Following ARRI’s announcement of the ALEXA 265, we wanted to share a few facts and figures we gathered during the development of this exciting new camera.
The ALEXA 265 benefits from many of the technological breakthroughs incorporated in the ALEXA 35 to make a vastly smaller, lighter and faster 65mm camera - including the use of the CODEX Compact Drive ecosystem.
Capture every Moment
This new camera works with our industry-trusted Compact Drive capture media, already utilised by the ALEXA 35 and Mini LF. We created the Compact Drive to provide the optimal balance of form factor, capacity and performance, making it the go-to choice for this astonishingly small, light and efficient camera, but with a comprehensively revised sensor of that found in the existing ALEXA 65.
The ALEXA 265 can record 6560x3100 ARRIRAW at 60fps.
The Compact Drive 2TB (1.92TB actual) can capture 43 minutes of ALEXA 265 footage at 6560x3100/24fps.
Compression without Compromise
Rest assured the current version of CODEX Device Manager is already compatible with the ALEXA 265, so it fits right in with any existing Mac-based workflow and uses the same MXF/HDE workflow as the ALEXA 35.
CODEX High Density Encoding (HDE) can easily be applied on first offload to reduce camera data by an average of 40%, with zero effect on quality.
The ALEXA 265 only records MXF/ARRIRAW, but thanks to HDE, users need not worry about having to process and store large RAW data. Our award-winning encoding will give you MXF/HDE files that give you the best of both worlds - files that are often smaller than ProRes 4444 XQ, while preserving the 265’s uniquely rich image in a bit-for-bit match of the original.
1.92TB of source material can be offloaded as MXF/HDE (with source and destination verify) to two destinations in under 30 minutes* with a Compact Drive Dock using Thunderbolt 3.
*Benchmark performed on a Mac Studio M1 Max, 64GB Memory, using Silverstack Lab.
Preserving your work
CODEX Compact Drive 1TB — Record up to 29, 37, or 43fps depending on resolution.
CODEX Compact Drive 2TB — Record up to 60fps for all resolutions.
Although the ALEXA 265 isn’t yet an option in the ARRI Date Rate Calculator, you can select the existing ALEXA 65 to get a good idea of how many minutes you can capture with your chosen settings.
As with the ALEXA 35 workflow, you will need one of the following CODEX media readers to offload footage from a Compact Drive:
Compact Drive Dock (TB3)|Compact Drive Reader (USB-C)|SXR Capture Drive Dock with Compact Drive Adapter
The ALEXA 265 will be available to productions as rental-only from early 2025. Without doubt, it will inspire filmmakers to create a new generation of iconic images and enduring cinematic moments, just like the original ALEXA 65.
We look forward to supporting you and your vision.
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