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Author Topic: All Change At Hasselblad?  (Read 3174 times)

Gary Ferguson

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All Change At Hasselblad?
« on: March 22, 2006, 06:50:32 am »

I've been calling around dealers here in the UK for a flash grip for a Hasselblad V camera, and the comments I'm hearing suggest that the V system will be deleted by the end of this year.

V system accessories are being deleted now, Hasselblad have outsourced much of their V system manufacturing and it's only final assembly that remains in Sweden. The general view in the UK trade is that the 503CWD is the final offering, and once Hasselblad have sold off their remaining lens stocks they'll announce that the V system is no more.

The X Pan has just been deleted, and the expectation is that the V system's next.

There's also talk about a new generation of "designed for digital" H series lenses.
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BJL

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All Change At Hasselblad?
« Reply #1 on: March 22, 2006, 12:36:18 pm »

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The X Pan has just been deleted, and the expectation is that the V system's next.
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The X Pan is another victim of a new EU prohibition on the use of lead based solder, along with Pentax no longer selling their MF film bodies in the EU. Since the X Pan is assembled within the EU (AFAIK), Hasselblad cannot simply stop selling in Europe (as Pentax has), but must also stop production (or have partner Fuji take over production.)

This probably just means that sales levels of these three cameras are too low to justify the cost of the design changes needed to change to lead-free solder, so products already on their last legs have been killed off.
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Bobtrips

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All Change At Hasselblad?
« Reply #2 on: March 22, 2006, 12:59:50 pm »

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The X Pan is another victim of a new EU prohibition on the use of lead based solder,


Joseph S.  has a bit to say about the lead solder issue.  If he's correct then lead is not the reason.

DPR
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BJL

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All Change At Hasselblad?
« Reply #3 on: March 23, 2006, 05:50:21 pm »

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Joseph S.  has a bit to say about the lead solder issue.  If he's correct then lead is not the reason.

DPR
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I am a bit skeptical of Joe Wisniewski's cynicism, though he is often very well informed. If it were just the Hasselblad XPan maybe, but it is harder to believe Pentax using the same lie just a day or two earlier to cover up discontinuation of the 645AF and 67.

Maybe the truth lies in between: these products are probably produced in intermittent batches, maybe only every year or two, so it could be that none has been made for some time, and this EU lead solder regulation is just one of many factors in the decision not to run further batches when current stocks are gone.


More broadly, I speculate that a great many cameras for film formats larger than 24x36mm have had their last production run, and are not officially discontinued yet because stocks are still slowly selling. Note that new Contax 645 and 35mm cameras are still available, and we know that they have been out of production for some time.

For example
- the last of the 6x6 Hasselblads are one subject of heavy speculation, and the limited edition of 500 503CWD's sounds to me like a "get it while you can" farewell collectors item.
- Fuji's website has dropped any mention of its two 6x8 models and the 6x17.
My speculation runs to about everything MF from Hasselblad, Fuji, Rollei, Mamiya and Pentax  being out of production except the 645AF cameras from Hasselblad-Fuji and Mamiya.
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