All right, so today we are talking
about the best camera money can buy.
And best is a little bit
subjective, you know,
like best for what?
'Cause cameras are tools:
sometimes you need something really small,
sometimes you just need
the best image quality
but let's talk about the
most cinematic best camera.
Now, movies and TV shows are shot on
all kinds of different cameras,
but if we look at the last several years
of movies that won an Oscar
for Best Cinematography,
pretty much all of them except for one
was shot on an Arri Alexa.
La La Land was shot on traditional film,
everything else, Arri Alexa.
I have some good news, I'm
really excited about this.
I'm not in my living room,
if you look at the ceiling --
Oh, I can't get this tripod loose --
Hey, check it out, no roof.
We are actually on a set, and
look what we have right here!
An Arri Alexa Mini,
that we've talked about
a couple times before,
and, oh, what's this?
An Arri Alexa Mini LF,
the brand new large format
Arri Alexa in a compact body.
Now people look and this thing and go,
'Why do they call it mini, it's so big?'
Well, it's mini because
it's small compared to
the full size Arri Alexa LF.
Now they're all awesome cameras,
and they all have different uses.
It's hard to say one is
better than the other
because depending on
your style of shooting
and what you're shooting,
you're gonna want to choose
one or the other or the other.
But when it comes to
pure technical ability,
this one takes home the cake.
I mean, look at this thing,
obviously not something
you'd wanna take to Disneyland
and film your kids with,
but what this camera is
capable of -- aaaaaaaahhhh!
If we're talking about going bigger,
and there is the Alexa 65, but
you can't actually go
out and buy that one.
You can only get it from Arri rentals
on the duration of your project.
This LF right here --
got a little spare change laying around?
You know, just sell your house?
They've given us two days in the studio
to do whatever we want with.
Can you believe that they
trusted us here? Look at this.
Yeah, I don't even know what I'm doing.
So the way this camera sits right now,
it's pretty much ready to go out and shoot
a big Hollywood movie, so let
me give you guys a little tour
of this, maybe you could put
it on your Christmas list.
So let's just start from
the back right here,
we have our v-mount battery
which is pretty standard,
you can just push that button
right there to release it.
Now this camera requires a lot more power
than your typical setup, so you do need
a good high-performance one.
This is 26 volts.
This one's only 100 watt-hours,
this is not gonna last
very long on this camera,
but it'll work!
You could also switch
out this piece right here
for a different battery
mount if you want to go with
something like a gold mount.
You may also notice that there's
a bunch of antennas on here
this one here is for
the wireless controller,
which we're going to get
into in a little bit,
but these four up here are for some of the
built-in wireless features,
and that's awesome because
you don't have to have
an extra device to send
out a wireless video feed
to another monitor.
And then we come up here a little bit
we see a whole bunch of buttons,
and you might at first be like,
oh my God, so many
buttons, this is confusing,
but they've actually
done a really killer job
at making it very simple
and easy to figure out.
For example, the first thing
we need to figure out is
how do you turn it on?
Well, we've got some power on here,
so there's the power button.
The lights are turning
on, things are moving,
it's making sounds, uh, did we break it?
Uh, let's get out of here.
We come up here and this is the Arri UDM,
which stands for Ultrasonic
Distance Measure?
Something like that, I don't know.
So this thing is constantly
getting a measurement
of whatever the camera is pointed at.
So right now we are pointed at
that camera right over there,
so it is giving us a readout
of six feet, five inches.
This thing can be pretty
much mounted wherever,
but right now it's just
velcroed on to the mount box.
This UDM can be mounted in
a dozen different places,
right now we have it right here,
sometimes you put it on the
mount box or even underneath,
as long as it has a clear
line of vision to the subject
you can calibrate it wherever
you decide to mount it.
And hooking this up is
pretty straightforward,
you just hook this up
into the EXT back here,
so this connects it to the
camera, powers this guy
and then it loops through over to here.
So this is typically the side
that the first AC stands,
first Assisting Camera
is what that stands for.
They're gonna be pulling your focus
and they can use this as a reference
to what this is measuring
the distance to be at,
so if I point the camera
around, notice that it changes.
So from here to that
wall is about 16 feet,
and also cine-lenses
will give you a marking
of what it's currently focused at.
So right now it's focused
at about six feet,
but the camera right there is
eight feet and two inches away
so you can kinda use that
information and line that up,
so that should be in focus.
The lenses on here is
an Arri Signature Prime,
which is actually awesome, it's
kind of a big deal of a lens
There's actually a lot to talk about
when it comes to cinema lenses,
so that's probably got
to be its own video.
Would you guys be interested
in seeing something like that?
Like why cinema lenses are so amazing?
