Where is the X1D ????

[rayyen]

Dear Official,

It's really great to hearing you with news of the delivery. I would love to know if 4116 set will come together as you said by end of this month together with the standard version?

Much appreciate your reply.

Ray
Fans of Hasselblad

Hi guys,

We are very saddened to read this thread and we do understand your frustration. We very much apologise for the inconvenience. After its announcement, the X1D became a global success. Due to the very high amount of orders that followed, we had to make structural changes to our factory in Sweden to meet the demand and increase the number of units produced per day.

We have been shipping demo units since August and most of our partners have X1D available for hands-on experience, but ramping up end-user cameras took longer than we anticipated. On a positive note, we are starting to fulfil end-user orders as of this month.

We thank you for your patience and we hope that you accept our sincerest apologies.

// The Hasselblad Team

 

[bernardl]

Another piece of information, IMHO the most important one, is whether the firmware has been finalised or not.

Production of physical parts is certainly part of the reason for the delay, but I continue to suspect that firmware finalisation is the key bottleneck...

So an update about the status isn't any near useful without a clear statement about the firmware aspects.

Cheers,
Bernard

 

[wellfleet]

FWIW, from Mirrorless Rumors...

"The early Hasselblad X1D preorders are now shipping out (slowly) at BHphoto. In Europe they will ship out in 10 days at Calumet.de and at WexUK. I still haven’t found any official full review to share. I would love to see an image quality comparison between the best FF cameras and the X1D to see if there is really a major difference."

http://www.mirrorlessrumors.com/new-hasselblad-x1d-tests-previews-interviews/

 

[GrahamWelland]

Aside the need to ship ASAP anyway, I would have thought that from a business user perspective around the world there must be a huge presssure to deliver product before the end of the financial/tax year.

 

[Erik Lundqvist]

FWIW, from Mirrorless Rumors...

"The early Hasselblad X1D preorders are now shipping out (slowly) at BHphoto. In Europe they will ship out in 10 days at Calumet.de and at WexUK. I still haven’t found any official full review to share. I would love to see an image quality comparison between the best FF cameras and the X1D to see if there is really a major difference."

http://www.mirrorlessrumors.com/new-hasselblad-x1d-tests-previews-interviews/

Pretty sure this is a rumor as I have not seen any evidence that B&H is shipping anything. Did we not just see someone post an email from them saying they had no idea when the X1D would arrive?

 

[Jan]

Good to see Hasselblad reaching out. Ironically Ming Thein, the ambassador from Malaysia has posted several reviews but Shriro who is responsible for import does not even have a demo unit yet.

With all due respect, if I would treat my customers in a similar way i would be out of business in no time unless i would come up with a way to (hugely) compensate my customers but somehow a niche camera manufacturer can get away with it without a few hearts broken and a few strings busted.

Definitely an amazing brand, consistently performing over so many years, but in this day and age you can no longer get away with this as if it was the 1970's and i recommend to consider some well-needed management make-overs.

Hi guys,

We are very saddened to read this thread and we do understand your frustration. We very much apologise for the inconvenience. After its announcement, the X1D became a global success. Due to the very high amount of orders that followed, we had to make structural changes to our factory in Sweden to meet the demand and increase the number of units produced per day.

We have been shipping demo units since August and most of our partners have X1D available for hands-on experience, but ramping up end-user cameras took longer than we anticipated. On a positive note, we are starting to fulfil end-user orders as of this month.

We thank you for your patience and we hope that you accept our sincerest apologies.

// The Hasselblad Team

 

[Guy Mancuso]

Not sure it's acceptable anymore without definitive dates or at least don't take pre- orders until you are sure if delivery dates. Not fair for folks to keep guessing and for Pros especially you can't count on this for your business with floating dates. Also this is going to hurt in taxes for business owners that are counting on year end purchases to help with tax deductions. I just bought a new Mac for this reason as well . It will help my 2016 tax burden. For some they may just buy something today for that advantage. Might be the greatest camera since sliced bread but this delay is not a good sign. Try buying a car like this and you know you will go buy something else instead

 

[JoshMerwin]

It's actually like 3 slices of bread thick... just taking a while to bake!

 

[D&A]

It's actually like 3 slices of bread thick... just taking a while to bake!

Some might say its half baked or its already toast . I say nothing could be further from the truth. It will be hot and ready when all is said and done.

Dave (D&A)

 

[kscott]

High-end cars aren't much different than high-end cameras. Just sayin'.

Joe

The only time that I've witnessed the "commit to this purchase and then wait some unspecified amount of time to get your new toy" dynamic with high-end cars is when I or friends are trying to lay hands on something being made deliberately in restricted quantity to make it more collectible. And when that's been the case, the manufacturer has always said exactly what to expect or not to expect. You're not buying a tool, you're buying a plaything. I've also bought high-end cars where I've made a purchase decision based on what the manufacturer and dealers tell me is available, and have taken possession of the car right away. Most of those cars have been tools for me. They're nice tools, and I could have gotten by with less nice ones. But in any case, I depend on them to get me from place A to place B, and I don't have the luxury of not going from A to B while I wait for the tool to become available.

