baudolino, that's impressive and good news. Are there any impressions and/or comments that you can relate from your factory visit?
Hi,
You asked about my impressions from the factory visit:
(1) They are trying to do a lot with just about 30 people which is what I understand is the entire team following the buyout from Jenoptik and last year's restructuring. This has significantly reduced their cost base and allowed them to operate efficiently but they also may be a little resource-constrained right now to make any major steps in any area (just my impression).
(2) They are selling from existing stock (as far as Hy6 and the digibacks are concerned) and actually had encouraging sales for the past 6 months or so, which has allowed them to stabilize the business.
(3) Even though they are a "system integrator" rather than a manufacturer as far as Hy6 and the digibacks are concerned, I've had no problems ordering extra batteries and lenshoods (both arrived through my dealer last week, about 3-4 weeks from when I placed the order). My dealer has also steadfastly maintained that there are no problems ordering anything. Having said that, not everything is in stock all the time (e.g. the remote releases currently seem to be unavailable).
By the way, if you want a better battery charger than what comes with the Sinar digibacks and the Hy6, order this:
http://www.hahnel.ie/contentFiles/products...A4-09-04-10.pdf The version for "Sony digital cameras" includes an adapter plate that charges the Varta/Sinar/Pisen batteries - it is much smaller (no large heavy transformer), way cheaper and much faster charging than the contraption that Sinar packs with the backs and the Hy6. This is my discovery, after a lot of research :-)
(4) I specifically asked about the 6x6 film back and the info that Pascal has mentioned on his website (that it is being planned for production by DHW Fototechnik and should perhaps be introduced later this year at Photokina), well the Sinar guys were not so sure.... which would be pity since I would be queing to buy one..
(5) There may be an effort under way to develop a new raw conversion software (perhaps Captureshop that saves DNGs). I am not sure that I understood 100% so do take this info with a pinch of salt. I understood that eXposure was a Jenoptik product whereas Captureshop was an original Sinar product, this is why they had to run both s/w suites in parallel when Jenoptik was making the backs. A lot of the software effort has however recently been spent on fixing bugs introduced by Apple in subsequent releases of the OS (or the hardware? I recall something about the firewire port....). I was also told that an older, unsupported but fully functional version of eXposure for Windows could be obtained from Sinar (I don't need it, so did not follow up).
Side note (forgive me if I ramble too much...): I understood they had tried to involve Stefan Hess (the author of the Brumbaer utilities) in developing the software but he was not interested in doing this commercially. I suggested they talk to the gentleman behind Iridient Raw Developer and try to build on his pretty robust program that already reads the Sinar eMotion raw files (and also DNGs..). Not only that, the Raw Developer of course converts all sorts of other existing raw formats - if I look at what Hasselblad is now doing with Phocus (adding support for other pro camera raw files so that you can stay in one editing environment when you shoot with different cameras - just like you can when you shoot with a PhaseOne back and edit in C1), it would seem logical to me for Sinar to stop developing their own software from the scratch but rather team up with one of the established but second-tier players who are gradually getting sidelined due to the recent advances in Lightroom, Aperture and C1. Maybe RawDev, maybe Bibble - this is the way I would go to quickly get on par with what the competition offers in terms of workflow. Because, in my view, the Sinar hardware is excellent, the files are beautiful, just the software is not so great (which is maybe because I haven't spent enough time with eXposure for it to become my friend, as on of the members here pointed out :-))-
(6) They seem to be working on new products but of course I could not get more info... :-) but it sounded encouraging and contrary to my earlier impression that the system was a dead end (which I had of course gained by reading too much on the internet :-) ).
Regards,
Martin
