How successful have recent Hasselblad product introductions been?

[TechTalk]

Pretty successful it appears! I've just reviewed Hasselblad's financial results for 2023 which followed the introduction of the X2D and new lenses in September 2022.

Beyond the fact that their revenue doubled and profit for the year increased tenfold compared to the previous year, the report contains additional positive financial news which I'll add in later comments when I'm able. For now, the chart below provides some insight into how new Hasselblad products have impacted their financial strength, stability, and growth.

 

[Thyl]

wow. And the R&D have quadrupeled since 2020. Which is in itself notable, since aside from some more lenses, what new products have we seen in 2023/2024 that would justify 25 mio expenses?

It would also be interesting to compare the numbers with those from 2017, when the X system was released. And of course, if the number of employees has changed. According to Wikipedia, it's still 70 (Swedish Wikipedia), 200 (German), or 210 (English).

 

[Paul Spinnler]

I think it is clear that their investment is paying off, I see them constantly over on social media, P1 not so much and Fuji also doesnt master the influencer game as well.

Only Leica will really be able to confront them in the crop MF space, I feel.

 

[Doppler9000]

This is impressive.

Hopefully some R&D is going to a monochrome CFV 100.

 

[rdeloe]

Way to go Hasselblad! This looks like great news for medium format photography.

 

[guphotography]

If they acquire C1, I'll join the camp in a heartbeat.

 

[Thyl]

This is impressive.

Hopefully some R&D is going to a monochrome CFV 100.

that should not be too complicated. It makes sense only if there is some benefit from this. Normally, that would be a wider dynamic range. But I am not sure if this is possible; there is not enough data on the monochrome version of the sensor over at Sony's website.

 

[Doppler9000]

that should not be too complicated. It makes sense only if there is some benefit from this. Normally, that would be a wider dynamic range. But I am not sure if this is possible; there is not enough data on the monochrome version of the sensor over at Sony's website.

Not having a CFA should pick up > 1 stop of sensitivity.

The sensor is available - IMX461 Monochrome

 

[hcubell]

Some of the R&D may be related to development work that Hasselblad does on products that will be sold by DJI. Higher end drones, as an example.

 

[Godfrey]

Good to see they're doing well! Hasselblad has always been a wonderful company with good products and good service—I've thoroughly enjoyed using their products for almost thirty years now.

G

 

[Paul2660]

Sure wish some of the huge R&D budget would go towards modernizing Phocus. No doubt it is by far the only way to get the best color out of the .3FR raw but it’s entirely out of date in regards to tools, design, and speed. Running it in a M1 Macbookpro and it just can’t keep up. Current Phocus is like using C1 3.7.8 or older. That’s about 14 year old software.
As I now see why Hasselblad has kept their color solution to their own. Lr cannot really bring the same life to the raw files and currently I find all the Lr lens profiles can create strange banding depending on how hard you push the file. Phocus has excellent lens profiles which have no vignetting.
I won’t go into their current supply issues which have gone in all this year. The newest zoom has fallen into the same pattern.
Paul C

 

[f8orbust]

You'd have thought HB could have found a few bucks by now out of that $24m R&D budget to fix the banding issue with the CFV-100C.

 

[Godfrey]

I spent a good bit of time comparing Phocus and LR Classic rendering of my 907x/CFVII 50c and 500CM/CFVII 50c raw files. Never found much to make using Phocus worth the effort of changing my entire workflow routine.

I don't have any experience with the CFV 100c back. I'm satisfied (and delighted) with the CFVII 50c, don't really need anything more.

G

 

[Paul2660]

I tried the same thing, attempting to use Lr for the main processing for my X2D files and at first I felt I was OK, however I kept being drawn back to Phocus on select files, and slowly started to realize that the color from Phocus were just overall better. I feel the differences are enough to force me to work through Phocus for most of the X2D stuff.

I started to start working up files in Phocus and Lr, first in Lr and then in Phocus then doing a comparison. What I felt looked really good in Lr, I found that in Phocus I was still able to pull more out of the same file. One area I see repeatedly is in highlight recovery and shadow recovery. Lr always seems to black out shadows for me, no matter the camera I am using, (which is one area I loved about C1 as its shadow recovery is excellent). I feel Phocus can recover areas of highlight (slightly blown out clouds) and in the process allow for more details. And the tonality recovery seems better.

I would prefer Lr due to the vastly superior interface, speed and toolset.

Paul

 

[Godfrey]

Paul,

I guess it's a personal decision grounded on what your typical subject matter and preferences might be. LR does well enough for me, but I'm possibly not particularly critical (and render so many of my photographs to monochrome that some have considered me color blind! ... I'm not).

G

 

[BigBoy]

Phocus only needs a spot removal tool

 

[Kiwimac]

The X2D is a delight to use. Probably the easiest camera to use that I’ve had in the years since my Canon AE1 Program in the 80’s.
Oddly everyone complains it’s expensive and that the lenses are expensive when in fact both parts cost less than most Leica equivalents.

 

[Paul2660]

I fully agree the X2D is a delight to use, I find it similar to my Leica SL2 in menu design, only better. It's also interesting the things that have been overlooked and should be so simple to add via firmware.
1. GPS module acceptance (worked with the older X1D should be simple to add it to the X2D)
2. No wired remote, for my shooting style, I prefer the use of a remote, not a iPhone app. The iPhone app takes a lot of battery (at least for me due to wifi needs)
3. Ability to zoom past 100%, Something the P1 backs have allowed for years, and many other cameras. Help with critical manual focus
4. Better peaking when viewing at 100%, yes it's there at 100% very very faint and many times not visible at all
5. Ability to move around the reviewed image at 100% without having to use the touch LCD, instead allow use of the wheels. This is how you can move around in LiveView and
it should be so easy to add this for image playback
6. Add ability to give a timeout between exposure bracketing shots, similar to how focus bracketing allows for this.
7. LENR badly needed as an additional setting. The X2D in my shooting experience has problems with noise especially stuck pixels in ISO's higher than 100, noise that is
considerable and Phocus will not remove it. Either LENR or addition of a single pixel noise reduction slider as C1 has.

As for cost, fully agree camera body is very close to competition from Fuji. Lenses are 2x to 2.5x cost, but are very well made and it's a cost each person has to justify.

Paul

 

[Kiwimac]

I agree. Lenses are cheap though compared to Leica. A 35mm Apo is twice as expensive as a55V and a 50 Noctilux is three times as much! And the Leica ones don’t have shutters in.

 

[ThdeDude]

... It's also interesting the things that have been overlooked and should be so simple to add via firmware.

Would add also some features to that list that the much older IQ4-150 has, for example, two-exposure (highlight, shadow) averaging, and long-exposure averaging.

This might be features we could expect in a Mark II.

I think it's very unlikely that these will be ever added via firmware to the Mark I. (I don't know whether this would even be technically possible.)