ARRI ALEXA User manual

Pocket Guide

11.0

SUP

Table of Contents

ALEXA Pocket Guide

Table of Contents

Overview 4

New features in SUP 11.0 6

The Home Screen 8

Home Screen Soft Buttons 9

Icons on Home Screen 12

MON OUT Icons 14

Recording Media 16

ALEXA XT Output Overview 20

ALEXA Output Overview 21

ARRIRAW uncompressed 22

ARRIRAW Converter 3.0 24

ARRIRAW capable software solutions 25

ProRes 26

DNxHD 28

New recording features in SUP 11.0 30

Working with ALEXA 32

Exposure Index 32

ND ﬁlters 34

False Color Exposure Check 37

Color Spaces 38

Video - Rec 709 38

Log C 40

Linear 41

ARRI LUT Generator 41

In-Camera ARRI Look Files 42

Legal and Extended Range 48

p and psf 49

Metadata Overview 50

Licenses 52

Table of Contents

ARRI Lenses 104

ARRI/ZEISS Master Anamorphic Lenses 104

ARRI Anamorphic UWZ 19-36 106

ARRI/ZEISS Master Prime Lenses 108

ARRI/ZEISS Ultra Prime Lenses 110

ARRI/ZEISS LDS Ultra Prime Lenses 112

ARRI/FUJINON Alura Zoom Lenses 114

ARRI/FUJINON Alura LDS Extender 116

ARRI Ultra Wide Zoom UWZ 9.5-18 118

ARRI/ZEISS Master Macro Lens 120

Resources and Contacts 124

ARRI Sales Contacts 124

ARRI Service Contacts 126

ARRI Digital Workﬂow Solutions 128

Online Resources 129

ALEXA Pre-shoot Checklist 54

Recording with the XR or SxS Module 55

Camera Setup 55

Shooting High Speed 57

Recording ARRIRAW via T-Link 57

Shooting Stereo 3D 59

ALEXA M/ALEXA XT M ﬁber maintenance 59

Creating Lens Tables 60

ALEXA XT/XR Workﬂows 68

Compressed Recording Formats 68

Uncompressed ARRIRAW 68

Generating Deliverables 71

Scaling your Workﬂow 73

Speciﬁcations and Reference 74

Technical Speciﬁcations 74

Menu Settings & Button Functions 90

Overview

Welcome to the Pocket Guide for the ALEXA Classic

and ALEXA XT family of cameras, which contains

important preproduction and production information

for an ALEXA shoot. The ALEXA platform has been

designed with ease of use and user-friendliness in

mind; the menu and controls are simple and intuitive,

so the best way to learn ALEXA is to get your hands

Introduction

on the real thing. However, carrying this guide with

you and combining it with other resources such as

the ALEXA manual at www.arri.com/alexa/downloads

or the interactive ALEXA/ALEXA XT Camera

Simulator at www.arri.com/alexa/tools will ensure

your readiness to take full advantage of the camera’s

unique and versatile features.

ALEXA XT

ALEXA

Overview

The ALEXA and the ALEXA XT family

ALEXA XT PlusALEXA XT M ALEXA XT Studio

Overview

ALEXA is the ﬁrst and only camera to support

Apple’s new ProRes 4444 XQ codec. With its target

data rate of 500 Mb/s (at 1920 x 1080, 30p) and low

compression ratio of 1.45:1, ProRes 4444 XQ is the

ideal choice for productions that are shooting for

premium image quality, are looking for extreme color

grading options or want to preserve the superior

tonal range of ALEXA's Log C signal.

ProRes 3.2K recording format is suitable for

productions requiring 4K UHD deliverables. The

rescale to 4K UHD only demands a small upscale

factor of 1.2x. Available to ALEXA XT and ALEXA

Classic cameras with the XR Module upgrade,

ProRes 3.2K is a new recording resolution that uses

3164x1778 photo sites from the sensor to record

a 16:9 3.2K ProRes ﬁle. The 3.2K sensor area was

chosen because it is the largest area that can still be

covered by almost all Super 35 PL mount lenses.

In addition the new ADA-5 enhanced debayering

algorithm further improves ALEXA's image quality in

all already available ALEXA recording resolutions as

well as 3.2K recording.

180° image rotation allows Steadicam operators to

ﬂip their rig upside down for low mode shooting

and it rotates the image for the ARRI Ultra Wide

Zoom UWZ 9.5-18/T2.9. The rotation applies to EVF,

MON-OUT and REC-OUT. Internal recording is not

affected.

