Alexa 65 dynamic range

[Dominik Bauch]

When reading BTS articles etc, one of the advantages of the Alexa 65 is it's supposedly superior dynamic range. Surely as it's essentially 3 x Alev III sensors strung up together, the dynamic range should be the same as a regular super 35 Alexa with an Alev III sensor? Or is there additional computing magic that increases it?

[David Mullen ASC]

Technically the dynamic range is the same as the other Alexas, but being higher resolution and usually downsampled in post from 6K to 4K or 2K, you have less noise in the image, which means you can manipulate the low-end shadow detail more before the noise gets objectionable. Or you can underexpose more / rate the camera faster to retain more high-end overexposure detail. So more of the dynamic range is usable because noise is less of a limiting factor. At least, that's a sort of layman's explanation.