We’ve been hearing about how digital acquisition and workflow would be overtaking film as the predominant production workflow for several years. Postproduction made the leap to digital a few years ago with the popularity of the DI (digital intermediate) process, but the past few years have finally seen the production side of the business following suit. As typically happens in production technology, the shift to digital acquisition occurred in fits and starts with little industrywide acceptance of common workflow standards. I’ve noticed that over the past three or four years, there has been little mindshare in the industry when it comes to cameras, capture media, codecs and, most significantly, workflows. Film and television production have been seemingly evolving to digital from film, but in a crazy patchwork quilt of different and incompatible solutions for acquisition, DI and postproduction.
- Designed to work with the Arri Alexa XT (Xtended Technology) and Alexa XR Module, the Codex XR Capture Drives give you up to 512 GB (480 GB usable) of solid-state storage in a small form factor and can record ARRIRAW at up to 120 FPS (16:9).
- The Codex Capture Drive Transfer Station M for Mac OS X (SAS) allows you to not only clone your camera original data from a Codex Capture Drive to internal storage or external hard drives but also enables you to transcode to various formats like Avid DNxHD 444 and Apple ProRes. You can also add look-up tables and burn-ins.
- Codex Capture Drive Transfer Station M An easy way to integrate a Codex workflow into a near-set or post environment, the Codex Transfer Station for Mac OS X (Capture Drives) gives you options for offloading material captured with a Codex Capture Drive.
- Open the Codex UI software and go to the SETUP tab, then click the i button (lower right) to open the About box. The System Key is displayed here. The Serial Number is displayed on the bottom of the Transfer Station M or Capture Drive Dock USB-Edition. Codex requires both the System Key and Serial Number information to generate a feature licence.
Fast-forward to 2012. In reviewing credits for recent features, television series and high-end commercials, though, one name keeps appearing with unwavering regularity: Codex Digital. The credits speak for themselves—Codex recorders, in conjunction with ARRI ALEXA cameras, have been used on around 100 feature films in the last year, including Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, The Avengers, R.I.P.D., Gravity, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and Trance. Films currently in production include Skyfall, The Lone Ranger, The Seventh Son and Hummingbird. Codex also has made inroads in television, with implementation on HBO’s Game of Thrones and the BBC’s Grandpa in My Pocket, as well as the FOX series Bones.
In the feature film world, ARRI has been a strong partner with Codex in providing the workflow systems that have captured many of the past few years’ highest-grossing feature films. Cinematographer David Eggby, ACS, recently utilized the Codex workflow to shoot the long-anticipated feature-film sequel to The Chronicles of Riddick: Pitch Black, tentatively titled Riddick. 'Being able to record up to 46 minutes at 23.98 fps on a single 512 GB datapack was a major plus,' notes Eggby, 'especially as we were using a Technocrane every day. We didn’t have to stress about running out of space.'
This DIT station can speed up your workflow in a tough, compact and easy to carry form factor. Downloads with verification, backups, reports, color correction, VFX, transcodes and anything that used to be done in the postproduction studios, can now be done in parallel on set while you are shooting with this convenient setup.
Attesting to the ruggedness of the system, Eggby adds, 'The recorders held up well under unusual shooting conditions, including sand and rainstorms. We encountered zero events in either situation, even with recorders that were on the Technocrane, underwater, banged up and subject to very little ventilation over long stretches of time. They never failed, never shut off and never lost data. The Codex recorders performed without a glitch. They were dirty, but that was it.'
THE GEAR
For capture, Codex offers three different recorders. The Onboard S Recorder records uncompressed HD or wavelet-encoded HD material, plus audio and metadata. The Onboard M Recorder can record ARRIRAW, uncompressed HD or wavelet-encoded HD or Canon 4K RAW, plus audio and metadata. The ARRIRAW recorder was codeveloped with ARRI to specifically record ARRIRAW from the ARRI ALEXA or ARRIFLEX D-21.
For the transfer of files, the Codex Transfer Station M for Mac OS X can be configured to manage your dailies and archiving workflow automatically by producing everything you need for editorial, archiving, visual effects and viewing, whether the material was captured with a Codex Datapack or a Codex Capture Drive. The Codex Digital Lab is a powerful, stand-alone platform for archiving digital camera originals and creating dailies. It’s the hub of a file-based workflow, using the Codex Virtual File System to create a variety of industry-standard deliverables such as ARI, DPX, Avid DNxHD and Apple ProRes files, with or without lookup tables and burn-ins. The datapacks can be archived to two LTO-5 tape drives.
Codex Capture Drive Transfer Station M For Mac Download
I thought I should start a new topic on this incase anyone was also interested in this option and wanted info. I haven't even shot footage yet because I'm waiting on parts to come in. Hopefully it gets up and running and proves to be as great as it's promised. Right now I have been hunting around for a few weeks for parts, I have found a few deals on all the parts so I had a little gauge on what the 'street value' was on the components. It certainly is no $800 Hyperdeck package (yes it's ~ $800 with all the parts), but it looks like a good deal on a SRR1 seems to have settled around the 3k mark with 1 drive included and this is comparable.
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So Far my costs for all the components:
Codex Arriraw M Recorder - Ebay auction $520 - This is the version made for D-21 and Alexa, only difference is the side design is slightly altered and on it is printed 'Arriraw'. The lighter grey material actually matches the F35.
Codex F35 Interface Plate - BandPro used item $750 - They actually have a large stock of Codex M recorders, they had a few used F35/23 Interface plates for sale.
Codex Remote Control - Old show unit from Codex $300 - Codex had some parts still in stock for the F35, they did not have any F35 plates and would be looking into using one.
Codex set of 256gb drives - Ebay Buy It Now $499 - seems to be the going 'dirt cheap' rate for these drives are $250 per 256gb.
Codex License for F35 - here's the catch, because it's an Arriraw recorder, the previous owner only ever bought the Arri codecs, the Retail price of these licenses : $3000, what they were willing to give to me: $750.
Total Buy in so far : $2820
Not cheap but if we compare the value of the F35, it's about right. We are talking about unlocking the features of the camera.
I must say dealing with Codex so far has shown incredible customer support. I explained that I wasn't a rental house, just an individual who had tracked down an older rare camera, and they have been very helpful. I'm sure like the F35, there is little reason to keep supporting these products, but they care enough about there product and company image to give out the same outstanding support that they give to the people who buy $80,000 products from them. They emailed me on a sunday! Who does that for their customers?
So hopefully I'll get it all together and working without too many problems. From what I've read and a few round about answers from Codex, I am fairly certain I can transfer footage through the ethernet on the unit, this is another biggie I am relying on to not spend more $$ right now. Once i get everything up and running I will shoot some good images onto the Hyperdeck and Codex at the same time and then post for comparison:
422 10bit vs 444 12 bit. Only reasonable way to test 12 bit is to shoot dual system and compare the same exact images in each format.