For high end workﬂows that utilize color on the set,

SUP 10 extends the number of recording modes that

support two independent HD-SDI outputs.

Previously only available in 16:9/HD/regular speed,

other recording modes now also beneﬁt from a clean

Log C signal on REC OUT while a Rec 709 signal

with overlays and an optional ARRI Look File can be

output on MON OUT.

SUP 10 & 11 - New Features

Overview

SUP 11 Feature Overview

• New ARRI Debayer Algorithm ADA-5

• ProRes 3.2K recording up to 30fps

• ARRIRAW Checksum in the ﬁle header

• Framelines saved in ARRIRAW Metadata

• Support for Lens Data Encoder LDE-1

• Support for Rev C SxS PRO+ Memory Cards

(SBP-64C and SBP-128C)

• Support for SanDisk CFast 2.0 128 GB

Memory Cards

• Advanced WCU-4 support

• Updated Web Remote GUI (V2.0)

• User Button „Check last clip end“ and

„Check last clip start“

SUP 10 Feature Overview

• ProRes 4444 XQ recording up to 75 fps

(ALEXA XT and XR)

• Support for SxS PRO+ 64GB and 128GB cards

(ALEXA Classic, XT and XR)

• 180° Image Rotation

(ALEXA Classic, XT and XR)

• Open Gate Support for ALEXA M (ALEXA XT M)

• REC OUT = Clean MON OUT

(ALEXA Classic, XT and XR)

• ARRIRAW 4:3 Cropped recording for 96 fps

with anamorphic lenses (ALEXA XT and XR)

• Fast regular/high speed switching

(ALEXA Classic, XT and XR)

• Dimmable status information

(ALEXA Classic, XT and XR)

• Monochrome status icons

(ALEXA Classic, XT and XR)

• Colored camera index letter

(ALEXA Classic, XT and XR)

• “Lens Squeeze Factor” metadata ﬁled

(ALEXA Classic, XT and XR)

• Independent Peaking setting for playback

(ALEXA Classic, XT and XR)

Overview

The Home Screen

Overview

Home Screen Soft Buttons

The soft buttons lead to screens where the respective

settings can be changed. In the home screen, the

following info is displayed:

FPS: Set sensor frame rate

AUDIO: Set audio preferences

When on = audio levels are shown

OFF = turned off

DISABLED = sensor is not running at

sync-sound speed

SHUTTER: Set shutter angle (and turn mirror

shutter on/off for ALEXA Studio)

EI: Set exposure index (and insert internal

ND ﬁlter for ALEXA Studio).

COLOR: Set gamma for REC OUT output (REC)

and internal recording of ProRes or

DNxHD (INT).

{ blue_int_icon } = The selected

ARRI Look File is applied to internally

recorded footage.

{ blue_REC_icon } = The selected

ARRI Look File is applied to REC OUT.

{ red_int_icon } = (blinking) The CDL

server connection has been enabled,

but the CDL server cannot be reached.

WB: Set white balance, consisting of a Kelvin

value for red-blue correction and a CC

shift value for green-magenta correction

(shown as exponent).

ALEXA Studio Icons

Name Icon Description

Mirror

Shutter

Flashing Icon when the

Mirror Shutter is spinning.

View

Position Mirror Shutter in View position

Gate

Position Mirror Shutter in Gate position

ND ﬁlter ND ﬁlter active

Overview

Home Screen Center Bar

TC Displays current timecode source

INT = internal TC source

EXT = external TC source

hh:mm:ss = timecode value without

frames

@24 = time base, 24 fps in this case

MASTER Only visible when camera is in external

synchronization mode (MASTER = this

camera is the master, SLAVE = this

camera is the slave)

Settings sync is active so multiple

cameras in external synchronization

mode share the same settings

BAT 1 Voltage level of power source present

at BAT connector, or percentage of

remaining capacity of attached battery

if it transmits this information.

BAT 2 Voltage level of battery attached to top

and/or back onboard battery adapter,

or percentage of remaining capacity if

attached battery transmits this

information.

REEL Identiﬁes current reel. Consists of

camera index letter and reel counter.

CLIP Identiﬁes current clip. Consists of clip

index letter and clip counter.

DUR Duration of current clip during

recording or length of last recorded

clip during standby. Shown as

h:mm:ss.

16:9

Active sensor mode (16:9, 4:3 or

OG (Open Gate))

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