High-quality codec and de facto industry standard
In 2010, ALEXA was the first digital motion picture camera on the market offering in-camera recording of Apple ProRes files onto SxS PRO cards, providing the full range of codecs from Apple ProRes 422 Proxy to Apple ProRes 4444 and later 4444 XQ. We called this "direct-to-edit", becuase MacBooks of that time featured an internal card reader to offload the SxS PRO cards.
In 2019, ALEXA Mini LF introduced a new method for recording Apple ProRes: sound, images, and metadata are no longer wrapped inside a QuickTime *.mov container but use the common MXF (Material eXchange Format) container.
MXF is an open standard that is widely supported and allows for more flexible access to metadata. Using the same container also allows us to record ARRIRAW and Apple ProRes to the same drive without reformatting. Apple is supporting MXF/Apple ProRes. They have published the "SMPTE RDD 44:MXF – Mapping and Application of Apple ProRes" (on IEEE.org).
ARRI cameras that currently support QuickTime/Apple ProRes will continue to use QuickTime.
Recording clips in Apple ProRes 4444 XQ preserves the full sensor quantization in logarithmic encoding, with the same range of colors available in ARRIRAW. Images recorded in a 4:4:4 codec are almost indistinguishable from uncompressed HD or UHD material. This makes internal recording attractive to feature film productions for the big screen, too. Recording in any of the high-end 4:2:2 codecs provides perfect source material for web or TV applications.
Please Note:
Apple ProRes is a variable bitrate codec, therefore a longer recording time than initially indicated on the camera may be possible.
Apple ProRes White Paper (2022)
