Tech Column ALEXA Studio: Tradition Integrated with New Technology By Sarah Moffat
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or those of you familiar with the line of ARRI digital cameras, should you come from a film background working with the various ARRIFLEX bodies, you’ll be very excited to try out their new flagship camera, the ALEXA Studio. The Studio is a direct response to cinematographers’ desires for that perfect combination between traditional elements and new technology. The Studio has integrated all of the amazing functions of the established ALEXA, along with a 4:3 sensor, anamorphic desqueeze, as well as a mechanical mirror shutter and an optical viewfinder. Yes, you are once again able to see straight through the actual taking lens and ground glass yet work in a digital format. Sébastien Laffoux, Sales Manager for Camera and Digital Systems at ARRI Canada Ltd, had an ALEXA Studio in the office for a brief visit earlier this year, and what a treat it was. The optical viewfinder, OVF, is equipped with ARRIGLOW and all! So great to see again having come from a film background myself. It was
so special to look at a real ground glass again after so many years of looking at EVFs and their varied abilities of reproducing the recorded image. The mirror shutter is the same as the one used in the ARRICAMs, and again, such a pleasure to see it here in digital! With the excitement out of the way, we powered the whole thing up. (Yes, you can see through the OVF while power is off!) The reputation of the ALEXA for picture quality speaks for itself on works such as Breakaway, shot by Steve Danyluk csc. And the Studio only gets better with its mirror shutter. The mirror shutter interacts with the sensor in exactly the same way as it would with a film gate. In fact, on the Studio there are two new buttons: the “view” button parks the mirror shutter over the sensor to reflect the image into the OVF; push “gate”, and the shutter clears the path to expose the sensor and allow for images to stream through all monitoring outputs. Press both “view” and “gate” buttons at once, and the shutter will rotate at the selected frame rate, even when not recording, thus feeding a live image to the OVF and HD monitoring outputs. Now, that doesn’t affect the picture but Canadian Cinematographer - October 2012 •
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