ARRI Alexa 35 Quick Start Guide

First things first. To access the Menu there are a few buttons to know about.

First, on the side of the viewfinder there is a series of buttons. If you click the one on the left and bottom that will select your Menu. That is also your back button.

Then on the back of the view finder there is a Scroll Wheel. This will allow you to navigate the menu.

Clicking on the Center of the wheel allows you to select things.

Finally above the first button there is another button, that is your Home button and will bring you to your normal screen.

Now you will enter the menu by clicking the button shown above. Then you will scroll down to the Setup menu and select it.

Then scroll down to Factory Reset... and select it.

This will take a few minutes to execute.

The camera will be set to default settings but we do not recommend using these.  

Here are the Recommended Settings for this camera.

Don't worry we will show you how to change all of these.

Recording Codec: Apple ProRes 4444

Sensor Mode: 4.6K 16:9

Frame Rate: 23.98

First, you will go to the Recording menu and select it.

Then select Recording Codec.

Then go and select Apple ProRes 4444. And then press the Set button.

A Notice will appear on the screen. Hit the Confirm button.

This will take a few minutes to execute.

Next you will go to the Sensor Mode menu.

Next you will select 4.6K 16:9 and press the Set button.

Next a Notice will appear on the screen. Make sure to hit the Confirm button.

Now we're going to change the Project Frame Rate.

It is very important that you do it the way shown here because changing the Frame Rate on the Home screen will not change the Frame Rate properly.

To do it properly go to the Project Settings menu inside the Recording menu.

Then go to Project Rate and select it.

Next go to 23.976p and hit the Set button.

Now the FPS has been changed. You can now hit the Close button that has just appeared.

Notice: Changing the Frame Rate on the Home screen as shown here does not change the Project Frame Rate.

This is why we suggest setting the Project Frame Rate to 23.976p and then if you are working with slow-mo you can change the Frame Rate here as needed.

The overall camera settings will remain unchanged.

Next you must Format your card. To do so you must select the Media menu.

Then select Erase Media...

Now we will show you a few recommended settings and also how to change your Camera Index.

(If you need to name your clips something else based off location or camera numbers).

First we will check Peaking settings. To do so select the Monitoring menu.

Then select the Peaking tab. You can change the settings as needed here to whatever works best for you.

Then go to EVF Overlays and select it.

Next select Status Components.

Then you will check the Lens Data component.

Then select Lens Focus Distance and Depth of Field components.

Now, to change the Camera Index you will select the Project Settings menu inside of the Recording menu.

The select the Camera Index menu.

Then you can change the Index to whatever works for your workflow.

NOTE: You can only use TWO characters.

Now you can press the Home button. Your screen should look something like the one shown here.

You should be good to start shooting.