IMHO, Hasselblad needs to decide whether they're selling tools or toys. Expectations of customers are very different depending on which flavor of thing you're selling. Again, IMHO, they are acting like they're selling a toy a right now, which might be fine and dandy for some customers, but totally off-putting to others.

 

[Don Libby]

I had a X1D on preorder until the delays began to mount up and I got the strange feeling in the pit of my stomach that I was making a mistake. The mistake wasn't in wanting a mirrorless medium format camera, rather than to expect delivery in time for a couple of locations where a CMOS sensor would have worked better (Socorro NM in Oct, and Moab UT in Nov and more importantly Hawaii in Feb/Mar).

Phase One introduced the IQ1-100 and I began to reevaluate things. Short story is the preorder was cancelled and I now own the 100 and have used it for several months. I've also added a small 45mm f/2.8 for nightscape and as a general walk around camera (still much heavier than the X1D or new Fuji but lightweight in comparison to other lenses).

I still like the idea of a smaller mirrorless medium format camera and will in all likelihood take a closer look at the Fuji sometime next year after things settle down. However, this entire experience with the release of the X1D has left a sour taste in my mouth and I doubt I'll ever consider looking at Hasselblad ever again.

Just my 2-cents worth.

Don

 

[Godfrey]

Not sure it's acceptable anymore without definitive dates or at least don't take pre- orders until you are sure if delivery dates. Not fair for folks to keep guessing and for Pros especially you can't count on this for your business with floating dates. Also this is going to hurt in taxes for business owners that are counting on year end purchases to help with tax deductions. I just bought a new Mac for this reason as well . It will help my 2016 tax burden. For some they may just buy something today for that advantage. Might be the greatest camera since sliced bread but this delay is not a good sign. Try buying a car like this and you know you will go buy something else instead

Hmm. IMO, professionals should never (and should never need to) "pre-order" equipment. Basically, what I mean is that pros shouldn't be depending upon new, untested, newly available or just released equipment for their income, and should refrain from basing a working schedule on the availability of such gear. To do that is a scary business practice, to me anyway.

A friend of mine bought a new Aston Martin Vantage about fifteen years back. He placed the order a week after it was announced. No one had had a chance to drive it yet, there were no tests, the dealer never had any further information other than, "I'll check ... They say 'Soon...'", and it took two and a half years for them to deliver the car. Luckily, he liked it when it finally arrived and still has it. Of course, I understand that this is an exception rather than the rule. I don't like to buy ANY vehicle that I can't test drive the specific one I'm going to take home beforehand.

G

 

[Guy Mancuso]

Problem is Godfrey it's more about the rolling plan or roadmap to help decide . These delays don't help make these decisions any easier. What this means is the gear you have today is its usefulness until this maybe available or how long I have to hang in to gear I have that needs to be replaced. Now should we never pre- order I think many are guilty of this including myself and last can I bought I could not pre order the A7r II fast enough to replace my A7r. Now granted this is a whole new system and sounds really great even for a lot of Pros and some are here in this very thread. The problem is we need commitments to time frames. This is no dig on the gear at all but just getting gear out in a timely basis. Issue here is Hassy I suspect is levering the house to build production abilities and wanted the pre-orders to come in as for borrowing power.

 

[ddanois]

problem is godfrey it's more about the rolling plan or roadmap to help decide . These delays don't help make these decisions any easier. What this means is the gear you have today is its usefulness until this maybe available or how long i have to hang in to gear i have that needs to be replaced. Now should we never pre- order i think many are guilty of this including myself and last can i bought i could not pre order the a7r ii fast enough to replace my a7r. Now granted this is a whole new system and sounds really great even for a lot of pros and some are here in this very thread. The problem is we need commitments to time frames. This is no dig on the gear at all but just getting gear out in a timely basis. Issue here is hassy i suspect is levering the house to build production abilities and wanted the pre-orders to come in as for borrowing power.

Amen, but they better consider all those pre-order cancellations for the reasons mentioned above.

 

[Godfrey]

Problem is Godfrey it's more about the rolling plan or roadmap to help decide . These delays don't help make these decisions any easier. What this means is the gear you have today is its usefulness until this maybe available or how long I have to hang in to gear I have that needs to be replaced. ...

I guess I've never lived that close to the edge of my gear's capabilities that I ever needed to replace it in much of a hurry. I bought into my Pentax gear in 2004 with just one lens that I needed ... an ultrawide, they'd just released the DA14mm f/2.8 ... and slowly replaced my Canon system with it because I like the Pentax lenses more, acquiring them one at a time. I used the Pentax gear in my photo business until 2007, when I phased it out and replaced it with Panasonic/Olympus over the course of about a year. I ordered the E-5 when it was announced, but it just took advantage of the lenses I was using already. And so forth.

