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Breaking Hassleblad/Sony: "Lunar" mirrorless with sony E/A mount 5k EUR

Lars

Active member
Perhaps Sony purchased the rights to use the Hassy name and marketing? Or was this effort driven by Hasselblad?
 

Jorgen Udvang

Subscriber Member
Perhaps Sony purchased the rights to use the Hassy name and marketing? Or was this effort driven by Hasselblad?
This effort is probably driven by:

- Ventizz Capital Fund IV/Vorndran Mannheims Capital, the owners of the Hasselblad brand who wants to make as much profit as possible after acquiring Hasselblad last year.

- Larry Hansen, the CEO and chairman of Hasselblad since 2009 who before that, for 16 years was the CEO of Zeiss' Asia Pacific operation, stationed in Japan and responsible for Zeiss relationship with Sony.

- Sony and Zeiss, who both will gain from this should the move become successful.

I don't know how many employees are left at Hasselblad's main office at Utvecklingsgatan or if there's any production left there, but from being located centrally in downtown Gothenburg with hundreds of employees, Hasselblad now rents space on the third floor of a rather nondescript industrial building at Lindholmen, north of Göta Elv.

Since the brand name is basically what's left of this great, old marque, I guess it's only a matter of time before Sony acquires it. They can still maintain a showroom in Gothenburg, claiming that it's a Swedish brand :cry:
 

Swissblad

Well-known member
I have been a Pro for 36 years and been shooting since I was 14 that's 41 years of looking up to the Hassy name and history. I also shot it for years during my film day. I'm simply sad to see this turn into something away from its roots. I watched many photo companies fold, merge, get buried in quick sand. This one actually hurts me to see this change. I always had a lot of respect for them and there brand. I hope this does not take away from there history of being a premier MF system and change them into a milking cow. I'm walking over to the bar 5 ft away and toast a shot to the Hassy I once knew. I never seen a thread of such MF shooters from all brands this disappointed before. We poke fun at each other maybe even defend our preferred brand but I think we all feel like I do if you been around this business a long time be it you shot it or not you looked up to it and no one can deny that. It's not the lunar per say its the milking of investors without any regard to Victor Hassleblad and what he created. Shame on them. I said my peace and I'll go take that shot now.
Thanks for stating this so succinctly Guy - a sad day indeed.
 

Stefan Steib

Active member
Hasselblad was part of my photography career. I was a beginner when I first was involved with the 500 C and it was a hate-love connection. I truely disliked the the coupled lenses, but there was always something specific when touching a C, this haptics was telling you "I am serious- I will be your Partner making a real good image- I´m a bitch but when you treat me right you will love me ".

Nothing of that is in the new Camera. As Guy has already put it. The named corpse is there, but the spirit has gone. For all who love Photography yesterday was a day of headshaking and disbelief.

Sad.

Stefan
 

Swissblad

Well-known member
Hasselblad was part of my photography career. I was a beginner when I first was involved with the 500 C and it was a hate-love connection. I truely disliked the the coupled lenses, but there was always something specific when touching a C, this haptics was telling you "I am serious- I will be your Partner making a real good image- I´m a bitch but when you treat me right you will love me ".

Nothing of that is in the new Camera. As Guy has already put it. The named corpse is there, but the spirit has gone. For all who love Photography yesterday was a day of headshaking and disbelief.

Sad.

Stefan
Thanks Stefan for seeing it is more than a relationship with Zeiss.
There is one now, but it is one sided and dead.
Sad sad state of affairs - I hope the flags in G'borg are hanging at half mast.
'n Gruess us dr Schwiiz
Sinuhe
 

Swissblad

Well-known member
Looking at that video its seems HB thinks this is their future rather than MF as the H5D only gets a fleeting mention.
This definitely is the impression - I can see many jumping ship now - especially as the new Alpa will allow one to use V series lenses.
 

Anders_HK

Member
Looking at that video its seems HB thinks this is their future rather than MF as the H5D only gets a fleeting mention.
Are you thinking that this is a plot by Sony to destroy one of their competitors--No, really it is cool, have some more sake.
Perhaps Sony purchased the rights to use the Hassy name and marketing? Or was this effort driven by Hasselblad?
Makes me think of what I read in a book of Asian mind games... and how the Japanese after Ronald Reagan's presidency invited him to Japan to make two lectures for a very mad high fee. The point made was that they were so influential so they could even buy Americas president. After second world war the Japanese continued the war on financial grounds... trade... selling goods...

