Being the latest entry in the ever-growing ALEXA family of premium digital cameras, the ALEXA Mini just got another essential firmware upgrade. The SUP 3.0 version of the software includes major improvements for the ALEXA Mini such as an Intervalometer, Stop Motion Mode, support for Lexar LC 128GB and LC 256GB 3600x cards, viewfinder status overlay enhancements, and other usability improvements along with fixing some previously reported bugs and minor issues.
The ARRI Alexa MINI SUP 3.0 Firmware also contains a public beta release of the 4:3 ProRes 2.8K recording mode and a 2x anamorphic de-squeeze for all EVF and monitoring outputs. The latter is free of charge and terminates automatically 90 days after installation as it’s still in beta testing stage.
To activate this feature, users need to download an ALEXA Mini 4:3 Beta License Key from the ARRI License Shop first.
Furthermore, a new user button “Overlay Menu” activates the top line of the overlay display in the viewfinder, monitor or SDI outputs as it can be edited directly in the overlay with just using the viewfinder menu wheel. Users can now change the settings for FPS, Shutter, Exposure EI (ISO) and WB in a very quickly and directly, without having to use the standard camera menu.
The status display for the batteries and cards are optimized for improved visibility along with an integrated beeper warning that can be set to indicate a full CFast card during recording.
It’s also worth noting that when the new 4:3 ProRes 2.8K recording mode is utilized the recorder resolution of the camera is 2944 x 2160, not 2880 x 2160 (for 4:3 2.8K). The additional border is due to the ALEXA Mini’s ProRes encoder that handles multiples of 128 more efficiently.
The remaining 32-pixel boundary left and right to the image is filled with white pixels in the beta and will be black in the final release. Keep in mind that the extra border should be cropped from the image prior to scaling the image as the scaling operation may spill white border pixel into the active image area after desqueezing the image.
To download the SUP 3.0 Firmware for the ALEXA Mini and learn more about the upgrade head on over to ARRI’s official website.
[source: ARRI]
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