The Cinema Camera That Dominates The Movie Industry

INTRODUCTION

Camera technology is constantly evolving. Each year different manufacturers introduce new, shiny, better than ever before products to vie to capture market share. Therefore, it may be surprising that when it comes to the world of high end digital cinema cameras there is one clear cut winner, and perhaps even more surprisingly, far and away the most popular camera on the market was released almost 10 years ago.

To back this up with some data, I went and evaluated the cameras used by narrative movies from arguably three of the most influential film awards and festivals, to determine what the most popular cinema camera is, what camera manufacturers claim the top spots, how many productions still shoot on film over digital and what sensor format is most popular.

STUDY

To put together these findings I’ve looked at what cameras were most used at three main film festivals which each represent a slightly different demographic in the market: Sundance - which focuses a bit more on indie productions, Cannes - most of whose entrants favour mid range films with a few higher budget movies, and the Oscars - which tend to favour bigger budgets.

To put this together I’ve gathered data from IndieWire’s camera surveys - which they put out every year and show which productions used which camera. To get a sense of the progression in the camera selection I’ve looked at the festivals over the previous four years.

These results only look at narrative feature films - and exclude other formats like long form series or documentaries - which as an example would feature far more Sony and Canon cameras at a lower budget level.

RESULTS

What emerged was one clear victor: Arri. More specifically, the Arri Alexa Mini.  This Super35 digital cinema camera was by far the most popular, even though it was released all the way back in 2015.

Of the 175 productions over the last 4 years at Sundance an incredible 44% of them were shot with an Arri Alexa Mini. With all Arri digital cameras, including their other large format options, the Amira and alternative versions of the Alexa, being used on 72% of all productions.

This figure pales in comparison to other digital cinema camera manufacturers, such as Sony at 12% and Red at 5%.

This trend of Arri digital cinema dominance showed up at both Cannes and the Academy Awards, albeit at slightly lower levels - with again Sony coming in as the 2nd most dominant manufacturer with their Venice and Venice 2, and Red bringing up the rear.

Sundance typically also featured a greater variety of camera and manufacturer picks, with a scattering of lower end digital cinema choices - like Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Cameras, a Canon C70 or a Red Komodo. 

Interestingly, the Alexa Mini’s dominance as ‘most used camera’ dropped quite a bit, all the way down to 16%, when it came to the Academy Awards. I believe there’s a good reason for this - which we’ll get to a little later. 

Still, across the board the Alexa Mini reigned supreme on both indie film productions, medium budget shoots and high budget movies.  

ALEXA MINI DOMINANCE

In a past video I outlined why it is that Arri’s digital cinema products have dominated the market so much: from their look and colour science, to their compatibility, ease of use, heritage and reliability.

However, why is the Mini specifically still the most popular Alexa model? I’d say the number one reason is its form factor. The Mini was released with the expectation that it would mainly be used for lighter weight builds such as drone or gimbal work, with the other studio Alexas being used as the main workhorses.

However, its smaller profile, which could also be built into bulkier modes by adding accessories meant that it soared in popularity as the go-to camera choice amongst cinematographers.

In other words, you got that sought after Alev sensor and Arri colour science in a package which could be built either compact or large depending on your preference.

In much the same way, the Alexa Mini LF, with its smaller form factor, proved vastly more popular as a large format camera than the bigger body version the Alexa LF. Proving that when it comes to choosing a camera apparently size does matter. 

Before the introduction of the newer model Alexa 35 which can now conform to Netflix’s 4K recording requirements, if you wanted to shoot with a Super35 sensor the Alexa Mini was pretty much the choice. 

Although the Alexa Mini still dominates even in 2024, with its slightly lower price tag and data rates, it has lost quite a lot of market share this year in the high end arena to Arri’s latest Super35 camera - the Alexa 35.

SUPER35 VS LARGE FORMAT

In recent years there’s been a bit of a surge to shoot on large format digital cameras, which have bigger sensors than traditional Super35 - such as the full frame Venice, the Arri Alexa Mini LF or even the Alexa 65 with its wider field of view.

However, looking at the numbers, large format cameras still don’t dominate the market. If we look at every production and sort each camera into either Super35 or large format, the results show that at both Cannes and Sundance there was a similar preference for Super35 with it leading at 65% and 69% respectively. 

Bear in mind that some productions used multiple cameras - and paired up different sensor sizes, such as an Alexa Mini and a Mini LF.

Super35 capture offers cinematographers far more lens options to choose from than large formats do, dating all the way from vintage glass to contemporary lenses. Typically these cameras also come at a lower rental cost than the more expensive large format cameras do.   

Interestingly when we look at the Academy Awards we see a different picture. Only 43% of recent Oscar picks shot in Super35, while 77% of productions utilised some form of large format capture.

This also speaks to our earlier note about only 16% being shot on an Alexa Mini. 

I’d argue that one of the reasons for this may be that Oscar films have the bigger budget to rent large format camera packages, which low budget Indie movies from Sundance may not be able to do.

I’d speculate that perhaps cinematographers also feel that the more contained indie and mid budget dramas which largely come out of Cannes and Sundance are better suited to the more traditional Super35 format.

Whereas, maybe, the higher budget, blockbuster nature of Oscar picks are better enhanced by choosing wider field, higher res formats like Imax or digital 65.   

That’s what the data suggests anyway.

FILM VS DIGITAL

A final question that came to mind was how many productions still shoot on film versus digital?

This number included any production which used any type of film acquisition - from 16mm all the way up to Imax. Over the past four years, 11% of Sundance productions, 22% of movies from Cannes and 30% of Academy Award nominated flicks used film cameras.

Of those film cameras, again, Arri came first, with their LT and ST versions of the Arricam being by far the most popular film cameras.

Although overall, of course digital, cameras dominated I was quite surprised at how high film usage in 2024 still remains. Again, there’s also a possible correlation here with budget. The more money a production has as it scales from indie, to mid, to high budget festivals, the more possible it is for filmmakers to make the choice of whether to shoot on film or not.