The “budget” option from RED’s enormous modular lineup has finally spit out an actual moving image for all of us to see (autoplaying video, let it run through once). The 2/3″ sensor is far smaller than the original RED camera, but it looks like that doesn’t present a problem; the shot above was a 100mm prime at T5.6. Image quality and contrast look great. Now imagine that image at somewhere between 1 and 120 frames per second and about 10 times as big — shot from something you can fit in your purse. Assuming you have a purse.

Remember, this is the lowest end of the RED spectrum. Actually, the “all-in-one” Scarlet (costing around $4000, I’d guess) will have a permanent zoom applied, so the glass won’t be as nice as the RED primes, but the sensor family is obviously close to being ready for production. Soon we’ll see if the RED has the impact on the motion picture industry we thought it would. It’s already increased cinema lens demand by a significant amount.

[thanks for the tip, Mike]