Hassleblad Mirrorless!

[kdemas]

I understand, to a point, what they're trying to do. They point out other manufacturers do similar things, like Leica, but they contend that's just a re-paint and not a "different product" like they're offering.

I can see some wild aesthetics being attractive to some, I can even see myself thinking a radical design would be kind of neat. What Hasselblad isn't understanding, I believe, is that the 6 times the price for the EXACT same performance, regardless of packaging, will lead to ridicule from almost any photo enthusiast. They have gone the re-branding road before, think X-Pan, but the X-Pan didn't cost 6 times as much as the differently badged Fuji offering.

I think the niche they're going after is wafer thin. The same people who buy the diamond encrusted iPhones for thousands of bucks. And to be clear, if someone wants to spend that, I have no problem with it. I do think creating a radical looking camera that is merely just a shell over a rather affordable camera is eliminating a very large potential audience.

They could have made the exact same design, with SOME performance differentiation (even custom software with expanded features) and priced it at Double the Nex 7 and there would have been more people biting.

Too bad. I like the idea of breaking the aesthetic mold, being a bit of a design whore myself. This is just too far out in the price category to be taken really seriously and to appeal to the younger audience they're trying to attract.

 

[fstops]

Luminous landscape has a really spicy coverage of this camera with three commentators ripping it apart from a different direction - funny too. http://www.luminous-landscape.com/essays/photokina_2012.shtml#has and scroll up for the rest.

 

[Keith]

Surely when a company goes down this route they do some market testing to gauge response ... what market were they thinking of I wonder?

Like kdemas said ^ there are people out there who will buy diamond encrusted iPhones so taste and money are obviously strange bedfellows ... and always have been in my book. 😀

 

[GaryLH]

In the case of the xpan, I don't think Fuji would have made this camera if Hasselbad had not wanted this built... But I may well be wrong..

I had always assumed that Fuji built this camera for Hasselblad in the same way CL was built for Leica, with the same type of deal where Fuji could eventually sell it with their own name...

Gary

 

[raid]

I wonder if it is "better" than my vintage SWC?
Will the body be made of plastic?

 

[rbelyell]

the point is that a camera company neednt have been involved in this at all! hassy could have been replaced in this equation by say porsche or coco channel or hammecher schlemmer for gods sake! they brought absolutely nothing in terms of their field of expertise to the table, and are charging $6500 for the effort. thats where the complaint lies.

and further, a first class niche player like hassy picking the most pedestrian consumer company with which to form an ongoing 'partnership' is like a never ending black eye...next up leica/samsung brings you the $10,000 galaxy 12 cam/phone!
tony

 

[GaryLH]

the point is that a camera company neednt have been involved in this at all! hassy could have been replaced in this equation by say porsche or coco channel or hammecher schlemmer for gods sake! they brought absolutely nothing in terms of their field of expertise to the table, and are charging $6500 for the effort. thats where the complaint lies.

and further, a first class niche player like hassy picking the most pedestrian consumer company with which to form an ongoing 'partnership' is like a never ending black eye...next up leica/samsung brings you the $10,000 galaxy 12 cam/phone!
tony

In my mind, the guys at luminous landscape are right... This is more of a statement from the new owners of Hasselblad.. --> private equity fund Ventizz Capital.. Very sad

Gary

 

[leicapixie]

The most expensive hand-grip in the history of photography.
The name well chosen. Only a user, a "Lunatic" would use a "Lunar".
In spite of the features, i'll pass...

 

[Mohan]

I keep hoping that this is all an elaborate joke, that at some point they'll peel of the vulgar (and rather shoddy looking ) facades and underneath will be a high quality minimalistic camera, or else they'll release the ultimate pro studio camera (my limited experience with the H3D was not too great) with a MF sony CMOS sensor.

 

[jsrockit]

May be the biggest let-down in camera history, but still, it's just a camera. Gotta have some ugly ones in history too.

 

[peterm1]

I keep hoping that this is all an elaborate joke, that at some point they'll peel of the vulgar (and rather shoddy looking ) facades and underneath will be a high quality minimalistic camera, or else they'll release the ultimate pro studio camera (my limited experience with the H3D was not too great) with a MF sony CMOS sensor.

