Hassy must have paid Sony an enticing amount for them to jump into bed together. What an embarrassment. The best thing for both of them would be for Sony to pull the plug on the whole thing, right now!
Not that it will affect any of Sony's business, but just for the sake of saving some face.
So......Leica reveals a revolutionary mirrorless FF digital interchangeable lens camera with LV and EVF (the first ever) and Hasselblad releases a pimped up Gucci NEX 7 for 5 grand. Wow.
You guys are really looking at this from the wrong angle.
Vertu can sell sh!t phones for $5k on the basis that they are encrusted in precious/"artisan" (WTF)/whatever materials. So there must be at least 1000 people right now in China, Russia, Kazakstan, UAE and the rest that are looking at the Lunar and thinking "I'll have one". That's a $5m turnover for rebadging a Nex5 and paying an old man in a shed to assemble them.
Not bad really. If Leica can, Hasselblad is the only other camera maker with similar status to attempt this.
panos.v wrote:
You guys are really looking at this from the wrong angle.
Vertu can sell sh!t phones for $5k on the basis that they are encrusted in precious/"artisan" (WTF)/whatever materials. So there must be at least 1000 people right now in China, Russia, Kazakstan, UAE and the rest that are looking at the Lunar and thinking "I'll have one". That's a $5m turnover for rebadging a Nex5 and paying an old man in a shed to assemble them.
Not bad really. If Leica can, Hasselblad is the only other camera maker with similar status to attempt this.
I think you've hit the issue on the head. This is not meant to be a tool for photographers. It's a piece of gaudy jewelry that happens to take pictures.
"We want to be very honest: we have a tradition of choosing the best materials for our cameras. People have the choice - they can like, or not like, this concept. But we're not robbing people by making a huge profit on the camera." - Hasselblad, 2012
"People have got to know whether or not their President is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook. I've earned everything I've got." - Richard Nixon, 1973
Only way the Lunar is worth €5000 is if they stick €10000 worth of investment diamonds on it.
The "Hasselblad Bulletin" turned up in my e-mail today. It said the following,
"Hasselblad Plans Lunar Launch
Hasselblad has announced a revolutionary plan to market a state-of-the-art, Italian-designed 'ultimate luxury' mirror-less, interchangeable lens camera early next year."
Well, "Italian designed" has to be worth a couple grand alone. ;-)
Then, going to the website, it says, "
And for the first time ever we are using carbon fiber, titanium, wood, leather and precious metals - including gold. The camera grip itself offers unparalleled ergonomics and has been developed to embrace both compact E-mount and the larger professional A-mount lenses."
The Lunar, which is set for launch in the first quarter of 2013, will be priced circa 5000 Euros and will be available in a choice of standard models plus a variety of exclusive hand grips and precious materials on special order."
Aside from the obvious grammatical/logical flaw in the text (how the "camera grip" be designed to embrace lenses). Since when has the Hasselblad name been associated with "precious metals" and "precious materials" and exclusivity? Further, how does this square with the technological achievement of going to the moon that this model pays homage to? Hasselblad has always been about rugged, reliable tools. This is all about frilly surface and appearance, about jewlery and fashionable accessory. It amazes me that Hassy does not even understand their own brand, what it stands for, and what it represents to photographers world-wide.
Wow, they are really digging their own grave..on the moon I guess (in that way, I guess the Lunar is a fitting name for the last camera ever to wear the Hasselblad name). Every time I think it can't get worse, they continue to raise the bar! This must happen less than a Blue Moon...watching a revered, iconic brand do themselves in.
Tariq Gibran wrote:
Wow, they are really digging their own grave..on the moon I guess (in that way, I guess the Lunar is a fitting name for the last camera ever to wear the Hasselblad name). Every time I think it can't get worse, they continue to raise the bar! This must happen less than a Blue Moon...watching a revered, iconic brand do themselves in.
Yeah, it is just awful. They could have, at the very least, redesigned the NEX-7 enough not look like one from the rear, since they're speaking as if the Lunar is something original. Ugh.
They were really just so obvious about what they did, there was simply no way it was going to fly. Had this been the 35FF mirrorless we have all been waiting for - using all Sony design on the inside - they would have had a huge hit.
I'm still waiting on seeing the Lunar RX-1 that's bound to come.