iPhone 11 Pro or Red Hydrogen?

Mike Krumlauf

Mike Krumlauf

Award Winning Filmmaker
So im looking at upgrading my cell phone in the next month or two and for the first time in my life I am thinking about leaving apple to give the RED phone a chance. The iPhone 11 Pro sure sounds enticing esp with how cheap the monthly price is on leasing it from my service provider.. on the other hand I am interested in the RED phone but hesitant in switching to Android..

I know the RED phone isnt perfect (right now) but I have a feeling that in due time they will release the proper firmware updates and modular add ons to make it a phone/cine cam combo i can utilize in hobby and profesional settings... the question is, is it smart of me to take a gamble on RED and their phone, or just stick with what ive been use to since 2007 with Apple? I have no issues with iOS or Apple, im just interested in the fact a cinema company is making a phone and wondering if it could benefit me? Is the H1 worth ditching iOS???
 
I haven't seen the Hydrogen phone in person, but from everything I've read it's a disaster. Ambitious, but disastrous. I wouldn't go near it right now, especially coming from an iPhone with its perfectly polished user experience. I think you'll be cursing your existence on a regular basis.

If you're curious about Android phones, a Samsung Galaxy S10+ or Note10+ is about as good as it gets, or you can wait for the Pixel 4 to come out next month.

I really hope RED improves the phone with the next version, because I too would like to support them and I believe in their goal to make a professional cinema phone. But this first attempt is not a good phone, and as an introduction to Android it will probably have you running back to iOS within a week.

Again, I haven't used it personally, so take my advice with a huge grain of salt.
 
The phone I was looking to upgrade to is the Sony Xperia 1 because of how much manually control it gives you for video recording. It's definitely not perfect, though: https://www.cinema5d.com/sony-xperia-1-review/

I would stay far away from the Red Hydrogen unless they release a new version. From what I've seen, the standard video looks pretty poor, unless you really want to shoot 3D.
 
I think you should see the iPhone and the Hydrogen as two completely different tools.

If you're looking for conventional photography and video, the new iPhone 11pro should be the better choice: 3 focal lengths, newer processors and ai learning, better frame rates in 4K for video, etc. HOWEVER:

The Hydrogen shoots something no other phone does: H4V video and stills. This has to be seen to be truly understood and believed. Yes, its currently limited to users of said phone to experience it. Its however a door to a completely new dimension for photo taking and video making (literal pun intended).

Its a groundbreaking product, and it also takes gorgeous 2D Pictures, with very good color science due to, I think, Graeme Natress ( from Red ipp2 ) fame.
Its however a first generation machine, the processor is a bit old and taking both h4v and 2d with computational bokeh pictures takes a considerable lag. It also has a single, albeit beautiful, focal lengh, different to the standard 24mm look of the iPhones standard camera). The program recently suffered a rethink, so it seems like there will be no modules , but then again, Jim Jannard did say all Hydrogen owners are not obsolete , so this has to be taken into consideration.

I own a Hydrogen and shot a vacation album with it with fairly decent sized prints and am quite happy with it. Had 2 pictures I had to take for a job with the Hydrogen and they were printed in newspapers. However, I do think for 2D the iPhone 11 Pro should be the better choice. The Hydrogen is better than my 8plus, no doubt, for conventional 2D material, but I do think it is surpassed by the newer Apple phone that was introduced.

Like I said before, however, if you fancy going into a whole new world of photography and video, and have a glimpse and head start on something that might potentially create a big impact on the production market, do give a go on the Hydrogen. Both the Hydrogen and the iPhone are on my pocket at all times.

An interesting side effect of owning the Hydrogen is that you have access to a social network called Hollopix. Since mostly Video, film and Photo professionals ended up buying the phone, it became sort of an incredible 4V picture database and an excellent network to know other professionals from around the globe.
 
If somebody produced and marketed a camera with teeny lenses and few professional facilities we'd laugh, yet we happily faun over phone cams and find excuses for them. Nobody shoots critical one camera stuff on a GoPro, but they're brilliant for a few things. Phone cams, in my humble opinion are a hyped product, that are tweaked for subjective great pictures that in post, just reveal all the artefacts and disadvantages of simple lenses and small sensors.
 
Thanks for the info so far. I should mention that im looking at cell phones purely from a consumer standpoint as I dont shoot even personal projects film wise on a phone. I wont say i dont care about the camera but I dont NEED the end all be all in terms of camera. Im simply looking at the RED from a cell phone standpoint along with Android as a UI in terms of Security and bugs. I rarely ever use the camera on my iPhone so if the camera on the RED is not up to par thats fine, im mostly going to be using my phone... as my phone. lol

The modular Cine thing RED was talking about does spur my interest but I know for now I need to look at it as just a different phone. We all remember what a nightmare (well imo anyway from personal experience) the Red One camera was so it doesnt surprise me that the phone on the camera end isnt living up to the street talk RED was giving it. I heard they even put all the blame on china for it failing... sounds like red.. never taking blame for a product not living up to its potential.
 
Google Pixel, they get all the updates and security patches as fast as humanly possible. They generally also sport all the features that a premium phone should have. My only issue is lack of an SD card slot, if they had this, I'd own one.

LG has some decent phones in the upper range.

Motorola also has one or two decent phones.

And I hear Nokia may make a comeback.

And if all you want is a phone, then there are lots of lower priced phones that, you know, have phone like functions. Assuming you only need basic text, email, pull up a random web page, and talk on the phone, then you can probably get buy with only a $200 phone (or less). Lots of decent $50 phones on the market, and more generally gets you newer OS, better display, etc. Last phone I bought was an LG on Straighttalk for under $100, and bonus was that it has a user replaceable battery! Think this is it https://shop.straighttalk.com/shop/en/straighttalk/phones/st-lg-rebel-4
 
If what you want is a good phone experience, then I definitely wouldn't go with the Helium. Get a Google Pixel 4 when it comes out on October 15th and you'll have pure Android with all the latest updates for the next 3 years.


Samsung Galaxy Note 10 is another great new Android phone. I have the Note 9 and love it.

For a better value, get the OnePlus 7 Pro.
 
I don't like some of the changes Samsung makes to Android, just another thing to be aware of.

The only way to guarantee that you get all the OS and security updates is to go with the Pixel, everything else is up to the carrier to provide and they often don't bother updating anything!
 
Greg_E said:
I don't like some of the changes Samsung makes to Android, just another thing to be aware of.

The only way to guarantee that you get all the OS and security updates is to go with the Pixel, everything else is up to the carrier to provide and they often don't bother updating anything!
Click to expand...

That’s also the good thing about Apple. They don’t let the carriers mess with the OS or put bloat-ware on their phones.
 
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