Rumor No More: ARRI Reveals Their 6K 65mm Cinema Camera, the ALEXA 65
There have been rumors floating around about ARRI developing a 6K 65mm digital cinema camera for some time. The mysterious camera finally made its official debut at this year's Cinec event. Introducing the ARRI ALEXA 65.
The ALEXA 65's sensor is around 3x bigger than that of a Super35. ARRI Rental shares plenty of information about the camera. Here's what they have to say about the sensor itself.
At the heart of the ALEXA 65 is the A3X sensor; the largest high-performance motion picture sensor available on the market today. The sensor has a 54.12 mm x 25.59 mm active imaging area, which is even larger than the film gate of ARRI’s 765 65 mm film camera.
The maximum recordable resolution from the A3X sensor is 6560 x 3102 photosites, with a dynamic range of more than 14 stops. The sensor design is based on the same photosite technology as the ALEXA XT, therefore image attributes such as colorimetry and dynamic range will match well with any member of the ALEXA family. This allows productions the freedom to mix the use of 35 mm format ALEXA XT cameras with the larger 65 mm format ALEXA 65, without having to worry about adopting different workflows or any additional color correction of images in postproduction.
Here is some basic information about The ALEXA 65 pulled from the Cinec Munich issue of Jon Fauer's Film and Digital Times.
Technical Specifications
- 65mm Digital Cinema Camera
- ARRI A3X CMOS sensor
- 5-perf 65mm (full camera aperture)
- 6560 x 3102 resolution (maximum recordable)
- 54.12 x 25.58 mm Sensor size (active image area)
- Weight: 10.5 kg / 23.2 lb
- ARRI XPL Mount (64mm diameter)
- 200 - 3200 ISO. Base is 800 ISO
- Dynamic Range: >14 stops
- Uncompressed ARRIRAW
- LDS metadata
- Electronic Shutter 5° - 358°, adjustable in 1/10° increments
- 0.75 to 27 fps (upgrade to 60 fps planned for early 2015)
If you're wondering if ARRI has any plans to include more lenses or mounts for the ALEXA 65, the answer is... maybe. Kraus says that it all depends on how well the camera system is received by the industry.
No word yet on prices or availability Per ARRI Rental (see their comment below), this is a rental-only item (none of us could afford to buy one anyway!). For more information on ARRI's new ALEXA 65, head on over to Jon Fauer's Film and Digital Times to download and read through the exhaustive write-up, complete with interviews with ARRI reps, including Managing Director Franz Kraus. You can also take a look at ARRI Rental for overviews of the camera, the sensor, the lenses, and much more.
Source: ARRI Rental Group