Hasselblad doesn't have to compete with Fuji at the lowest end of the market. It can continue to offer the X1D and cut the price to $5k but the lenses will still be way more expensive than the Fuji lenses. However, I think it can thrive by offering a new X2D that is distinctively different and "better" than the Fuji 100S at the $10k-$15K level. The X2D can be better designed ergonomically, it can have an elegantly simple and streamlined user interface, and it can surely be MUCH lighter and smaller than the Fuji 100S. It can be the anti-Japanese DSLR. If those are the "features" that someone wants and can afford it, they will pay the price premium. It happens all of the time with consumer goods. You just can't get your head around that because those aren't the features that matter to you, and you assume that everyone thinks like you. Price is NOT everything. It's only part of the equation. Looking at the Hasselblad X1D Facebook page, I am totally astonished at the number and types of photographers who have purchased an X1D and a range of lenses. I would never have expected it. Same with the Fuji GFX Facebook page.
As for DJI, it has APPARENTLY owned Hasselblad for less than 2 years. It seems folly to me to say what DJI will do with Hasselblad at this point. Who knows? Not me. Not you. Wait another year or two. Then we will have a better idea.
this is no lowest level market, there are no more levels left....it is what is left of the DMF market and things have settled at 33x44....and unless pentax makes a miraculous comeback, its fuji vs hasselblad....there is a top, top end DMF market which is in a completely different sphere....
I was thinking of what things would look like now if Fuji would have come out with the 50R first and how the market would have reacted to it vs X1D...the 50s got a lot of criticism for size, weight and its looks.....the 50R is very much like the X1D (which is a very pretty and compact camera)....i completely understand why a lot of people went with the X1D over the 50S, but if the 50R would have been in its place.....
the other criticism was the "non professional" workflow of LR .....C1 now supports the fujis (finally) which does not just bring another option to the table but arguably the best color tech and most experience with these sensors.....
price is just one factor, but sony and nikon are pushing into that DMF level in terms of IQ but easily winning in terms of size, weight and function as well as price....
the 100S is a totally different animal, i doubt Hasselblad will have IBIS, maybe they will have PDAF? (not sure where they would get the tech?), maybe they can cram the 100mpix sensor into a much smaller body, not sure what the point really would be or (again) the price?
buy that time sony will be out with a A7RIV ? which will be smaller, lighter, faster and very, very, very close in IQ with IBIS, PDAF.....what i mean is that for anyone looking for top IQ in a super compact package, the sonys and nikons (and panasonics?) will be right there....unless one wants a timeless piece of equipment with european history and pedigree (even if it is chinese all around, which does not bother me one bit btw)
it looks to me that Phase has conceded the 33x44 market and by supporting fuji they pushed Hasselblad into an area which is owned buy Leica right now....its own Stores, a lifestyle brand that does not compete with the rest of the market in features or function or price....Leica is handling is handling it beautifully, I love what they are doing, I am amazed that they just announced another S body....power to them....but what a 50R plus lens costs less (and looks better IMO) then one lens....AND produces better IQ (sorry, it does) you are playing in your own league.....
the toughest part for Hasselblad now is not which camera to make and how and how much to charge for it, it is that phase legitimized the Fuji 33x44 systems as professional......it will be hard for them to argue their way out of that one....they can bring up hasselblad colors but phase still is the industry standard.....especially as they are now the only top high end of the market and justifying it with superior color....
