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This guy bought five broken ARRI Alexas to see if he could make one working camera

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Almost everybody who’s into video dreams of one day shooting on an ARRI Alexa. But actually owning one is pure fantasy for most of us. Not for Adam Harig, though, who spotted an eBay auction for five ARRI Alexa cameras on eBay one day and put in an offer. There was only one snag, these ARRI Alexa cameras weren’t working and were in various states of… deconstruction, with a part missing here and there.

After chatting with the seller and feeling reasonably confident that he might get a single working camera together between them, the seller accepted his offer of $1,250. It was a big gamble if he couldn’t get one to work. And even if he did, this wasn’t going to be his only expense, as he later found out. Owning an ARRI Alexa is not cheap!

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This is how ARRI tests the durability of its high end pro cinema cameras

Most of us are guilty of babying our camera gear at some point. We want it to look pristine from day one until the day we die (or sell it). But camera gear – and cameras in particular – are made to be used. They’re designed and built to be able to handle the rigours of whatever daily working life can throw at them, at least once you get past a certain price point.

Arri recently posted a video showing off part of their durability testing process for their shiny new Arri Alexa 35 – which looks like an absolute beast offering an incredible 17 stops of dynamic range. But when you’re paying $65K for the body alone, you’d expect it to be pretty good.

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This is what vlogging would’ve looked like if you’d tried to do it 30 years ago

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In the grand scheme of things, vlogging is a pretty recent development. Thanks to the proliferation of smartphone cameras and the birth of platforms like YouTube, pretty much anybody can (and does) do it these days. But what would it have looked like if you’d tried to shoot a vlog with the camera tech of 30 years ago?

That’s what YouTuber Dan Mace wanted to explore in this video as he shoots the same vlog sequence twice – once with his iPhone 13 Pro Max and once with an Arriflex 16SR3 Super 16mm film camera – to see how the two compare both in ease of use as well as how the final result looks.

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Can you tell the difference between a $1,500 lens and a $35,000 lens?

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In the last few years, cine-grade gear is becoming more affordable. When I started shooting video, Cine PL lenses were basically a dream to rent. Let alone own. Laowa has been a key player in bridging that gap as they bring their new line of cinema lenses. They really knocked it out the park with their new Laowa 12mm t/2.9 Zero-D Cine. This video shows exactly just how well the $1500 dollar cine lens stacks up against an ARRI Ultra Prime 12mm T2.0 F Lens $35,000 lens.

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Arri launches the Alexa Mini LF – “Large format” 4.5K cinema camera

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The photography crowd might laugh at Arri’s use of the term “large format” when we’re talking about a sensor only a hair larger than a “full frame” DSLR or mirrorless camera. When it comes to video, though, that is rather large. At 36.7 x 25.54mm, the sensor offers 4.5K (4448 x 3096) resolution and is the same one found in the much larger Alexa LF released last year.

The newly announced Alexa Mini LF cuts the size down dramatically over the full sized Alexa LF and is compatible with LPL and PL mount lenses, supports full frame and Super 35mm recording as well as all anamorphic de-squeeze ratios. It has three built-in 0.6, 1.2 and 1.8 ND filters, and records to both Apple ProRes and Arri RAW.

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Arri joins the vertical video trend – We are all doomed

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Vertical video is the bane of the 21st century. We all (well most) wish it would just go away. But with Instagram Stories, IGTV, Snapchat and a bunch of other apps that thrive on vertical video, it’s going nowhere. And now it seems that Arri is getting in on the action with an adapter plate that allows you to mount your Alexa Mini vertically on the tripod.

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How iPhone 7 Plus compares to $82,000 Arri Alexa

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A couple of months ago, we’ve seen how iPhone 7 Plus stands against the $50K Red Weapon. It performs pretty well in bright conditions, considering that’s it’s just a smartphone and Red Weapon is a powerful professional camera. But now, Potato Jet makes a new comparison. This time he compares the iPhone 7 Plus to Arri Alexa Mini, and shoots in various lighting conditions, not just in the bright sunlight. So, how bad is the iPhone compared to $82,000 Arri Alexa?

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Guy tries to mimic a beer commercial and drops a $70,000 camera at CineGear Expo

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The last thing you want to do when testing out some equipment, especially when surrounded by your peers at the CineGear expo, is to drop a $70,000 Arri Alexa XT, but that’s exactly what one person did while checking out the NBStabilizer rig recently.

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