Topic: Hasselblad Lunar (Read 56771 times)

TMARK · « **Reply #80 on:** September 19, 2012, 05:10:38 pm »

Who is the brand manager for Blad now? Is it an outside consultancy or in house? As someone who is involved in "brand stewardship" (yeah its ad speak but accurate), the Lunar is a bad, bad, bad move. The brand equity from the H series, V, X-Pan, 1600, Victor H himself and even the wonderfully produced Victor magazine is being damaged. Lots of people bitch about the shortcomings of the H, but these are (mostly) quibbles that affect individual purchasing decions rather than good will towards the brand. Anybody remember GM in the 80's and 90's? A Cadillac Cimeron was a Chevy Something Small and Ugly with cat leather and power seats, for a 10% premium. Same with all of the GM brands back then, just badge changes. I don't think the Obama administration will bail out Blad and allow them to restructure after Vintizz runs it into the ground.

FredBGG · « **Reply #81 on:** September 19, 2012, 05:18:34 pm »

Quote from: design_freak on September 19, 2012, 02:30:24 pm

http://www.bjp-online.com/british-journal-of-photography/news/2206781/hasselblad-were-not-robbing-people-off-with-lunar-camera

This Alessandrini guy is so full of .....
Refering to the Lunar

Quote

"For example, the camera's body is made of aluminum. It takes five hours to machine this down.
You can only produce three or four a day, and it costs €300.
The same part, but made of plastic, would cost 35 cents.
So, you could go to Asia and do a similar product for a few hundred euros,
but you would be using cheap materials. Or you could use the right materials and the right processes, but it will have to be priced at €5000, €6000 or €7000."

So he is dumping on Sony's product implying that it is made of cheap materials...

However respectable reviewers spoke very well of the NEX construction

Quote

The NEX-7's build quality is excellent - the metal-shelled body feels solid with no flexing or creaks,
and the handgrip is covered with a thick rubberized coating.
The three control dials and most of the buttons are crafted from metal, giving a real quality feel.
The overall impression is of a camera that's designed to provide as much control as possible at your fingertips, with minimal fripperies or gimmicks.

It's really laughable that he talks about going to Asia and that that would be going cheap.....
yet Hasselblad has been manufacturing in Asia for a long time. Hasselblad lenses, Prisms, film backs and many components
are made by Fuji. Much better than the hand made crap I often had to deal with from Sweden. I once had two new 120 Hasselblad V backs
bite chunks out of film. Both were new.

If you really want to see a great MF camera you need to go to Asia. The Contax 645 at it's time was a fantastic camera and is still sought after today.

Chairman Bill · « **Reply #82 on:** September 19, 2012, 05:21:39 pm »

Just looked at this, and what a joke. What were Hassy thinking? It looks awful, and is just a re-badged Sony under that horrible exterior. For heaven's sake, they could at least have made a digital one of these ...

FredBGG · « **Reply #83 on:** September 19, 2012, 05:27:07 pm »

Luca Alessandrini's title is Hasselblad's New Business Development Manager.....

Hasselblad is in trouble.

From Linkedin

Quote

Experience

New Business Development Manager
Hasselblad
November 2011 – Present (11 months) Hejrevej 30, Copenhagen, Denmark

Brand Manager
Gitzo
June 2005 – November 2011 (6 years 6 months)

Kitchen Appliances Product Manager
De Longhi
1998 – 2001 (3 years)

Kitchen appliances... that explains things a bit.

His previous experience in the photography world... Tripods

And he is supposed to save Hasselblad?

MrSmith · « **Reply #84 on:** September 19, 2012, 05:39:52 pm »

i look at the x-pan, 500 series/zeiss lenses and the SWC and i see precision tools that were built to last.
the fujiblad was the beginning of the decline, launched with bodged scanner software and a harddrive on a strap with a camcorder battery hanging off it, zoom lenses that broke if you took them on a jet plane and had them orientated front to back on take-off/landing (dealer advised to fly with them orientated sideways to avoid it breaking) bits of rubber that went sticky and fell off (eyepiece/grip rubber) i give them a couple of years before H/blad dies.
surprised they survived the recession TBH, that was probably only because phase had not sorted their camera body out and the d800 didn't exist then.

design_freak · « **Reply #85 on:** September 19, 2012, 06:04:56 pm »

Quote from: FredBGG on September 19, 2012, 05:27:07 pm

Luca Alessandrini's title is Hasselblad's New Business Development Manager.....

Hasselblad is in trouble.

From Linkedin

Kitchen appliances... that explains things a bit.

His previous experience in the photography world... Tripods

And he is supposed to save Hasselblad?

