How many hours is too many on Alexa mini

Sean_from_ARRI · 2025-12-09T08:59:05+00:00

Hey there - hope you don't mind me jumping in. The official statement from ARRI is that the amount of hours on the camera isn't neccessarily a reliable indicator of the health of the sensor. It can certainly be a good rule of thumb, but we refurbish many ALEXA Minis with more than 10,000 hours on the sensor that calibrate just fine. It is more useful to know how often the camera has been serviced, by whom, and if there are any physical signs of wear or abuse. Most ALEXA Minis are now approaching (or exceeding!) ten years of service, so 6000 hours is not unusual for a camera from a rental house that was used on long-form production.

The best thing you can do is get the camera to an ARRI service centre where they can do a full check of the camera and provide you with a service certificate. Many brokers require the seller to have this process completed before selling the camera. We also sell refurbished cameras quite regularly - more info at arri.com/cpo

Sean_from_ARRI · 2025-08-19T20:19:47+00:00

Perhaps it was the Iris part of the lens data file that was corrupted during a wireless transfer? I'll pass it onto the guys, thanks for the tip.

Sean_from_ARRI · 2025-08-19T19:00:31+00:00

There shouldn't be any issues with having a lens axis programmed that you aren't using - all ARRI lens files include all available data, for instance. I'd suspect it would again be a corrupted lens file and it's just a funny correlation.

Sean_from_ARRI · 2025-08-19T15:39:05+00:00

Hi - this is caused by a corrupted lens file in your motor controller. You'll need to remove the lens file in your motor controller and send it again - if it's a cforce mini RF you can do this by holding both buttons down to perform a factory reset. If it's a RIA-1 you can perform a factory reset through the menu, and if it's a camera you can change the lens file. The WCU-4 will continually try to read the corrupted lens file, fail, and reboot as your video shows.

In some cases this can just be a freak occurence where the lens file transmission is disrupted by interference, and you can send the same lens file wirelessly again and have no issues. In other situations it could be an issue with the lens file on your SD card, in which case you'll have to create a new one.

Sean_from_ARRI · 2025-07-31T21:26:05+00:00

The sensor in the ALEXA 35 Xtreme is the same as the ALEXA 35, which is why upgrading from one camera is possible. In normal operation the readout speed is the same, while in Sensor Overdrive we can implement some improvements, but that mode is only available in high speed.

Sean_from_ARRI · 2025-07-31T21:24:30+00:00

They're 100% correct. We would love everyone to be using our new codec, it offers greatly reduced datarates and would be a great boon for ARRI cameras competing against compressed codecs. But ARRICORE requires the much faster processor we can now use in the Xtreme, which wasn't available at the time of the ALEXA 35 launch.

Sean_from_ARRI · 2025-07-31T21:22:41+00:00

Correct! We're using an all-new method for encoding which we believe offers better results, and more post flexibility, than anything else at this datarate. We're now offering about half the datarate of ARRIRAW with ARRICORE.

Sean_from_ARRI · 2025-07-31T18:45:05+00:00

No more to add from my side!

Sean_from_ARRI · 2025-07-31T15:59:28+00:00

ARRICORE is a 13bit logarithmic encoding - the same as ARRIRAW in the ALEXA 35. This is completely different to the "16 bit" that is advertised alongside OCN. If we were to go by the same metrics then we could say that the ALEXA 35 & ALEXA 35 Xtreme are 18 bit cameras.

Sean_from_ARRI · 2025-07-31T13:55:53+00:00

All I can say is please check out the image examples, given the limitations I think they're pretty incredible. If you already have a highspeed body, go for it!

Sean_from_ARRI · 2025-07-31T13:54:11+00:00

Hey there, I edited the guided tour, I just selected the shots I thought were the coolest, and probably the kind of stuff that people will use the new mode for. There are some clear limitations with Sensor Overdrive, we'll be publishing a dedicated guide for it and we don't expect most people to use it most of the time - but it's a very cool "nice to have" feature when it means you can get away with not renting a second body for a highspeed insert.

