A very interesting test which I was about to post here then discovered it was old news I was really impressed with the Alexa. About to watch the next two episodes. Latitude is certainly important but it's one of those things that you can often control, and even when you can't it's often a benign issue (except for those awful yellow highlights). I'm more curious to see how the cameras cope with compression artefacts and motion.
The Alexa is a very impressive camera. I had a chance to "play" with one for an unfortunatly too short time, and it's incredibly simple. Any gran-ma who has never touched a camera would learn it in 20minutes. We are far from the complexity of a GH2 for ex.
And as I talk about that, on sunday I had a session with the GH2, wich is a little camera I really like a lot, but I barked more than once (and actually lost some takes) because there is nothing worse than an unintuitive menu on set, when we have to react quick and not thinking "where the hell was located this or that function". That would not happen with the Alexa.
Camera designers should pay a little more attention with their messy menus. I know that the GH2 despite capable of delivering stunning footage, is not aimed to the pro market and therefore full of useless gadgetery (not the case in the gh2) and unlogical menu implementation that impress the gallery, but...The Alexa, no. Everything smells pro, simple efficient and reliable. Unfortunatly, those are not the qualities that like the mass-market so I'm prety sure we'll never have a cheap well implemented camera.
Then, the film look...the famous film look. I know it sounds old like the birth of the solar system, but it's probably the camera that has the closest "film look" with very little post. The DR is simply amazing, build quality bla bla...and the brand factor. Arri is cine and cine is Arri.
But, I think that the Alexa (as it is) will loose the battle with Red. Despite all its goodies, if I had the possibility today to choose, I'd go Red without hesitation. Film look? Is there something we can't really acheive in post today? But at the price-performances, Red is unbeatable.
The Arri is conservative, it is an old, expensive, (perfectly mastered) design, and I trust more Red One to be inovative and ground-breaking in future camera design and power. The Alexa is the tradition coming to digital, Red is born with digital and a little different animal. They don't have the weight of being Arri, they are free to break patterns.
Then, the post. Who shoots ArriRaw? Almost nobody. I will never stop pointing the post complexity, but Red One is one of the friendliest and straighforward post processing I've experienced. And that's important.
Even in the cheapest configuration, I've edited Red with an Edius 6 and there is zero hassle. Beleive it or not, but it's even less problematic editing 4k than editing 2k AVCHD native like I know many are doing.
(precision: with Edius, the Redworkflow is image sequence up to 4K wich is hassle-free).
To be fair with Arri, the Alexa workflow has some great advantages that are important for some: you almost have the delivery product without transcoding...(hem hem...have I said something stupid? I'm afraid I did) in 444 So indeed it depends on each necesity. In my case I've edited Red in both Avid (so native via AMA) ane Edius (DPX generated from RCX). In both it is hassle-free, but not time free, because the image sequences have to be created and it takes time. but once it's done, it's 100% easy and more importantly, it does not consumes CPU and is ready to be sent to a Nuke or After Effect unit wich gives access to work in linear colorspace even if the viewers are in rgb for proper display. Then it's easy to downconvert to Quicktime.
My Arri workflow is still a little in its first steps so I'd be cautious because what I think works fine today might change tomorrow with more experience.
I'll keep watching this silly testing series anyway despite I found it useless, like I've followed sometimes silly tv series. It's entertaining.