Perhaps the Lunar is per instruction of Japan in similar manner. What they forget is that the rest of world is not Japanese. Rest of world thinks different. Last time I looked on map Japan is a very tiny country separated from rest of world by water... Of course, one could ask the neighboring Chinese or Koreans of their view of Japanese...

So... it may simply be that Japanese minds have taken control of Hassy. So what if they announce a CMOS sensor in H or other body? That wont make them any less Japanese. Think Dalsa cannot do that too but to higher quality?? I current settled on German, Chinese and Israeli camera technology (Rolleiflex, Schneider, Shen-Hao and Leaf). Japanese products are being spitted out with incremental upgrades and marketed like madness, making us spend how much money on upgrade (replace) of dslr, small cameras etc, and without first product being to quality/specs level of third etc iteration... give it a thinker! :eek:

F. it

... :toocool:
 

Dustbak

Member
On behalf of all Swedish photographers, please accept my apologies.

(It must be that Danish influence from Imacon.)
In that case better times might be ahead now that they have recently kicked them all out??

Is anyone selling Mamiya logos that I can glue on my H4D? I am starting to get kind of ashamed walking around with equipment with a H on it.... :mad:
 

Stefan Steib

Active member
Along in this thread some very easy thruths were said:

Hasselblad was never a luxury brand. It was the best available tool for pros for decades, but that was not made pretty or ever with an approach like Leica started this (and I think it somehow works pretty well for them)

A Hasselblad (H) today lacks some of the Haptics the old V+F series had. people did wish that back

A Professional approach that also is made to have a marketing tool to get other customers and separate the camera from todays easy going system evils would have been definitely full format - see Leica new Sony chip 24,3 Mpix.

This same chip could have been implanted into the Nex or similar body (see Audi and VW - the A3 is very often carrying the platform of the new Golf before the VW launches it - thus certifiying the higher price is OK)

So a future Nex 9 (see emount is easily capable of doing this by new VG300 videocamera) released now as a premium Hasselblad would have made anybody happy.

A Special lens line by Zeiss lenses derived from the Zeiss Alpha lenses directly put to this mount would have given them exclusive lenses.

I always ask myself how far from the core of the Business of the own company can Mangement be.

Now we know.

Regards
Stefan
 

6x6

Member
I've been thinking about this Hassy announcement and I've changed my mind. It is actually a good idea. Ok ok the prototypes are rubbish and the price is too high, but the idea is a good one. Hear me out!

There is not enough money in MF to pay for all the innovations that we would like in our MF gear. That is the cold reality. 12,000 units is not enough to pay for innovation in todays technology driven world. Hard reality. So Hassy have decided to stretch their brand and scoop up some of the money being spent in the waters below the high end MF world. This pool of money is much bigger. Much bigger. So if they produce a couple of cameras bearing the Hassy brand name to generate a new income stream to finance further innovation in the MF world, perfect! I'm all for that.

So why would they continue to develop the MF gear? The Hassy brand depends on the perception that they produce amazing high end gear outside of the reach of most consumers. By stretching the brand they won't forget the MF world. They can't. Their brand depends on it entirely. If a consumers perception of the brand changed, they couldn't make these rebranded consumer goods anymore. The veil would have been lifted. So by doing what they are doing, they are tied to innovation in the MF marketplace. However here is the good thing ... we owners of MF gear don't finance it anymore, the people buying these cameras do! So stop rubbishing the cameras ... tell everyone about how good they are!! Joke.

Take Leica for example. Their M cameras are their foundation, but I bet the rebranded Panasonics have played a huge part in financing their next generation S and M gear. Hassy is simply copying Leica here and I think in the end it will be a good idea. Their big mistake is that the prototypes don't look desirable. However they have a chance to change this. Luckily.
 

Chris Giles

New member
The only glimmer of light I can see is if Sony develop a MF CMOS sensor for hassy products as a result of this partnership.

Christ are people really that stupid to buy a rebadged NEX?
 

torger

Active member
In the past when cameras where purely mechanical things small players could make great things.

Today, having the coolest electronics is next to impossible for small players like Hasselblad, it is just too much development cost. Making backs with huge CCDs has been a quite "easy" thing to do though, you can rely on chip manufacturers that makes the tech for other fields anyway (science, medicine) and the economy of large chips is so bad that it will never be a mass market product embraced by the large players, so one can make a unique niche product.

