By site editor Dan Chung:
The ARRI Alexa MINI is rapidly becoming popular for handheld work thanks to its small size and great picture. Many operators, myself included, prefer the camera to the larger AMIRA for documentary style shoots.
You do of course need to equip the camera with a good rig, but to get a handle with a trigger on it can be expensive and a little complicated. The Alexa MINI doesn’t offer a Lanc terminal, or indeed ARRI’s own RS terminal for camera triggering. Instead you need to connect to the MINI’s EXT socket which is a custom port. Of course ARRI do provide their own grip and trigger solution, but if you want to use a third party RS compatible handgrip you need the EXT-RS adapter cable from ARRI that doesn’t come cheap.
Enter the new Kinogrip Alexa MINI control cable. It plugs directly into the Alexa Mini’s EXT port without the need to buy the EXT-RS adapter from ARRI. It will provide the same run/stop control as on the Alexa and Amira. It has the benefit of being reasonably priced and a more convenient cable.
The cable works with both KinoGrip wooden handgrips and the KinoHandle leather handles. Pricing is $529 with either the Grenoble or Tucson grips, $309 with the KinoHandle, and $130 for just the cable (available to previous or current customers only).
Note that this cable only works on the MINI and is not compatible with standard Alexa or Amira cameras because it uses a different connector and pinout. Kinogrip sell a separate compatible Alexa/Amira RS cable for those cameras.
For more details visit the Kinogrip website.