I must admit, my reflex when I saw this thing was to check the calendar to see if it was April 1.

 

[torn]

http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2012/09/product-announcement-lensrentals-looney

 

[rxmd]

The fake gold Leica Zorkis just got a whole new significance.

 

[nighstar]

Luminous landscape has a really spicy coverage of this camera with three commentators ripping it apart from a different direction - funny too. http://www.luminous-landscape.com/essays/photokina_2012.shtml#has and scroll up for the rest.

from Luminous Landscape:

...if you have more money than brains, but not enough money for a real H-camera, you can now pay five grand for a Sony that, if you close your eyes, imagine real hard, and click your heels together three times, will make you feel like you own a Hasselblad.

Personally, as a less expensive and more culturally authentic experience, I suggest the following:

1 . Open the internet
2. Go to: www.ebay.com
3. Type: “Hasselblad 500 c/m” into the search window
4. Buy one.

 

[sevo]

In the case of the xpan, I don't think Fuji would have made this camera if Hasselbad had not wanted this built... But I may well be wrong..

I had always assumed that Fuji built this camera for Hasselblad in the same way CL was built for Leica, with the same type of deal where Fuji could eventually sell it with their own name...

Considering that Hasselblad lost all their mojo with the decease of Victor Hasselblad (their development stalled for good after the 2000FC), I think it is rather optimistic to believe that Hasselblad had input into the engineering - at the very best, their product management was involved in the feature list and body design.

 

[Paul T.]

Luminous landscape has a really spicy coverage of this camera with three commentators ripping it apart from a different direction - funny too.

Michael Reichmann's snottiness would be more effective if he learned how to spell. "nuvea riche"?

 

[GaryLH]

Considering that Hasselblad lost all their mojo with the decease of Victor Hasselblad (their development stalled for good after the 2000FC), I think it is rather optimistic to believe that Hasselblad had input into the engineering - at the very best, their product management was involved in the feature list and body design.

That maybe true.. But I would hope that there were marketing or product line managers that were associated with him that we're part of the final decision otherwise I think it is even sadder still 🙁

Too me this did not seem to be the type of camera that Fuji would build w/o a request from someone.

Gary

 

[sevo]

Too me this did not seem to be the type of camera that Fuji would build w/o a request from someone.

There are things that aren't entirely Fuji about it, but they are even less Hasselblad. I suspect the Xpan as well as the related Contax G1/G2 and Hexar AF and RF to have considerable amounts of input from some joint Japanese "future camera" design study - there are too many conceptual similarities in these cameras, which do not even originate within the same Keiretsu.

 

[rxmd]

Michael Reichmann's snottiness would be more effective if he learned how to spell. "nuvea riche"?

Maybe means rich people that use some kind of new skin care product.

 

[urban_alchemist]

This camera actually makes me angry. So angry that I want to dispose of my H4, and shun my 203FE and X-Pan2 to the back of the closet. (I'm only joking about the last two, but you know).

Say what you want about Leica, but apart from the consumer point and shoots (which, by the way, are ~30% more than their Panasonic siblings and come with bundled software, not - gasp - 500% more), they take a very clear, very specific brief and produce unique camera systems that reflect a very niche market's wet dream. Even the X2 is a slightly askew fully in-house interpretation of the pocket camera with few real direct rivals.

This Lunar is like Nokia's Vertu and Aston Martin's Cygnet fiascos - an admittedly good product (Nokia and Toyota respectively) dressed in new clothes with no discernible benefits at an extortionate price. At least the rebranded Fujis are/were esoteric and different from their contemporaries. (X-Pan? H1?) The problem for the company with this new range is that unless you offer something functionally different, at some point, even the most foolish customers wise-up and at that point, the company's reputation is already damaged. Potentially irreversibly so. The examples are legion: Ford/Mercury/Lincoln (Chevy/Buick/Cadillac), Kyocera/Contax, early-2000s Panasonic/Leica... the list goes on and on.

If this is the new owner's plan, Hasselblad is dead. Long live Leica, for it demonstrates what a small company can do. If I can afford it, I'll ditch my all my Hx gear and move to the S-system. As of now, it seems to have a far brighter future.