What Happened?

[John R Smith]

What happened to the interesting thread on the Hasselblad H4X?

John

[David Watson]

I pulled the topic because it was just producing the usual litany of angry ex-Hasselblad users trotting out the same hackneyed responses.

But then I should have expected that!

[John R Smith]

Well, hackneyed responses or not, it is an interesting and important issue.

Although they don't seem to realise it, both Phase One and Hasselblad users should have a mutual interest in making sure that both camera systems survive. Once there is no competition in a market segment, the end users are in trouble.

John

[ErikKaffehr]

Hi,

My take is that Hasselblad really forced Phase One to go into camera business thereby possibly saving Mamiya. So now we have Hasselblad, Phase, Pentax, Leica possibly Hy6 and a lot of specialist cameras instead of a Hasselblad/Phase One duopoly.

I guess that Hasselblad has it's own 'echosystem', being the normal tool of the trade in certain business.

Phase is building another echosystem having the Mamiya based SLRs but also lot of interesting technical camera options like the Alpa.

Some folks see Hasselblad to be the number one camera. Many others see PhaseOne as the number one back. Number one camera doesn't accept number one back.

Best regards
Erik

What happened to the interesting thread on the Hasselblad H4X?

John

[John R Smith]

Number one camera doesn't accept number one back.

Well now, with the H4X, it does. And Hasselblad no longer have the excuse of saying that "it can't be done" because they have just done it. And if it proves to be the case that the H4X actually works jolly well with an IQ 180 or whatever, then they have left themselves precious little in the way of a case for keeping the H-System closed.

John

[ErikKaffehr]

Hi,

The problem as I see it is the H4X is only available as an upgrade for H1 or H2. So if you down't own any of those two you cannot buy H4X.

Best regards
Erik

Well now, with the H4X, it does. And Hasselblad no longer have the excuse of saying that "it can't be done" because they have just done it. And if it proves to be the case that the H4X actually works jolly well with an IQ 180 or whatever, then they have left themselves precious little in the way of a case for keeping the H-System closed.

John

[Mark D Segal]

Can't buy a camera in today's fluid international market place? We'll see how long that silly idea lasts. It will also be interesting to see whether the new owner - a private equity group - is capable of infusing this company with a long-term corporate vision and technology strategy that really carves out a place for it in this crowded market. Without that it will be toast before long.

[K.C.]

The company has changed hands how many times now ?

Let's hope someone wakes up and realizes the reason for their decline in an increasingly difficult market.