It is typical of the VC, the fact that he worked in the industry is a guarantee of success of the project. Even if it were tripods. Of course we know that this does not guarantee anything. But even if someone worked at Kodak, it does not mean that he / she is super professional. As well as the fact that he worked for De Longhi, it does not prove that he is a bad professional. You do not know the man, so do not judge him.

FredBGG · « **Reply #86 on:** September 19, 2012, 06:47:24 pm »

Quote from: design_freak on September 19, 2012, 06:04:56 pm

It is typical of the VC, the fact that he worked in the industry is a guarantee of success of the project. Even if it were tripods. Of course we know that this does not guarantee anything. But even if someone worked at Kodak, it does not mean that he / she is super professional. As well as the fact that he worked for De Longhi, it does not prove that he is a bad professional. You do not know the man, so do not judge him.

My point is this... Hasselblad wants to venture into new CAMERA markets and they hire a guy with ZERO camera or consumer electronics experience or know how.

design_freak · « **Reply #87 on:** September 19, 2012, 07:02:59 pm »

Quote from: FredBGG on September 19, 2012, 06:47:24 pm

My point is this... Hasselblad wants to venture into new CAMERA markets and they hire a guy with ZERO camera or consumer electronics experience or know how.

Maybe you have right...
But
He does not direct this company!!
Management is doing it. CEO has the experience, and what? Marketing also has industry experience, and what? They are responsible for it. They form a strategy, they decide to execute this strategy. They hire him. He got a job from them to do this camera, I doubt that he could do everything he can think of.

FredBGG · « **Reply #88 on:** September 19, 2012, 08:14:43 pm »

Quote from: design_freak on September 19, 2012, 07:02:59 pm

Maybe you have right...
But
He does not direct this company!!
Management is doing it. CEO has the experience, and what? Marketing also has industry experience, and what? They are responsible for it. They form a strategy, they decide to execute this strategy. They hire him. He got a job from them to do this camera, I doubt that he could do everything he can think of.

Management is certainly the root of the problem. I find it a bit unusual and dangerous that the CEO Dr. Larry Hansen is also Chairman of The Board.
Hardly a balanced management choice.
This most likely comes from him as he ran Carl Zeiss's Asian operations that were licensing designs to Japanese manufacturers.
While that work was with the Japanese it was a very different product. German optical design with excellent Japanese manufacturing.

This time around they are taking an excellent Japanese design and manufacturing and ruining the design.... and then gouging whoever they try to sell this too while alienating their
historical clients.

Prior to this his time at Hasselblad was pretty much dedicated to killing off the V system and sloooowly making slight changes to the H system.... the Fujiblad.

Seems since his arrival Hasselblad has been going east more and more.

FredBGG · « **Reply #89 on:** September 19, 2012, 08:55:49 pm »

While this Hasselblad Sony thing is going on... Sony is on the verge of making a huge investment in Olympus.

50 Billion yen. 630 Million Dollars.

Interesting.

FredBGG · « **Reply #90 on:** September 19, 2012, 10:09:44 pm »

Maybe Hasselblad need to focus on their core product.
No new sensor and no new functionality in too long.
Principal image quality lead is not there anymore either.

Even a $ 2,000 camera is better in many ways.

Sheldon N · « **Reply #91 on:** September 19, 2012, 11:05:27 pm »

Here's another marketing "fail" for Hasselblad. Apparently the show prototype at Photokina acutally says "Nex-7" when you pull up the info screen on the rear LCD.

See it in this youtube video...

http://youtu.be/W5O6fYcQipw?t=15s

PeteZ28 · « **Reply #92 on:** September 20, 2012, 12:10:05 pm »

The more I think about it, the biggest tragedy of this camera is Hasselblad using their outstanding space legacy to promote such a pile of crap. Up until three days ago, the word "Hasselblad" and "Lunar" actually stood for something when used in the same sentence. Now it represents what is perhaps the biggest faux pas in recent photographic memory.

Slobodan Blagojevic · « **Reply #93 on:** September 20, 2012, 12:37:16 pm »

Quote from: PeteZ28 on September 20, 2012, 12:10:05 pm

... Up until three days ago, the word "Hasselblad" and "Lunar" actually stood for something when used in the same sentence...

How true. I actually thought, when this thread appeared, that it must be yet another thread about Moon landing cameras, given that we already had one about it in August (here, if of interest). Only after this thread reached three or four pages, I asked myself what could be so controversial (or new) about Moon landing to warrant four pages of debate (apart from the usual conspiracy theories, that is). So I clicked on it. And was blinded by the monstrosity.