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ARRI ALEXA VS AMIRA


omar robles

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So I am looking at the specs and at a glance the AMIRA seems like a better buy then the ARRI ALEXA. However in talking with a filming friend of mine he said people still prefer the ARRI ALEXA. I am confused by this and we didn't have time to get into his reasons why. Isn't 4k uhd better then 2.0k? Plus the Amira is a much lighter camera then the Alexa.

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Its not a straight comparison between Alexa and Amira because their are different flavours of Alexa. The 4:3 option isn't available on the the Amira and its only available on some Alexa's.

 

Same with recording RAW internally not all Alexa's can.

 

The Amira was a very strong contender because its got the Alexa look, 3.2k almost UHD capture and internal ND's - at a price point that was lower then the similar spec'ed Alexa's

 

The Alexa Mini (in the UK at least) cut down interest in the Amira because it offers everything (4:3, RAW, UHD) in a well priced smaller package and for drama that seems to be the go to camera. I was looking into getting an Amira for the company I work for and were advised the Alexa mini was a lot more popular - I guess because of the added flexibility. Although you need to trick it out to get it balanced for hand held. Budget cuts meant we ended up with Sony FS7 but it was nice to dream for a few days.

 

Although docs use the Amira a lot. In terms of it not being full UHD up-converted the 3.2k looks very good. The UHD version of the BBC natural history doc "Dynasties" its primarily shot on the Amira and it looks truly stunning. I would say its the best looking streaming UHD show I've seen - I guess thats also because the BBC iPlayer runs UHD at 22Mbs rather then Netflix's lower rate of 16Mbs. It seems short sighted they don't approve 3.2k capture for UHD on Netflix because it looks really nice. Enough to out resolve their low bitrate codec at least....

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Its a bit of a how long is a piece of string question .. and it really depends on what sort of thing your going to be shooting.. but as it seems not big budget features or commercials then I would say the Amira is a better bet.. its smaller and lighter.. (although thats relative !).. designed to be hand held.. internal ND, easy audio set up..on board camera mic friendly .. it was marketed as the ENG Arri camera.. I guess the only risk for now and the near future is the mandate to shoot 4K.. sometimes full 4096. or at least UHD 3840 x 2160.. Arri has the up res and looks great but unfortunately this doesn't matter to production managers who just have an instruction on a bit of paper, don't know anything techie and want to cover their arse.. Its a weird irony that high end feature films can be 3200..or less.. but just about every single corporate video, how ever lowly, has to be 3840 minimum on pain of death..

 

As Phils company did.. you might also be better off buying an Fs7 MkII... unless you are exclusively shooting your own material..

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