Understand and set up an Arri Alexa Mini camera

This camera Alexa Mini of the brand Arri is, here, equipped with a Zeiss compact zoom but it is the case that is the most remarkable and which will be discussed.

It is, in particular, remarkable for its compactness, in relation to a Red camera, which makes it very versatile and can thus be used to film from a drone.

Screen or Wi-Fi control

In the present test, the Arri Alexa Mini camera is mounted with a flat battery that allows free access to the CompactFlash 2.0 card slot. But what also strikes is the absence of cables since the case is suitable for a wireless connection. Wi-Fi lets most remote controls, such as a smartphone or tablet, whether Android or iOS based. A control that controls shutdown and launch as well as focus, ND filters, and so on. No need for additional external control engine, therefore.

Of course, you can choose to prefer the control via the swivel screen, which can therefore turn into a monitor or navigation menu in the settings.

Some Parameters

And, since it is about parameters, you will be able to acquaint yourself with some of the characteristics of this camera Arri Arrival Mini to judge its quality:

• Its sensitivity, in standard of 800, can rise to 3.200 or go down to 160 for extreme needs according to the luminosity;
• The recording format can be up to the very powerful ProRes 4: 4: 4: 4 XQ capable of recording, in theory, up to 500 Mbps. But it will also be very greedy in space and the ProRes 3: 3: 3 will certainly be preferred;
• The recording rate, from 60 frames per second to 4K, will increase to 200 frames per second in High Definition 1920 x 1080 in order to achieve very interesting slowdowns.

Note that the WCU-4 allows remote, wireless control of lens parameters, focal length, diaphragm, and zoom in an easy way.

First Image Quality

The Arri Alexa Mini has a very lightweight (2.3 kg) carbon fiber body, with no loss of robustness and the same sensor as the entire range. This 35-mm ALEV CMOS CMOS sensor offers unmatched tones and, although not quite a true 4K native but a 3.2K - the difference being achieved thanks to a very sharp algorithm principle - , It nonetheless delivers an image whose sharpness, luminosity and the sense of detail are completely irreproachable. The emphasis is thus placed on the dynamic range as well as on the spatial resolution.

A quality that also comes from the use of pixels that is made. Larger and better pixels to deliver a greater dynamic range, providing more natural, true and lower noise in the image.

It is also equipped with ND 2.1 internal filters to cope with changes in brightness.

Less time lost in post-production

The camera is also based on a homemade technology called LDS, a system based on lenses with built-in data: dot metadata, iris metadata and zoom settings. Work that makes it easier for both shooting and post production.

A camera that, despite a very sharp approach, remains very easy to use therefore, and delivers an image quality rarely seen, as much in the colors as in the sharpness. It knows how to adapt to all the solutions and its compactness will make it an ideal camera for steady cam shootings, by drone or even underwater views with the additional equipment provided for this purpose. Quality, compactness, versatility, a choice that many will make for this camera Arri Alexa Mini