ARRI ALEXA camera offers native ProRes capture for Final Cut Studio

ARRI announced that its new ALEXA digital camera now includes native support for Apple ProRes codecs used in Final Cut Studio. The ALEXA camera supports Apple ProRes 422 (HQ) and ProRes 4444, and allows stunning HD images to be captured and recorded onto commercially available removable storage media. These unique recording and workflow capabilities, combined with the unparalleled image quality of ARRI's new CMOS sensor, create an ergonomic, lightweight and portable camera ideally suited to both high fidelity studio and location production.

"Combining our digital imaging technology directly with ProRes makes the ALEXA camera the highest quality digital camera system available," says Adrian Widera, ARRI Strategic and Business Development. "The simple, immediate access to ProRes brings a whole new level of productivity to the professional motion picture and broadcast market."

"Final Cut is already the first choice of professional video editors," says Richard Townhill, Apple's director of Video Applications Marketing. "By recording directly to ProRes, the new ALEXA camera gives editors the most efficient workflow possible."

The ALEXA camera's workflow solution offers native recording of ProRes compressed HD images onto high performance SxS cards and provides instant access, viewing and editing of images in Apple's Final Cut Pro on Mac desktop and notebook computers. No ingestion or transcoding step is required.

The ARRI ALEXA will be shipping to customers worldwide in June, and is currently being used to shoot the new motion picture "Anonymous" for acclaimed director Roland Emmerich.

ALEXA has been designed to function as both a motion picture camera and a broadcast camera. For TV production, the time and cost savings as well as the extraordinary simplicity of ALEXA workflows will transform budgets and schedules, while the cinematic image quality will stagger viewers. For features, the sheer variety of outputs, functions, lenses and accessories will enable filmmakers to realize their visions without ever feeling restricted by technology.
Whether your production is destined for the silver screen or the TV screen, ALEXA will empower you to tell your story in exactly the way you think it should be told, with pictures of breathtaking richness and detail.


MULTIPLE OUTPUT OPTIONS

Different projects have different production requirements, budgets and distribution channels; the equipment chosen has to be flexible enough to accommodate those differences. The unique construction of the ALEXA and ARRIFLEX D-21 allows for various output signals to be generated, accommodating diverse production needs and pipelines.
ALEXA is unique in that it can simultaneously record Apple QuickTime/ProRes files, output uncompressed HD video or uncompressed ARRIRAW data. This output versatility makes it ideal for a myriad of productions and workflows from telenovellas to feature films.
As the best recording media for the QuickTime/ProRes files, ARRI has chosen SxS cards because of their high data throughput. Two SxS cards fit into a module on the camera's left side for convenient on-board recording and are hot swapable.
Two outputs which can be configured to 3G or 1.5G HD-SDI deliver an uncompressed high definition video stream with various options such as recording in 4:2:2 or 4:4:4 and ITU Rec709 or Log C tone mapping and color matrixes.
The two recording links can alternatively be used to output the ARRIRAW T-link signal, which can be recorded by a number of certified third party on-board recorders. ARRIRAW is the only way to access the full potential of ALEXA's sensor which has color and dynamic range capabilities far beyond standard HD. ARRI's own ARRIRAW Image Converter (ARC) provides image reconstruction features for the Windows, LINUX and Mac OS platforms. As a result of long term corporate initiatives with key development partners within the ARRIRAW Partner Program, a number of post production tools can now natively work with ARRIRAW files.
These output formats are well established standards that integrate the cameras seamlessly into the existing HD infrastructure.