And then we have our CLM-4
focus motors right here,
we have one for the focus right here,
and one for the aperture or iris,
and these just plug in into
here, the corresponding ones,
so there is one for the iris right there,
and one for the focus right there.
Now let's turn this around,
and you'll notice that
everything is much simpler on this side,
because this is where the
operator usually sits,
so the operator usually just
focuses on getting the shot
so there's only a few buttons here,
there's a record button, a
playback button, a log button,
and then three user buttons.
Now this viewfinder plugs
in to the viewfinder port,
that's labeled EVF, and I can
see my image through here.
We've got two buttons right here:
one is for camera, so if I hit that,
in this little viewfinder
I can adjust my frame rate,
my shutter speed, white balance,
and my basic settings here,
and then this viewfinder button right here
is where I would hit to adjust
my basic viewfinder settings,
like brightness.
And on the top of the viewfinder,
we have zoom and exposure,
so zoom will help us get critical focus,
and exposure will give us false color
to make sure our exposure is good.
To get to the memory
card, you just unlock it,
hit that latch to open it up,
there is an eject button on
the card or drive itself,
and then you can pop it out.
This thing is massive, this
thing is, like, a brick.
You probably noticed by now
that this is not a camera
you want to operate by yourself.
They do have a camera called Amira,
that is very well-designed
for a single operator,
but cameras like this
is designed to be used
with a full crew,
so you've got your camera
operator on this side,
and then this is where your assistant
is going to be looking at.
Now this part is actually
pretty straightforward.
So if we zoom in to here,
we have our frame rate,
if we want to change that,
we can just tap on that,
and then we can just jog it
down to different frame rates,
so we've got our shutter
angle right there,
which is just set to 180 degrees,
perfect, that's where you
want it most of the time.
And then your exposure index,
basically your ASA or ISO,
800, right there is good.
Color is another that I
love about Arri cameras,
is that there is the Log C,
which is kinda like
your flat color profile,
your Log profile so you can grade it,
and then your look is just your basic 709,
so when we're looking through the camera,
everything looks nice
and color-graded already.
But it's still recording in Log C,
so it's still a nice, very flexible,
color gradeable color profile.
Now one thing that's pretty
cool is that on Arri's website,
there is a camera
simulator, it's free to use,
so if you get booked on a
job where there's gonna be
an Arri Alexa on set, you
could pick out which Arri it is
and you could just kind of
fiddle around with the settings
so you kind of get an
idea of how to navigate
through the camera, and
you'll see that it's actually
pretty straightforward.
So yeah, I'll throw a
link in the description
in case you're interested.
Like I said, it is free, and
if you're a nerd like me,
it's kind of fun.
And all this stuff can
easily be controlled
WCU-4 hand unit, which is awesome,
and since all the wireless stuff
is already built into the camera,
you don't need to attach extra devices
to pull focus or anything like
that, it's already built in.
You slap on a battery, slap
on a lens, turn on the camera,
and most of what you need is already on.
Now this an Alexa LF, which
stands for Large Format,
so the sensor is bigger than a traditional
super 35-millimeter sensor.
It's actually a tad bigger
than a full-frame sensor
on a photography camera.
But if you're used to
traditional cinema cameras
that have a super 35-millimeter sensor,
you're gonna notice
that all of these lenses
are gonna feel much, much wider.
It's kind of like taking your focal length
and making it two-thirds.
So this is a 75-millimeter,
but it's going to feel
more like a 50-millimeter.
And these Signature Primes have
Arri's brand-new LPL mount.
Look how huge that rear element is!
Now, PL mount lenses have basically been
the industry standard
for as long as I can remember,
and Arri made that back in the film days,
optimized for film cameras.
But now that everything's going digital,
the new LPL system is
going to take advantage
of being able to actually take that lens
and seat it closer to the sensor,
which is gonna give us
more capable lenses,
like these Signature Primes.
Now you still can use your
traditional favorite PL lenses
on this LPL mount with an adapter,
but the way they mount
is pretty much the same.
Now on mount one, you
just hold onto the lens
and undo this latch right here,
you rotate it and then it
should slide right off.
There we go.
And then I can lock it into place.
We're gonna reengage our
motor here, nice and tight.
Now we have it seated,
we're going to calibrate it
before we do anything else,
so that it knows its new positions.
I'm gonna throw this
mount box back on here,
stick this back on here,
and we are good to go!
All right, so now that that's
all pretty much set up,
the AC can kinda just hang back and chill,
and pull focus from back here.
We're getting a wireless
video feed over there,
'cause the wireless video
transmitter is built into the LF,
and that's our little
receiver right over there,
that's feeding into the monitor.
So now we can just kinda hang
back here and pull focus.
But this unit itself is
really fricking cool,
and of course, we are pulling manual focus
so that's important, right?
