Arri is the new Adobe

[FHDcrew]

RIP us actually getting to use what we own lol.  Yes Arri is amazing, yes the Alexa 35 is wonderful, yes these prices are totally fine for large film groups or people renting.  But now Arri is putting some features as "upgrades" such as Anamorphic desqueezing and ArriRAW support...and yes, they offer these in weekly/monthly subscription models...hoping this does not trickle down into future cameras that are much more affordable.  Sick of subscriptions.

[FHDcrew]

Obviously paid firmware upgrades have been a thing since the Gh4 days...but a subscription model is so annoying.

[MrSMW]

I’m not sure how much of this ARRI log C3 is over-hyped…

Having looked at some of the footage shot side by side with standard log, very little difference and with some samples, I prefer the standard log.

And anyway, the Phantom LUTS by Joel F are designed to ‘mimic’ various versions of ARRI. I’m more than happy with those and think they look better than the standard log…which itself to me looks better in most cases than this new cost option download.

None of these things will turn your $3000 mirrorless into an actual ARRI camera, but then how many can afford, never mind need an ARRI 35?

Not a fan of subs either.

Pretty sure it’s not for me.

[eatstoomuchjam]

I only made it about 5 minutes through the video before I got bored with it so maybe he addresses some of this after that.

But I'm not sure why it's news that Arri give people an option to buy the full camera or a base model that disables some features until they're enabled.  That's been a thing for a long time.  When one buys the base model, there are options to pay to  enable those features on a temporary or permanent basis.  It's one of the reasons that when you see used Arris for sale, they'll frequently say things like "includes high-speed license" or "includes raw license."

Speaking for myself, I kind of hate subscriptions in general for this kind of thing, but that is very much mitigated by having the option for a permanent license.  I still don't like it a lot since (in most cases), it's not really reducing the camera price.  In the case of things like the GH4/5, it's not like Panasonic would have needed to charge more for the camera if they just threw in vlog-l.

In Arri's case, I suspect that the decision was pushed by big rental houses - if I'm a rental house, a reduced cost base model lets me buy more cameras.  Add a license to enable certain features and I can just tack that onto the price of the rental.  Renting for a week?  X dollars.  You want raw on that rental?  Add Y dollars.  Camera reaches end of service life, the buyer can turn on any feature they want on a permanent basis.

I don't love it, but it's not terrible.