Hasselblad hasn't had their finger on the pulse of the market for over a decade ... yet they still succeeded in spite of themselves, probably due solely to the H series camera having little competition at the time, when Contax went bye, bye, and Phase One had to use the then terrible Mamiya 645. This time it is different.
Look back at what they jettisoned, and what moves they made. Not all the mis-steps, just a few highlights:
In the face of increasing market demand for more automation, when even Leica capitulated and made a more automated M, Hasselblad stops building the 200 series camera ... the 203FE being one of the best, most versatile cameras I've ever owned. Thus, offing the perfect engineering candidate to take into the digital age.
The highly regarded XPan ... at the very least a product concept and brand name that could have been brought into the digital age using a different method for panos, or whatever ... gets killed for some vague "parts" reason. It is replaced by nothing ... the profit margin on nothing ... is nothing. At least it kept the Hasselblad heritage intact. Loved that camera, a one of a kind.
Hasselblad has a Hollywood plastic surgeon give the dull grey H a cosmetic face lift, tweaks a few existing functions (some so minor that even they can't fully describe the improvements) and announces the H5D like it was some sort of Wowzer! ... the H R&D cash having been spent on developing the Lunatic camera so transparently inadequate, and obviously not a Hasselblad in any sense of the brand's heritage or physical make.
Hasselblad stops making the 500 series 503CW because no one is buying new ones. No one is buying new ones because they haven't change the damned thing in 30 years. Nor have they made updated accessories that could have helped use it with a digital back. Another engineering masterpiece to the dustbin out of laziness, and misguided, ill-informed, non-photographic management.
The intention as outlined at Photokina is/was to have a 35mm Lunatic version of the Sony A99 ... I have a A99 and trust me it is not a Hasselblad in any sense of the word ... or at least what that word used to stand for.
- Marc