Making a camera with the same type of sensor format that are used in mass market cameras is risky business, as a small player you risk ending up making something more expensive and not as polished as the general Sony/Canon/Nikon compact. Collaboration is then the right way to go, take a complete product, ie a NEX 7, and make your own user interface and camera design on top, and charge a little bit extra for the brand.

This is what Hasselblad has sort of done, but just with very very poor taste and charging way too much compared to the original product. Had it been made more like Leica X2 I think it would have been ok.
 

torger

Active member
Their big mistake is that the prototypes don't look desirable. However they have a chance to change this. Luckily.
I think they need to fire some upper management first for that to happen... but probably they have done exactly what the current owners want. It must be painful to be one of the Hasselblad engineers and watch this happen...
 

Mammy645

New member
What I find most mind-boggling is how far removed management of Hasselblad must be not only from their own legacy but their customer base too. If they need to start making luxury items to stay alive that's fine, but like Leica you have to base it firmly on quality and professionalism. People will pay high prices if they feel like they are at least getting some value along with the prestige. Instead the piece of crap they showed is just an insult, both to their existing customers and the ones they hope to reach with this product. It has done nothing but devalue their brand image. If they had instead released a digital successor to their much loved Xpan they would have stayed in line with their heritage but attracted a ton of new customers alike, much like Leica is doing.

They say they want their former non-pro customer base back, but no one ever bought a Hassy because they were overpriced luxury items with cheap consumer technology inside. They bought them because they were the best damn cameras you could buy, because they offered something unique, because you got quality for those high prices, and because they were sexy to boot.
 

pedro39photo

New member
I think that this "Lunar Madness" its only target to emerging markets like CHINA/INDIA/RUSSIA with New Fat Wallets Rich's people who just want to show off with the most expensive Camera / watch / Car in there hands !
Maybe this wil became a good thing to us, really people/professionals with passion for the best technical tools, because this can give a big boost in incoming cash from this segment and the Hasselblad can give us in the future the best DMF H6D with cheap prices, and don´t need to pay for 250$ for a lithium battery or charger...

Hasselblad its my love brand, and historical made several revolutions in this segment, but we need to understand that the photomarket its now very very different and some marketing choices have to be done for the survive of every brand !!!
The Leica have done this with panasonic re-brand and money come !!!

I dont like the Lunar Camera, but i would like to see a rich geek with a 5000$ rebrand hasselblad, and thinking - "great ! people like you are giving the money for R&D for my next H6D" !!!!
 

tjv

Active member
This camera is an absolute, premium nausea inducing, steaming pile of puke. An absolute insult to common sense and the camera industry as a whole. Not even Leica are so bold as to ask that kind of mark up on a rebadged product. I don't care how different the outer shell is, it's still a NEX 7 – a below average camera in it's original form to boot. Today I lost all faith in Hasselblad.
 

pedro39photo

New member
This effort is probably driven by:

- Ventizz Capital Fund IV/Vorndran Mannheims Capital, the owners of the Hasselblad brand who wants to make as much profit as possible after acquiring Hasselblad last year.

- Larry Hansen, the CEO and chairman of Hasselblad since 2009 who before that, for 16 years was the CEO of Zeiss' Asia Pacific operation, stationed in Japan and responsible for Zeiss relationship with Sony.

- Sony and Zeiss, who both will gain from this should the move become successful.

I don't know how many employees are left at Hasselblad's main office at Utvecklingsgatan or if there's any production left there, but from being located centrally in downtown Gothenburg with hundreds of employees, Hasselblad now rents space on the third floor of a rather nondescript industrial building at Lindholmen, north of Göta Elv.

Since the brand name is basically what's left of this great, old marque, I guess it's only a matter of time before Sony acquires it. They can still maintain a showroom in Gothenburg, claiming that it's a Swedish brand :cry:
EVERY TIME IN HISTORY THAT A VISIONARY CEO ITS CHANGED BY BUSINESS MAN, THEY FORGET THE ROOTS OF THE BRAND...

For example Apple now its not thinking for the designers/movie/photographers they just want to sell 1 milions Ipads/Iphones and forget about a good professional softwares or good MAC Pro workstation ...The brands need to have again realy working profissionals in there Boards for advises of what we want in the next products.

Hasselblad change the world of photography becausa Victor was a photographer in the field... No one find an think of revolutionary products in a meeting rooms with charts...
 
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