Since I closed the business at the end of 2010, all further equipment purchases have been no pressure at all—my income was coming from another source. When I bought the Leica SL last year, even though there was only the one lens. Leica often takes their time with creating other lenses or sending out a road map, it didn't bother me because between the one lens and what I already had in R and M lenses I was fine anyway.

But that's getting beyond the point. The point is, I generally consider brand-new, first available equipment stuff to need time to learn, understand, and rely upon; I don't schedule it as a dependency until I'm through that stage of ownership. If I allocate the funds for it within a particular time and the purchase doesn't happen, I just wriggle the plans around a bit to accommodate what I had planned to buy at a later date a bit earlier, if that matters to accounting, and move the new-stuff-funds into the future.

Whatever Hasselblad's issues for this delay, I remain interested in the X1D. But I'm equally interested in the CFV-50c back and doubt I even want to afford both. I won't make a decision on either until I know what I want/need a bit more precisely. Since I retired from my writing work recently, and haven't yet formed all my plans for what to do in photography going forward, I can afford to be patient and wait until I really know where to make the big expenditures that will net the best results...

G

 

[hcubell]

I had a X1D on preorder until the delays began to mount up and I got the strange feeling in the pit of my stomach that I was making a mistake. The mistake wasn't in wanting a mirrorless medium format camera, rather than to expect delivery in time for a couple of locations where a CMOS sensor would have worked better (Socorro NM in Oct, and Moab UT in Nov and more importantly Hawaii in Feb/Mar).

Phase One introduced the IQ1-100 and I began to reevaluate things. Short story is the preorder was cancelled and I now own the 100 and have used it for several months. I've also added a small 45mm f/2.8 for nightscape and as a general walk around camera (still much heavier than the X1D or new Fuji but lightweight in comparison to other lenses).

I still like the idea of a smaller mirrorless medium format camera and will in all likelihood take a closer look at the Fuji sometime next year after things settle down. However, this entire experience with the release of the X1D has left a sour taste in my mouth and I doubt I'll ever consider looking at Hasselblad ever again.

Just my 2-cents worth.

Don

For me and I gather many other photographers, the X1D presents the promise of a game changing alternative to the existing ecosystem of medium format digital. We don't see a Phase XF with the Blue Ring lenses as an alternative. It's a completely different photographic tool for photographers looking for a completely different experience from lugging a 50 lb. pack of gear around. Your balance sheet of pros and cons is very different from mine, which is fine. And while the delays in the delivery of the X1D are unfortunate, I can wait. After all, it's not as though something comparable exists today that I can buy. The Fuji is also not shipping.

 

[D&A]

There is something else that I haven't seen mentioned or at least not to the extent that I noticed. Those that are relying on business plans that incorporate the X1D into their system or for those who simply are waiting to use or switch over to the X1D primarily for the advantages of size and compactness of the system....what seems to be missing is no one knows whether the X1D will perform up to the task and expectations of what most hope for. Many have preordered on the basis of size of the system which of course is a game changer but no word on whether it can even replace the system currently and successfully used at present by those pre ordering.

In some respects this is sort of a risky business model to rely on. Again its performance may even be more remarkable than even the fact its a mirrorless MFD camera but is small size enough to base that decision even though Hasselblad does have its fine reputation. This is a new type camera system and 1st of its kind. Guess time will tell.

Dave (D&A)

 

[algrove]

And Fuji is saying early 2017. Let's see if their dates slip and slip and slip some more.

 

[hcubell]

There is something else that I haven't seen mentioned or at least not to the extent that I noticed. Those that are relying on business plans that incorporate the X1D into their system or for those who simply are waiting to use or switch over to the X1D primarily for the advantages of size and compactness of the system....what seems to be missing is no one knows whether the X1D will perform up to the task and expectations of what most hope for. Many have preordered on the basis of size of the system which of course is a game changer but no word on whether it can even replace the system currently and successfully used at present by those pre ordering.

In some respects this is sort of a risky business model to rely on. Again its performance may even be more remarkable than even the fact its a mirrorless MFD camera but is small size enough to base that decision even though Hasselblad does have its fine reputation. This is a new type camera system and 1st of its kind. Guess time will tell.

Dave (D&A)

I agree that there are a number of questions about how well the X1D will perform out in the field in terms of things like reliability, responsiveness and AF performance. Depending upon how one intends to use the X1D, these issues are more or less important. However, the one thing I am NOT at all concerned about is image quality. Hasselblad has considerable experience with the 50MP Sony sensor. It is exactly the same sensor as what is in the H5D-50c and the H6D-50c. I have seen more than enough breathtaking imagery made with that sensor, and there is no reason that the X1D will not be equally capable. (The X1D lenses appear to be very promising, perhaps even better than the HC lenses.)

 

[hcubell]

And Fuji is saying early 2017. Let's see if their dates slip and slip and slip some more.

Smart approach. Early 2017 could mean January, or February, or March or April or even May.