Shashin
Well-known member
Look I know it is fashionable to talk tough an insult people and industries that you don't know and have never worked in, but I am getting a little tired of the rants.
BTW, the Xpan/TX-1 was killed by changing environmental policy in Europe that required no mercury and lead in electronic components. Retooling the production line to keep the Xpan/TX-1 going was just not economically viable--easy to figure out as sales were known. BTW, I am all for the environmental changes. No one knows how long the Xpan/TX-1 would have been in production anyway as the world was going to digital--Fuji does not make any of the medium-format film cameras from that period and so the writing was on the wall. Just because you want a digital Xpan does not actually prove it would have been economically viable.
Reverse engineering a film camera for digital use is not that easy. Especially when it revolves around a very old system, particularly if that system is mostly mechanical.
The Lunar is a dumb mistake, but it must have been one hell of a party when they decided to do it--I personally don't think the hangover was worth it.
I have no idea why people are angry--you don't actually have to buy one. The only people who will suffer are Hasselblad. This is obviously a move to grow Hasselblad and probably stems from the dumb marketing idea that brand is what sells as well as a confusion between quality and luxury. Maybe Hasselblad will go under and this just accelerates the process.
Today the camera business is a tough one with few manufacturers making money. If Sony breaks up their company, we may also lose the Sony/Minolta heritage as the breakup is done to enrich the stockholders and not for the good of the company. Who knows, in 10 years there will only be three camera companies--Apple, Samsung, and Nokia.
BTW, the Xpan/TX-1 was killed by changing environmental policy in Europe that required no mercury and lead in electronic components. Retooling the production line to keep the Xpan/TX-1 going was just not economically viable--easy to figure out as sales were known. BTW, I am all for the environmental changes. No one knows how long the Xpan/TX-1 would have been in production anyway as the world was going to digital--Fuji does not make any of the medium-format film cameras from that period and so the writing was on the wall. Just because you want a digital Xpan does not actually prove it would have been economically viable.
Reverse engineering a film camera for digital use is not that easy. Especially when it revolves around a very old system, particularly if that system is mostly mechanical.
The Lunar is a dumb mistake, but it must have been one hell of a party when they decided to do it--I personally don't think the hangover was worth it.
I have no idea why people are angry--you don't actually have to buy one. The only people who will suffer are Hasselblad. This is obviously a move to grow Hasselblad and probably stems from the dumb marketing idea that brand is what sells as well as a confusion between quality and luxury. Maybe Hasselblad will go under and this just accelerates the process.
Today the camera business is a tough one with few manufacturers making money. If Sony breaks up their company, we may also lose the Sony/Minolta heritage as the breakup is done to enrich the stockholders and not for the good of the company. Who knows, in 10 years there will only be three camera companies--Apple, Samsung, and Nokia.