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I had also the pleasure to work with Alexa. As everybody else said it already it's very silent and user friendly. Everything is simple to access. You don't need to start looking for the audio submenu, in the hurry of the shooting. But the most important, is that, it doesn't crash( saw a lot of media crashing or all of the sudden stops recording or just shuts down) and it wont delay the shooting program. Imagine that this happened some weeks ago: http://techcrunch.co...camera-dust-up/

And now I'm wondering, why would a 95 year old company, with an amazing Digital Camera, have the need to do this? Or is this just a trick of Red to survive?

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Not a new Alexa on a national commercial.

CrewC

This is a joke, right? ....RIGHT?!? Though, a long time ago, I worked on this:

Shot with about 25 Sony Ericsson phones. The biggest issue was their frame rate (which we were told by the manufacturer was 25fps) varied between about 23fps and 11fps. So they all got out of sync with each other really fast :wacko:

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Find myself this weekend with three Alexa cameras to which post wishes "scratch track" delivered. Thankfully thought ahead and had Mr. Toline make me four 5-pin Alexa audio cables. Two are 3.5mm stereo --> 5-pin that I can use with the Zax ERX units (I hope) and two are 2xXLR3F --> 5-pin that I can use with a Lectro RX. Perfect.

One concern with this setup is whether the ERX unit will reach line level. I don't think so.

Anybody?

In that event I'll use two PR216's.

I love the Alexa.

-- Jan

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Find myself this weekend with three Alexa cameras to which post wishes "scratch track" delivered. Thankfully thought ahead and had Mr. Toline make me four 5-pin Alexa audio cables. Two are 3.5mm stereo --> 5-pin that I can use with the Zax ERX units (I hope) and two are 2xXLR3F --> 5-pin that I can use with a Lectro RX. Perfect.

One concern with this setup is whether the ERX unit will reach line level. I don't think so.

Anybody?

In that event I'll use two PR216's.

I love the Alexa.

-- Jan

The ERX won't reach line level. You can add gain at the Alexa, but you need ~ 20dB.

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The ERX won't reach line level. You can add gain at the Alexa, but you need ~ 20dB.

Yeah. That's what I thought, except I thought based only upon reading Alexa-related threads here that one couldn't add gain at the Alexa, that it wants and needs line level. So, you can add gain. Cool.

Have two line-level out Lectro RX's so it's just the C camera I need to plan for.

Got plenty of options standing by, but would like to fly out the ERX for this purpose (first time).

Look forward to finding out what's what.

Thanks!

-- Jan

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Yep, you can add up to 30dB IIRC. At least on the camera I used. And that was....5 months ago? I used it anyway, even though it was a bit low on level (scratch track only and they knew that) - it was very handy for the 1-box TC and audio solution.

EDIT: For future reference it's only 25dB that you can add.

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Anyone managed to get record run timecode out of the Alexa timecode Lemo socket?

I tried yesterday but although the camera was set to record run, the Lemo continued to spit out free run time of day that I'd jammed.

Couldn't spend any more time on it so just went with free run.

Looks like the Alexa doesn't do the same as Sony / Panasonic - that is when set to record run you get a record run output. Puzzling?

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From the Alexa manual:

Rec run is currently without use as the camera cannot record internally.

The manual doesn't even mention the possibility of a record run output either.

Which version of the manual do you refer to please?

There's no statement that matches this in ARRI_ALEXA_User-Manual_SUP_5-0_5-1 as far as I can see?

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Not a new Alexa on a national commercial.

Crew

Well people are always going to try to use the iPhone/Pad things to shoot with. Heck, my new HTC Amaze shoots1080 video and has an 8mp camera. Am I going to throw my Canon 7D and L lenses onto the rubbish pile? No. The phone/camera thing is just a tool to be used and tried.

But here's the lesson in all of this "crazy camera/gadget of the moment" silliness: People will always accept sub-par video (heck, look at the crap on YouTube), but they will never accept sub-par audio. The minute a viewer can't hear what is being said or there is any crackling of the audio, that person is gone. On to the next video or channel. Where as, if there's an image, grainy, poorly exposed and out of focus, but the audio is good, they'll watch it. Just yesterday I was watching the local news (big snow day here in Denver) and one of the reporters did their report from his home, via Skype. Everytime he leaned toward the laptop camera his face would explode because of the desk lamp that was his key, but the audio was rock solid and you could hear him just fine. Completely intelligible. Actually it was the best Skype report that I have ever seen. There was no break-up of the video and as usual, the audio was on. Again, yet another tool.

Crazy crap, but that's the world of News gathering. Been there, done that and I hate it. Speaking of single system audio... Blah!

After reading this thread, I look forward to my first experience with an Alexa. Better get me a 5 pin XLR break away cable end like the one pictured above! ;)

Edited by Chas Gordon
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Which version of the manual do you refer to please?

There's no statement that matches this in ARRI_ALEXA_User-Manual_SUP_5-0_5-1 as far as I can see?

Apologies, I was looking at V1 of the manual! The newer manual doesn't mention anything about a Rec Run signal coming out of the camera. The new manual says this about Record Run:

Internal TC, Rec Run

␣ Use: Single camera productions, either MOS or where a classical slate is used for alignment of image and sound. Guarantees continuous time code for each storage medium. Works alos with over- and under-cranking.

␣ Setup: The camera is set to Int TC Rec Run Regen. TC is only increased during record by 1 frame for each image generated by the sensor. The TC counts with the project fps set on the camera as time base. Normally, the TC hour value is increased by 1 hour for each new reel, usiong only hours 01-20 for reel 1-20, and then restarting at hour 01 for reel 21.

␣ Variations: Might be used on a production normally using external TC for high-speed scenes, then returning to Ext TC for regular scenes later.

␣ Restrictions: None.

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Quick question, had a test shoot today and tried to send TC to the Alexa from a 788T via cable. It seemed like the Alexa wants to run the TC on its own instead of acting as a slave and reading my TC permanently (again, not jamming but permanent TC input). So when I plugged in the Alexa showed the same TC as my recorder, but it drifted notably within less than a minute it seemed.

AC wasn't sure either. Is there a hidden setting somewhere? All I found was the TC button settings.

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That's what I had hoped. Thanks. It was close to second. So the Alexa's display always lags?

I read in the manual that it automatically switches to Internal TC regen when sensor and prject frame rate are not the same. Thought that could have been the issue too, but the lag thing sounds like that must be it.

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Yep, it's always roughly a second behind. On a recent show, we would jam into the camera using an Ambient Box, TOD fed from the 788T. We'd count seconds off the 788T and check the display was within a second. No issues from post regarding TC sync.

Yes, the project TC and the frame rate must match, but once it's set, it won't change.

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