The first Hydrogen One was a disappointment. Sadly, it squandered all the promise it had. However, RED’s looking to redeem itself with the Hydrogen Two.
In a post on RED’s message board, RED founder Jim Jannard doubled down on RED’s commitment to the Hydrogen One. There have been numerous complaints about the camera module. RED’s answer to that has been to blame its ODM partner.
Jannard revealed that while Foxconn’s been a reliable manufacturer, the design partner is the reason for their failure:
“Our ODM, which was responsible for the mechanical packaging of our design including new technologies along with all software integration with the Qualcomm processor, has significantly under-performed. Getting our ODM in China to finish the committed features and fix known issues on the =One has proven to be beyond challenging. Impossible actually. This has been irritating me to death and flooding our reactor.”
RED’s shifting its attention to the Hydrogen Two and a cinema module
According to Jannard’s post, RED is now focusing on the Hydrogen Two and a camera module that will work with both the second and first ]phones. The Hydrogen Two is being designed “virtually from scratch” in partnership with a new ODM that’s “clearly more capable of building and supporting the product we (and our customers) demand,” according to Jannard.
As for the cinema camera module, the new module is called Komodo. It should “vastly exceed” the one that was first planned. While Jannard says it won’t reach the standards of high-end Red cameras (which isn’t a shocker), it’s still looking to be a “complementary camera for cinema-grade images at the highest level at lower pricing.”
One owners won’t be left behind
RED isn’t just forgetting the Hydrogen One owners, who spent $1,300 to get one. Jannard says that the owners will get “significant preferential treatment” for Hydrogen Two and camera module orders. That should include a discount, but we don’t know how much of a price reduction.
There’s no release dates or timelines for either the Hydrogen Two or the module. However, considering how long it took to make the first phone, we don’t think it will be any time soon.
Image courtesy Digital Trends