So from here I can hit record,
so now the camera is recording,
and then right here is
where we rack focus,
and you can see the measurements
here as well as digitally
on here, and then we have
our t-stop right over here,
so we can open up or close down,
and that looks right
around good right there,
let's focus on the camera...
Now, one of the things I
find really, really cool
is next to the focus marks --
see that little yellow bar right there?
That is our depth of field.
So as I adjust our t-stop,
see how that grows?
So now over here, I'm gonna
have much more depth of field,
everything in that yellow
is going to be in focus,
and as I open it all the way up,
see, we have a very
narrow depth of field now,
and it's so cool having that
information right on here.
Now, Sam's gonna be panning
the camera back and forth,
and remember that UDM we had on there,
that distance measuring thingy
that sits on top of the camera?
Now check this out: that
information gets transmitted
onto this controller, and if
you can see that green arrow
that's moving around,
that is the UDM telling us the distance.
So that is also another
indicator for the AC to reference
while they're pulling focus.
Another useful tool with
this is focus marks.
So I can set that right there,
let's say I wanna set a mark right there,
I can mark it, and now
every time I hit that mark,
this controller vibrates,
so in case you don't wanna stare at this,
you wanna look at the screen,
every time it gets to a
mark, you can feel it.
Brilliant!
So there's the gist of it,
and hopefully this has helped
de-mystify this camera
a little bit for you.
Now one of the questions I had for Arri
is that now that there's so
many other cameras out there
that are shooting in 4k,
6k, 8k, I mean, spec-wise
they sound more impressive than the Arri.
But why are pretty much
most of movies and TV shows
and commercials -- anything you see on TV,
why are they almost all
shot on Arri cameras?
And they basically gave me a whole rundown
of everything that goes
on behind the scenes
to make this camera as cinematic
and filmic as possible.
And there's a lot of things!
Anything from inside the lens,
to how the sensor works, to
how the processing works,
how the color -- everything is so much,
and if I were to go over all of that,
this video would be ridiculously long,
so let's just see how it looks.
Let's turn it on and
hit the record button.
All right, I'm gonna shut off the light,
we got supermodel Steve over here.
Now see this right here? I
mean, this looks fine, right?
It's kind of dimly lit,
kind of a dramatic scene
of Steve reading.
But with the same setup,
if I hit that record button
on that Alexa LF, check this out.
(soft synthesizer music plays)
It looks so good. I just,
why does it look so good.
I don't know.
[Steve] I can't tell if it's
the camera or the performance
that makes it look good.
No, it's definitely the camera.
Right.
You're just sitting there reading a book.
You did nothing special. As usual.
That book is "Lord of the Rings" though.
Straight out of camera,
like, this is how it looks,
and it looks so good
with just no adjustment.
That should be our
gangster rap album title,
"Straight Outta Camera". [Laughter]
So I posted this photo on Instagram
and asked you guys for some questions,
so let's see what you guys had to say.
Alex asks, "How does it sound?"
Uh... There is actually
an audio in that almost
looks like an XLR, it's
like a four-pin XLR?
I don't even know what to plug into there.
But there's some audio port in there.
Benhessfilms says, "But
can you vlog with it?"
No.
Carrlyn asks, "How heavy is it?"
Well, every time I need to
get the camera up higher
or lower, it's just a massive pain!
I think that's why they
made Alexa Mini LF,
so that you can just pick it up.
Goldiesdream asks, "How's the menu system?
Easy to use or confusing?"
Well, you guys kind of saw
a little mini-walkthrough,
super simple.
"Is it better than the iPhone 11 Pro?
That is a video you would do."
I think it's a little bit better.
Jose says, "Do I really
need both kidneys?"
I don't think so! You could
totally live with just one.
I mean, come on, did you see
the footage? It's worth it.
"Which car could you buy with
the price of the Alexa LF?"
A-any.
"Why doesn't it have auto-focus?"
Well, even though auto-focus
is getting pretty dang good,
it's never going to be
as good as a first AC
that's really really well-trained,
so when you're shooting
on something like this,
you're definitely gonna have
a highly trained first AC
pulling your focus, so that's
gonna give you better results.
"How do the Signature Primes
compare to the Master Primes?"
Actually, yesterday I learned
a whole bunch about lenses
and what makes these
Signature Primes so exciting,
and these Primes are awesome.
And there's actually a lot to talk over,
so that's probably going to
need to be its very own video,
all about cinema lenses in particular.
Long story short, it's awesome.
It's designed specifically
for some of these
super high-resolution digital sensors,
but at the same time keeping
some of that classic filmic,
cinematic look that we all see and love.
"How does it taste?"
Kind of like a parking meter!
Midwestmountainbiking says,
"What does it smell like?"
You guys ask some weird questions!
Smells like Steve.
