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Arri Alexa Mini topic - Small, Lightweight, Raw Recording Camera
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  • Alexa sensor is made by on-semi or it was it tower jazz?... I don’t remember. on semi it was. German company. They recently declared they made those sensors, it was a secret until 2 year ago I think.

    The special secret thingys on the “super special “ arri sensors is two things. Big pixels, and dual gain access to every pixel. Like dual iso on Panasonic cameras, but is dual iso always on but not at different sensitivities, but getting double the data.

    The that is resolved I think in two 14bit images than then is mixed for one final 16 bit image. That’s why noise is grate.

    Resolution is perceptual don’t forget that.

    That’s it that’s the secret. If Sony would made the A7sii dual gain per pixel as the new ones, they could easy beat Arri if they wanted too.

    About the black magic sensors...running they are Sony ones. Sooo... that color science is the only thing black magic has.

    For me.

    Those “organic film look” is nothing more than that dual noise interpolated to make it feel more filmo like.

  • @endotoxic Its on-semi , I dont agree with you on sony being able to do it, they have had many years and many "cinema" cameras come out that they could have improved on the Alexa Image if they could.

  • Realistically speaking What on semi has is for sure a better lithographic process.

    And that is the real difference.

    At this level of lithography is like being an specialized alchemist.

    That process if for sure better from German manufacturing

  • By chance, anyone know ball park number on how much an Alexa Mini costs Arri to make , it will be interesting to know

  • another thing that makes Arri different is the electronic firmware that forces saturation to stop increasing after a certain IRE ~150. It was modeled after that same effect in film stock where chroma maxes out and stops increasing, like paint or silver halide. You can make procedural plugins that accomplish the same thing.

  • I wonder if this sensor can and will be open to 3rd party camera manufacturers since Arri now moved to the new 35 Alexa sensor technology . Would love to see this sensor in smaller form body , like z cam or kine at lower price point than second hand mini for example