By site editor Dan Chung:
Not content with having pretty much every Oscar winning fiction film shot with their cameras, ARRI have today announced the latest incarnation of the ALEXA. The new ALEXA SXT’s initials stand for ‘Super Xtended Technology’ – I guess we’ll forgive ARRI for the trendy mis-spelling of extended.
The body of the camera remains the same as the previous incarnations but the internals have been upgraded. Like the AMIRA, the SXT will now record 4K ProRes internally – a nod to those in the industry who have been lobbying for a 4K future. It has the same 3.4K Alev III sensor of previous models the 4K image is created by up-ressing the image in camera. The company believe the results to be superior to many cameras which have a native 4K sensor. One area of difference between the ALEXA SXT and the AMIRA is that the SXT will record DCI compliant 4K (4096 x 2637) resolution as well as the UHD (3840 x 2160) format.
Like the ALEXA XT before it the SXT has Open Gate, 4:3 Anamorphic and Spherical modes.
The processors are still FPGA but said to be improved with better image quality, faster processing and better noise reduction. Recording options are ProRes or ARRIRAW.
There are three independent HD-SDI outputs on the camera – allowing Log and Rec709 to be fed simultaneously to different monitors.
The first ALEXA SXTs should ship mid year and an upgrade module will be available for owners of the Alexa XT, XT Plus and XT Studio cameras. For more info go to www.arri.com
