ALEXA Mini LF
Large format, small camera
Large format, small camera
The ALEXA Mini LF uses the same sensor as the ALEXA LF. This is the ALEV 3 A2X sensor, which has the same photosite size and type as ARRI Super 35 digital cameras. The ALEV 3 A2X has 4448 x 3096 photosites (yes, it is therefore a 4.5K sensor) and measures 36.70 x 25.54 mm / 1.444 x 1.005" and requires a 44.71 mm / 1.760" image circle.
The ALEXA Mini LF has an input voltage range from 11 V to 34 V. Therefore, it can be easily powered by any 12 V on-board battery as well as by a 24 V on-board battery. The ALEXA Mini LF has a power draw slightly higher than the ALEXA Mini, at around 65 W when recording ARRIRAW at 24 fps with the MVF-2 viewfinder connected. Electronic accessories will, of course, increase power draw.
The ALEXA Mini LF uses the new, small and cost-effective Codex Compact Drive 1 TB.
The Compact Drive has been specifically designed for the small form factor of the ALEXA Mini LF, using new flash technology in a miniaturized tough enclosure. The ALEXA Mini LF accepts Compact Drives directly, without the need for an adapter. ALEXA LF or ALEXA SXT W do not support the Compact Drive.
Both ARRIRAW and Apple ProRes recording can utilize the drive's full recording capacity of 960 GB. The drive will be formatted by the ALEXA Mini LF in the UDF format for ARRIRAW and ProRes. Therefore, both ARRIRAW and ProRes can be recorded onto the same media without reformatting or switching drives. The drive offers sustained write rates of up to 8 Gb/s. We will also use this drive for future cameras.
To get an overview of recording media for ARRI cameras, please take a look at the Supported Recording Media document.
Optimized for large-format lenses, the LPL lens mount fitted to ALEXA LF and ALEXA Mini LF cameras accepts ARRI Signature Primes and Zooms, ARRI Rental DNA LF and 65 format optics, and third-party LPL lenses. The PL-to-LPL adapter, which attaches securely to the LPL lens mount without tools, offers backwards compatibility with all PL mount lenses, be they Super 35 or full frame. LDS-2 or /i lens metadata is accessible via the LPL mount, and LDS-1 or /i via the PL-to-LPL adapter. ARRI’s Frame Line and Lens Illumination Tool, available in the Learn & Help/Tools section of the ARRI website, illustrates how much of the large-format sensor is covered by a given lens.
Other manufacturers, such as Panavision and Vantage, offer proprietary lens mounts for the ALEXA LF and ALEXA Mini LF cameras, to support their own lens ranges. Cinematographers therefore have an almost unlimited lens choice when shooting with ARRI large-format cameras.
Codex High Density Encoding (HDE) uses sophisticated, loss-less encoding to reduce ARRIRAW file sizes by around 40% during the offload from the recording media. While exhibiting a smaller footprint, HDE is not compromising on quality. Once decoded, the output results in a bit-for-bit perfect match to the original ARRIRAW file! HDE lowers storage costs, shortens transfer times, and speeds up workflows, which translates to direct savings in time and money.
You can apply HDE to ARRIRAW data from any of our cameras with the free Device Manager software from Codex (Mac only). The file format is supported by major studios and many standard post production applications. Codex also created a SMTPE RDD, which describes the HDE file structure and how HDE can be decoded. HDE can be used at no charge with Codex Capture Drives, Codex Compact Drives, and any Codex Dock or Reader. Codex also offers paid HDE license options which allow productions using ALEXA Mini and AMIRA cameras with CFast 2.0 recording media to benefit from HDE.