Interested in peoples thoughts on this.
In Japan there are tens of thousands of photographers who are retired and own a Hasselblad V camera. They bought them when they retired before digital took a hold. It use to be the thing to have. They would be in there seventies or older now. Which in Japan is regarded as still quite young ! They have money and would be able to spend around 900,000 Yen ( 11,550 US ) on their hobby. But unfortunately the Hasselblad CFV-39 was priced around 2,000,000 Yen (25,000 US) in Japan. Way too much... and way different from the price in other countries. If it would have been priced around 900,000 Yen and made available in the usual camera stores, Hasselblad would have sold thousands of CFV 39 digital backs.
There is something selling like hot cakes in Japan ( well sort of ) and that is a device called a Pentax 645D medium format camera. That is because they got the price right. Street price around 700,000 Yen. The camera is sold in normal camera shops and they got the target audience correct.
While walking around the usual camera stores in Tokyo last week, I saw something very interesting in at least three of the camera stores. Phase One P30+ in Hasselblad V mount priced around 950,000 Yen. Available over the counter at the shop. Only trouble is it does not say Hasselblad on it and not sure how the devoted Hasselblad owners are going to feel about that, but you never know it just might catch on and Phase might just sell thousands of them. I think Phase One found the market and priced something appropriately here. They could do very well.
In Japan there are tens of thousands of photographers who are retired and own a Hasselblad V camera. They bought them when they retired before digital took a hold. It use to be the thing to have. They would be in there seventies or older now. Which in Japan is regarded as still quite young ! They have money and would be able to spend around 900,000 Yen ( 11,550 US ) on their hobby. But unfortunately the Hasselblad CFV-39 was priced around 2,000,000 Yen (25,000 US) in Japan. Way too much... and way different from the price in other countries. If it would have been priced around 900,000 Yen and made available in the usual camera stores, Hasselblad would have sold thousands of CFV 39 digital backs.
There is something selling like hot cakes in Japan ( well sort of ) and that is a device called a Pentax 645D medium format camera. That is because they got the price right. Street price around 700,000 Yen. The camera is sold in normal camera shops and they got the target audience correct.
While walking around the usual camera stores in Tokyo last week, I saw something very interesting in at least three of the camera stores. Phase One P30+ in Hasselblad V mount priced around 950,000 Yen. Available over the counter at the shop. Only trouble is it does not say Hasselblad on it and not sure how the devoted Hasselblad owners are going to feel about that, but you never know it just might catch on and Phase might just sell thousands of them. I think Phase One found the market and priced something appropriately here. They could do very well.