The ARRI ALEXA 35 offers 19 recording formats. In order to explain the logic behind these formats, ARRI has published a poster describing the formats and their potential implementations in the industry. Check it out below.

The ARRI ALEXA 35 offers a total of 19 ARRIRAW and Apple ProRes recording formats, incorporating efficient in-camera downsampling and anamorphic de-squeezing, which allow you to optimize data rate, resolution, and other parameters, based on your individual needs. Senior Product Manager Marc Shipman-Mueller says that these 19 recording formats are designed on an extensive industry survey. “The interesting thing we found was that different people wanted very different things. Some wanted to maximize the data rate, others wanted to maximize the image circle, and yet others wanted the top frames per second. So we designed these 19 recording formats to make sure that every production can find just the recording format they need”. Check out the ARRI Tech Talk video below which further elaborates on the recording formats and their utilizations in the industry:

To simplify, you can record in the ALEXA 35 in ARRIRAW or Apple ProRes. ARRIRAW is the uncompressed, unencrypted, and ‘un-compromised’ sensor data format that gives you the maximum image quality. It gives you the greatest flexibility in post and is really best for future archiving, which is why a lot of the streamers right now are pushing for it (The ALEXA 35 is Netflix Approved). Furthermore, with high-density encoding downstream, the file size can even be reduced by 40 percent. Apple ProRes, on the other hand, is a compressed image data format. Below you can explore the list of all 19 recording formats of the ALEXA 35. Note that the ‘Sensor mode’ defines the area on the sensor that is captured, which is important to figure out if the image circle of your lens actually covers.

Open Gate: You may have heard this definition before. All starts from Open Gate. As stated by ARRI: “If you can afford it, Open Gate is the best and easiest recording format. It gives you maximum image quality, maximum image area, and maximum resolution. Open Gate works great for spherical and anamorphic lenses, and many shows use Open Gate and then they create custom frame lines inside, in order to use the rest as padding, which is great for visual effects, resizing repositioning, stabilizing, or tracking. The Open Gate has a relatively large sensor area, so you should make sure that your lens image circle covers the Open Gate”.

From Open Gate you can ‘cut’ the sensor according to your criteria as follows:

To sum it up, explore the slide below which is pretty self-explanatory with all these possibilities. Click on the image for a full-resolution view:

The ALEXA 35 Recording Formats poster can be downloaded from this link. Happy shooting 🙂

Yossy is a filmmaker who specializes mainly in action sports cinematography. Yossy also lectures about the art of independent filmmaking in leading educational institutes, academic programs, and festivals, and his independent films have garnered international awards and recognition. Yossy is the founder of Y.M.Cinema Magazine.

Whats the difference between Cinema DNG and ARRIRAW?

Both are unconpressed, unencrypted data.

I shoot DNG and indeed I get also around 30 mins for 1 TB at 4k..

Little mistake in the article I think: “4.6K 16:9 – Mimics the traditional lm spherical Super 35 format” It should just be 4K and not 4.6K if I’m not mistaken? Cheers

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