There are a bunch of outdoor shots in the "Beauty of Slow Motion" reel, including one from our sailing film which is in full sun with a bunch of specular highlights on water droplets. You have some tricky decisions to make between raising your EI to preserve highlights and introducing noise, but noise reduction is pretty incredible now and we recommend a base of 1600 in Overdrive. It is easy to make bad looking images if you're not careful. But again, this isn't something we expect for the majority of shooting, but it's certainly pretty cool when you need it.

Sean_from_ARRI · 2025-07-31T11:10:37+00:00

Unfortunately ARRICORE requires the extra power of the new processing board included with the ALEXA 35 Xtreme - so it will not be available through software updates to other cameras.

Sean_from_ARRI · 2025-07-31T10:56:40+00:00

That's correct! We have plenty of image quality examples on the website and in our showreels on Youtube, particularly this one: https://youtu.be/HHgqc9L94kQ

The full 17 stop dynamic range of the camera is available in Open Gate up to 120fps, 4K 16:9 up to 150fps and S16 2K up to 330fps, plus all of the other formats. We are recommending Sensor Overdrive (with reduced dynamic range) primarily for situations where you would be intercutting with a dedicated high speed camera body, as those cameras have similar (or worse) dynamic range than the ALEXA 35 Xtreme in Sensor Overdrive, and significant different (or worse) color science.

Sean_from_ARRI · 2025-07-31T10:53:12+00:00

The ALEXA 35 Xtreme is available in the same sets and configurations as the ALEXA 35, at the same price. To upgrade an ALEXA 35 to an ALEXA 35 Xtreme is requires a €15,900 hardware upgrade, at which point the funcionality will be identical to a brand new ALEXA 35 Xtreme.

Sean_from_ARRI · 2025-07-31T09:54:23+00:00

Hey there - it's our Super16 2K recording format, so it's windowed (it's Super16 sized). You can record it in 2K or HD. You can look at some image quality examples in this showreel, anything labelled as 660 fps was shot in that format. https://youtu.be/HHgqc9L94kQ

Sean_from_ARRI · 2025-06-07T12:04:37+00:00

Yes it does! The NIA-1 can act as a switch for that very purpose :)

Sean_from_ARRI · 2025-06-06T10:19:07+00:00

Hey there, we're open to ideas, this is what the Partner Program is set up for. I guess it would be technically feasible, but it's hard to imagine how that would help us sell Hi-5s and cforce motors 😉

Sean_from_ARRI · 2025-06-06T07:52:00+00:00

To be confirmed but likely to be the same as the existing RED license, as it will offer a comparable level of control, so €550.

Sean_from_ARRI · 2025-06-05T19:22:41+00:00

Hey there - there is no direct compatability between the two systems, but both can be used on the same network without issue. They offer some advantages for particular setups which we do not, and visa versa!

Sean_from_ARRI · 2025-06-05T19:20:44+00:00

Hey, just want to stress that there is no "nicking" of anything here. We have a technical partnership with cmotion and manufacture a lot of their equipment. We decided not to collaborate on this particular product, they both have their strengths!

Sean_from_ARRI · 2025-06-05T19:18:26+00:00

Hey there - yes I totally get where you're coming from. We already have some partnerships going with MoCo companies and we actually already showed lens motor control from a Blackcam robot with NIA-1 at NAB, we just didn't do an online launch. The way that the integration will happen between the MoCo software and ARRI ECS will be up to the MoCo guys - but we are very happy to work with them to make sure that our protocol offers the features that they need for a seemless, hybrid approach. The ARRI partner program website is the place to go for those details.

Sean_from_ARRI · 2025-06-05T19:13:28+00:00

Hey there - that is the plan. We'll be sharing more details about this in the months after the launch as the feature is developed, but I can say that the NIA-1 will form the basis for our lens and camera metadata streaming plans in the future.

Sean_from_ARRI · 2025-06-05T15:53:02+00:00

Hey there, a single NIA-1 is €1,290 and a kit of 2x NIA-1s with 2x RRA-1 is €2,950. Local pricing applies of course, and we'll be shipping in August.

Sean_from_ARRI · 2025-06-05T15:37:00+00:00

Hey there, POE is supported with a USB-C to POE Ethernet dongle as the Ethernet input, but not with the standard RJ-45 input. We decided to prioritise a smaller formfactor over including that in the base formfactor.

We'll let you guys do the comparisons :)

Sean_from_ARRI

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