The RED Hydrogen One has had a bit of a rocky history since its debut in mid-2017. The device was delayed and when it did finally launch in November 2018, it got less-than-stellar reviews. Now there's some bad news for the device and its module add-ons.
RED has quietly removed mentions of the Hydrogen One's modules from its website. Reddit user ReipasTietokonePoju discovered that the RED Hydrogen One webpage is now missing the section that highlighted the phone's modules late last year. You can view the old page that mentioned the modules thanks to the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine.
"The RED Hydrogen One isn't just built to expand more than just your view of what's possible, it's a modular, cinema-capable media machine that fits in your pocket," the page previously read. "You can add a power pack for increased battery life, expand the phone's memory to capture more of your precious moments, or attach a camera module with interchangeable lens mounts. Now, what you make of it all is entirely up to you."
The Hydrogen One's modules were supposed to arrive in 2019, but now it's unclear if they'll be released at all. RED hasn't made an official statement on the matter yet, but the quiet disappearance of the modules from this webpage doesn't instill a lot of confidence about their future. The RED Hydrogen One doesn't appear to have gained a ton of traction with consumers, so it's possible that the RED may have decided to axe its plans for modules, but we'll have to wait for official word from the company before we know for sure.
UPDATE: Jim Jannard, founder of RED, provided the following updates on the Hydrogen One and its modules:
"Some have noticed that we have taken down the images of the 2D module from our website.
The reason for that is because we are currently in the middle of radically changing the HYDROGEN program. As I have said before, everything can and will change.
A series of obstacles and then new discoveries have given us the opportunity to significantly improve the entire program, not only for HYDROGEN but also for RED.
The changes create new opportunities to better satisfy the professional image capture customers as well as the casual consumer for the HYDROGEN program.
The RED team, led by Jarred Land, as of now will now be fully in charge of the professional image capture program for HYDROGEN and the HYDROGEN team is fully engaged on the new in-device image capture system. Both are major advancements to what was previously posted.
We are excited to share details as soon as we file the patents and lock down the changes and are all pretty excited about what is coming…
As a side note… all HYDROGEN customers will be “obsolescence obsolete” when buying into the new professional image capture program.
While I understand the post is a bit cryptic, there are a few misnomers out there already.
The HYDROGEN team is exactly as before. The primary difference is that instead of the HYDROGEN team running the pro camera for HYDROGEN, RED is.
HYDROGEN One is alive and well… with more updates continually making it more powerful and better with each update. In fact you can expect one of the most significant 4V updates in the next two weeks.
In the absence of clear messaging, the crowd goes crazy trying to fill in the blanks. We will post more info when we can, but we have things to clean up (patents for one) before we give out anymore info."