this kind of works it is far from ergonomic or convenient. The main problems are the too high center of gravity and the massive and heavy EVF.

The often smiled at boxy design of the Alexa is surprisingly ergonomic; the centre of gravity is low, the body itself is long enough to counter balance with an attached battery at the rear moderate sized lenses, matteboxes and FF to make the camera not too front heavy. While all this is great, the Alexa is not a light weight camera. It is as heavy as the RedOne. From an ergonomic POV Arri designed this camera well. But this was to be expected.

I'm more than grateful that Red offers an significant sensor update making my "old" Redone not obsolete. And I have big hopes with Epic to solve most of the known issues with the RedOne. Meanwhile Alexa will enter the shelfs of the rental houses and I'm very curious to see how it will perform in real life, how a RAW workflow will be sorted out and least but not least how ArriCode (how ever that will be called) will work.

I'm happy that it looks like that Arri is finally back. Good news.

Hans

 

[XiaoSu Han]

Well I'm quite frustrated with the RED ONE as we've shot a couple of weeks of handheld only now and it's not really comfortable unless you invest in: the ET EVF holder, a proper shoulder system and extend it massively towards the back to balance it. Without the Easyrig it would definitely kill my back.

That is not out of the box for me.

We'll see what EPIC and Alexa bring, competition is a good thing.

 

[Sanjin Jukic]

I must say this is pretty interesting tread.

I was at the Fraunhofer Booth at IBC and I think their Flashbox (prototype) will be a great recorder for the Alexa cameras...

http://www.fraunhofer.de/en/press/research-news/2009/08/flashbox-storage.jsp

Jörgen,

thanks for the link and I have seen it at the last IBC show.

It is still unknown if Arri is implementing this recording solution because Herr Bravin is still not permitted to talk about those details in public.

But lets give more detail about that recorder here at the forum:

"The recorder can record images for digital cinema and HD in a resolution of up to 2048 x 1080 pixels.
It is also capable of storing Bayer raw sensor data and optionally JPEG2000 images. On the inside of the robust housing,
Solid State Disks (SSD) operate in two slots so that the disks can be switched. Currently, this makes a total of 500 gigabytes
available for storing the takes. The box is a mere 13 cm long, 8 cm wide and 7 cm deep (approximately 5.1 x 3.1 x 2.8 inches),
and weighs 1,500 grams (around 3.3 pounds) without the SSD disks.

This solution tremendously simplifies the entire film production process. Digital movie cameras like the ARRI D21 or Sony F35
deliver uncompressed data that can be stored directly on the FlashBox. The device automatically detects the camera and data type
for the respective camera model; alternatively, the appropriate recording format can be manually selected through the menu.
The camera operator also gets additional information from this menu, such as a display of the space still available on the SSD disks,
a take list and format settings. When filming is complete, the image data are shown in the take list. If the SSD disk is full,
it can be switched out directly on the set via Plug&Play. An adapter allows the film material to be loaded directly from the exchangeable
disk to a server via USB or firewire. It can even be directly loaded with a SATA slide-in unit in the computer.
The display through one of the preview outputs gives filmmakers the first impression of the filming.
A control monitor for quality assessment can be attached through HDMI and HDSI interfaces.

FlashBox even benefits the post-production process. The uncompressed recording preserves the original camera quality.
Stored Bayer raw data allow for optimal image processing; uncompressed image data ensure the maximum capability
for correcting image dynamics and color adjustment.

A multi-level prompting process protects the recorded scenes on the FlashBox from being accidentally overwritten.
The robust housing additionally guards the SSD disks from shocks and vibrations."

The »FlashBox« onboard recorder from Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V., München, Germany.

Sanjin, the fact that a largely handheld movie shot on the RED One was nominated for a cinematography award does not mean that it's a naturally ergonomic camera.

There are solutions to problems - there are ways to make the RED One reasonably comfortable. But a cat-on-the-shoulder it is not.

Brook,

you are right and there is no "naturally ergonomic camera".

Even Barry Ackroyd, BSC during shooting "The Hurt Locker" had assistant that all the time helped him to get of on on from his shoulder Aaton 16mm that is the most famous as "a cat-on-the-shoulder" camera till today.

But in that way I must say again that my handheld configured RED1 is like a tiger-baby-cat-on the-shoulder camera.

Just because I'm working with lightweight prime lenses...

3 months from now, EPIC is going to show up here in 1000 different configurations and you are going to say... "oh."

Jim

Jim,

thanks for this amazing news !!!!!!!!!

I agree with the second quote.

I would also

like to point out

that

I

love

irony.

It keeps me entertained

on cold

and lonely nights.

R.

Ruairi,

I know what you mean.

Also I'm not so interested in technical things but like solving problems.

I'm more working with idea, concepts or ideology and making analysis how it is related with a sort of "fuzziness" that we can often see it in reality...

I've put an Alexa mock-up on my shoulder. And it is interesting to see that a design that looks uncomfy does not necessarily be unergonomic, on the contrary.

From time to time I'm shooting with my RedOne documentary projects that cannot make use of a shoulder rigs because the switch from the sticks to shoulder, knee, floor whatever must be quick. While this kind of works it is far from ergonomic or convenient. The main problems are the too high center of gravity and the massive and heavy EVF.

The often smiled at boxy design of the Alexa is surprisingly ergonomic; the centre of gravity is low, the body itself is long enough to counter balance with an attached battery at the rear moderate sized lenses, matteboxes and FF to make the camera not too front heavy. While all this is great, the Alexa is not a light weight camera. It is as heavy as the RedOne. From an ergonomic POV Arri designed this camera well. But this was to be expected.

I'm more than grateful that Red offers an significant sensor update making my "old" Redone not obsolete. And I have big hopes with Epic to solve most of the known issues with the RedOne. Meanwhile Alexa will enter the shelfs of the rental houses and I'm very curious to see how it will perform in real life, how a RAW workflow will be sorted out and least but not least how ArriCode (how ever that will be called) will work.

I'm happy that it looks like that Arri is finally back. Good news.

Hans

Hans,

from your report here I still didn't see that Arri showed any box where they are going

to record uncompressed or compressed images (or whatever)

from Alexa which pricing begins at only €50K Euros...

This recording box is going to change already "heavy" Alexa's ergonomic possibilities even more worst.

Don't forget Arri's advertising campaign where they wanted to show

D21 as an ideal "anamorphic"

digital acquisition system that in reality didn't show up so much of use and sense.

Bluffing as advertising - Learn a great strategy!

It's about a camera poker game!

 

[Joseph Hutson]

Tattoo is coming in May?

I'd be surprised if there were 1,000 tattoo owners. What this might imply, is there will be a lot more than 1,000 EPIC owners and possibly 1,000 of them will post pics of their individual setups. :thumbup:

 

[Steven Caesare]

I'd be surprised if there were 1,000 tattoo owners. What this might imply, is there will be a lot more than 1,000 EPIC owners and possibly 1,000 of them will post pics of their individual setups. :thumbup:

A single Epic with a few modules+Redmote and a few grips/handles is good for a whole slew of combinations.

I bet it more like 20 Tattoo'd cams with their proud owners showing sending us multiple pics.

-sc

 

[Roberto Lequeux]

May? That sounds great.