I've never seen one, even at Fotocare, which is the big Sinar stocked rental house in NYC. In fact, I've asked around and no one seems to have ever seen one this side of the Atlantic. I think its a myth, like a unicorn or mermaid. Looks great, from the specs anyway.
Nobody makes products as elegant as Sinar-Bron, no single company in the world market's, communicates, or sells as bad as Sinar-Bron, if it is Sinar-Bron, because every time I read something on them it's about Sinar AG, Ltd. Germany, owned or in partnership with Jenoptik, or something that makes absolutely no sense to the buyer.
Case in point, at the end of last year I was going to purchase ten's of thousands of dollars of the Broncolor HMIs and no dealer could give me any real information, including Fotocare because Sinar was closed for weeks and Fotocare probably knows more about Sinar than anyone.
The moment I heard the HY6/Rollei was part of Sinar you knew they both were doomed, because at least in the U.S. finding out information about both of those companies is just impossible.
You'd have to be a Sinar hobbyist, historian to keep up and that's nuts in good times. In tough times it's suicide.
I've seen that M camera three times in dealers, sans digital back and not one sales person knew anything about it. I've also seen three or 4 hy6's (with digital backs) and never with the batteries charged.
I know photographers that love Sinar products and few if any rushed out to buy them, because the information wasn't really there or they just didn't have the faith that the cameras would be around in the future. You want to know why the HY6 failed. Nobody bought it, including the Rollei/Sinar/Jenoptik junkies. Now that the cameras sell for 1/2 price they might, but that is why F+H is boarded up.
In specialty camera equipment Sinar is not alone, because other than Hasselblad, all the specialty camera makers leave their buyers hanging or searching for information. Can anybody clearly tell us what is the point of the Leaf Phase partnership? I've read the press releases and I don't see anything in those announcements that would motivate anyone to buy anything.
I and other's keep reading that brand a is selling so well it's back ordered, or brand b will eventually be part of camera maker C and I just shake my head in confusion.
The marketing and samples of all of these cameras makes no sense because on one hand you have the dealers and reviewers shooting brick walls and trees showing how much better one new back is to the other, or on the flip side the manufacturers have over retouched, over cloned images that could have been shot will a cell phone, so all in all nothing really motivates the buyer.
None of this makes sense. Today there are more photographers than ever testing, trying new techniques, re-inventing themselves and makers and dealers are shooting images that do not resonate with the buyers.
Crazy.
BC
