RED Digital Cinema's Jarred Land surprised readers of REDuser.net late Friday night by releasing on the forums a still from the RED Scarlet/Epic-S camera (above) and footage from the long-anticipated RED Epic camera. In a post titled "Meet Felix," Land unleashed footage of a lion consuming raw meat shot in 5K at 96 frames-per-second on the company's new flagship digital camera the RED Epic .

To view the footage of Felix, visit here or use the link in the forum post. For those without the ability to watch here are a couple of stills (click to enlarge):

The configuration of the camera when the footage was shot is as follows, according to Land:

RED Epic with Canon lens mount and “Canon 70-200mm 2.8IS shot at about 85mm at about a f4”

5K resolution

2:1 aspect ratio (vertically)

96fps on a 24fps timebase

REDCODE 12:1 (equal to REDCODE 120)

1/192 Shutter (~180 degrees)

ISO 1260 “and pushed a stop”

The footage truly takes advantage of the camera’s Mysterium-X sensor in a way that an upgraded RED One could not. A prime example of this is the ability to shoot 96 frames-per-second at a 5K resolution. The detail in the lion’s face, it’s fur, and the depth to which you can see into it’s eyes is astounding. I only wish the clip was in HD to really get up close and personal with “Felix.” All in all, the clip looks gorgeous, but I’m sure RED already knew that and wouldn’t of released it otherwise.

Readers of the site REDuser have been as hungry for footage from the company as Felix was for the meat in the clip. In the past few weeks, the amount of press surrounding the Epic has been steadily rising with tidbits about popular filmmakers like Ridley Scott and John Schwartzman shooting with the cameras. There were also announcements on new color science working in tandem with a now exclusive HDRx tech and then finally the first RED Epic camera being shipped.

But truly the news culminates for many with the release of some actual footage of the camera. To top it off, Jarred Land has also promised to release raw R3D files from Epic and Scarlet/Epic-S for filmmaking junkies to toy with into the wee hours of the night. As of this posting he has yet to release them because he had to go to dinner with his wife or he was a “dead man.” No joke! Will post links here ASAP when they are available.

When RED first got into the digital cinema game it blew up conventional wisdom on the market, but now more than ever the company has found the space crowded with efforts from Sony, Panasonic and established camera companies like Arri with the Arri Alexa. I’m looking forward to this camera for a few reasons, but I’m also curious on how it will stack up against others. After all, there’s something to be said when Roger Deakins makes camp with the Alexa.

UPDATE #2: Another clip of “Felix” here.

UPDATE #1: Jarred Land has posted some Scarlet R3D files that are compatible with the new REDCine-X. Download here.