In advance of NAB 2019, ARRI has announced its new ALEXA Mini LF camera.  The new system combines the compact size and low weight of the popular ALEXA Mini with the large-format ALEXA LF sensor.  It features three internal motorized FSND filters, 12 V power input, extra power outputs, a new Codex Compact Drive, and a new MVF-2 high-contrast HD viewfinder.  ARRI’s large-format camera system launched last year and is based around a 4.5K version of the ALEXA sensor, which is twice the size and offers twice the resolution of ALEXA cameras in 35 format. This improves on the ALEXA sensor’s natural colorimetry, pleasing skin tones, low noise, and suitability for High Dynamic Range (HDR) and Wide Color Gamut (WCG).   ALEXA Mini LF joins ARRI’s existing Large Format system including the ALEXA LF camera, ARRI Signature Prime lenses, LPL lens mount, PL-to-LPL adapter, and Lens Data System LDS-2.

While ALEXA Mini LF is compatible with almost all ALEXA Mini accessories, it brings significant enhancements to the Mini camera design. Among them are extra connectors, including regulated 12 V and 24 V accessory power; a new 6-pin audio connector; built-in microphones; and improved WiFi. The ALEXA Mini LF allows internal recording of MXF/ARRIRAW or MXF/Apple ProRes in a variety of formats and aspect ratios, and is the first camera to feature the new Compact Drive recording media from Codex. Lightweight, but solidly built, the 1 TB drive can also be more affordable as it comes with a USB-C Compact Drive Reader that can be used without any extra software or licenses on Mac or Windows computers. In addition, a Compact Drive Adapter can be used in any dock that accepts SXR Capture Drives, potentially more than doubling download speeds.  Codex has also developed High Density Encoding (HDE) for loss-less encoding to reduce ARRIRAW file sizes by around 40% during downloading or later in the workflow.  HDE is free-of-charge for use with Codex Capture or Compact Drives, openly shared, and fast.  The ALEXA Mini LF cameras are scheduled to start shipping from mid-2019, prices TBD.  For more information visit: www.arri.com/alexaminilf