For Steve Holleran, a camera has always been a means to capture the beauty of the world. From commercials to documentaries to shorts and music videos, he has always focused on images that tell compelling stories. For his latest project, indie feature The Land, he teamed up with Steven Caple Jr., a friend of his from his USC MFA Production Program days.

Arri just announced the latest addition to the ALEXA family, the all new ALEXA Mini. Coming in at a svelte 7.3" x 4.9" x 5.5" (LxWxH) and weighing only 5 pounds, the Mini compliments the series with the same S35 ALEV III CMOS sensor found in the ALEXA and AMIRA. Utilizing a carbon body with titanium lens mount attached directly to the titanium sensor mount, the Mini shares the same PL, EF and B4 bayonet lens mounts, as well as the same MVF-1 viewfinder as the AMIRA.

The ALEXA XT has the same size sensor as previous models, but with its increased processing power, it can now record the full sensor area all at once.

The Alexa XTand Alexa Classic with the XR recording module both have the ability to read ASC CDL (Color Decision List) LUT settings as they record.

The Arri ALEXA XT has starting shipping across the US, and we recently put our hands on one to see what it could do. The ALEXA XT features the XR, or extended recording, module that allows you to record in ARRIRAW, along with ProRes or DNxHD.

When I visited Arri's NAB booth, I got a chance to speak with Marc-Shipman Mueller, Product Manager Camera Systems at Arri, about the highly-anticipated ALEXA XT.

At AbelCine, we offer a class on video formats that covers a variety of different terms and compression formats. One of the more common questions I'm asked is, "What's the difference between uncompressed video, Raw, and Log recording?" With so many cameras these days offering different recording options, combined with the popularity of external recorders, it's no wonder there are a lot of questions about this topic.