What you need to know

  • RED founder Jim Jannard has announced that he is retiring and the Hydrogen project is being shut down.
  • The company's first smartphone, the Hydrogen One, will continue to be supported in the future.
  • Launched in October last year, the company's first smartphone failed to live up to the hype.

In July this year, RED founder Jim Jannard had revealed that the company was working on a successor to the Hydrogen One and promised that a redesigned cinema camera called Komodo was on its way. In a post on the company's H4Vuser.net website, Jannard has now announced that he has decided to retire due to "a few health issues" and will be shutting down the Hydrogen project.

This means the Hydrogen Two, which was supposed to be under development, will not be seeing the light of day. However, Jannard did tease the company's upcoming Komodo camera module, which will be compatible with the Hydrogen One. The camera module is rumored to be capable of recording videos in 6K resolution and come with a Canon RF mount.

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Even though RED is shutting down the Hydrogen project, Jannard has claimed that the Hydrogen One will continue to be supported by the company. However, there is still no word on when the company will be rolling out the Android Pie upgrade for the phone. Since its launch, the phone hasn't received a single major OS update.

The Hydrogen One was announced by RED in 2017 but went on sale only in October last year, after numerous delays. Thanks to its steep pricing and disappointing software, the phone did not receive a great reception.

RED Hydrogen One review: The cinephile's dream phone ... some day

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