OK, everyone, it’s finally here! The RED camcorder has been officially announced at NAB, and the specs are living up to the hype - now we just have to hope the actual camcorder lives up to the specs. But let’s put that behind us for now and look at the facts:

As we’ve already known for a while, the RED camcorder will capture video in many HD formats, including 4k, 2k, 1080p, 720p. One new one that I hadn’t seen before is 2540p, which makes use of the whole sensor. The sensor itself is a single CMOS sensor with a physical size of 24.4mm x 13.7mm, which is the size of Super 35mm. The resolution of the active pixels is 4520 x 2540 - that’s 11.4 megapixels total! Because of the huge sensor, depther of field is going to be close to - if not the same as - what you would get with film.

Frame rate is variable from 1-60fps in all formats, and up to 120fps is available in 2k formats and below. Video output is as follows:

Single and dual link HD-SDI
2K 4:4:4 RGB
1080p 4:4:4 RGB
1080p 4:2:2
1080i 4:2:2
720p 4:2:2

There will be a number of options for recording all that video, which include what they are calling RED-RAID, RED-RAM, RED-FLASH, and RED-DRIVE. Working prototypes are expected later this year, and the actual release date will also be late this year or early next year. The price for this lovely piece of equipment is $17,500. RED is currently accepting reservations for a $1000 deposit. This is refundable at any time and basically guarantees you a spot in line when the RED camcorder finally comes out.

It looks awesome, but will it be awesome? Only time will tell. Visit RED.com for more information.

If you want an ongoing commentary on the RED camcorder, head on over to HDForIndies.com and check out the thoughts being posted there (beware the typos, though, seems that someone is a bit dyslexic with excitement about RED).