Rollei Hy6 News

[Schmiddi]

Is this really the case... I thought I had read that the Hy6 was in the hands of a small private group that formerly worked at F&H. Maybe I've got my facts scrambled

DHW is a successor of F&H, that's right. They produce some parts from the portfolio and they are working hard on extending this (like the 6x6 film-back, some lenses, the prism-finders i.e.). They also have some Hy6-bodies from F&H-production, so far I know.
The Hy6 is NOT in production and cannot not be.

• You can buy a new Hy6 from Sinar - maybe they are selling ghosts?
• You can get your Hy6 serviced by Sinar ( maybe they are servicing ghosts?) People who have bought new Hy6's over the last few months ( from Sinar) must be using ghosts and;
• People ( like myself) who are having their Hy6 serviced by Sinar (right now) must havee sent their camera to a cemetary or somesuch.

All correct - Sinar still has Hy6-systems from the production of F&H for sale. Sinar also makes service - as also DHW is doing service for Hy6-bodies. So no ghosts Both companies will continue this, so there is a future for existing bodies! But unfortunately no production of new ones...

Andreas

 

[Geoff]

OK - lets try to sort this out -

1) the license for the design: this is very complicated. The development was sponsored and supported amongst three companies (F&H, Sinar, and Leaf) and the design license is strongly rumored to be held by Leaf, and thus Phase. At one time there was a rumor that Kodak had it, when they owned Leaf. Where hte intellectual property is, who has it, and what will happen to it (if anything) is not known.

2) camera service and sales: Sinar is selling and servicing the camera. DHW is selling from older stock (as is likely Sinar also). These are fresh NOS (new old stock) cameras, and thus one can enjoy life in the beast yet. Their firmware is up to date, and they are serviced if needed. And they work like a charm.

3) dead vs. alive? If you think that life is only in ongoing production runs, then I guess this is dead. OTOH, One could look at the Hy6 simply as an example of a short production run, sold until the production run is exhausted. THis is more common than we might think for small production runs: its a different model, but as long as the product is well developed, there is nothing wrong with that.

We don't know how many bodies are still left for sale, but there seem to be a few. At the moment DHW is scrappily selling from stock, and aiming to introduce new product. Give me a 6x6 film back for the camera, and what more could one need? With Sinar too...seems lively enough.

The line between production and 'dead' seems blurred now. For those of us who are fans of the marque and the approach it follows, this is good news.

Geoff