Hasselblad has been very shaky a long time, little is known of their economy.
Hasselblad has had problems and the previous owner that was also the distributor for the orient sold the company to Ventiz
a German venture capital group, but this comes after a series of different owners... non of whome managed to turn the company around:
The timeline...
1972 Säfveån AB (a Swedish investment firm)
1985 Incentive AB (a Swedish investment firm)
1996 UBS AG (a Swiss investment firm) and CINven (a British investment firm)
2003 Shriro Group (a Hong Kong heavy equipment manufacturer, and Hasselblads Asia/Pacific distributor).
2011 Ventizz Capital Fund IV L.P (a German investment firm, part of VENTIZ Capital Partners Advisory AG).
This is what Ventiz ahd to say:
Hasselblad is the world’s most renowned camera brand. We are proud to have such an iconic brand in our portfolio and are convinced that with solid financial support and a suitable growth strategy, Ventizz can further strengthen Hasselblad's position as the first class producer of medium format digital camera systems. Furthermore, we plan to develop Hasselblad cameras to appeal to a wider circle of ambitious photographers“, said Dr. Helmut Vorndran, Managing Partner and CEO of Ventizz Capital Partners AG, the exclusive advisory to the Ventizz funds.
As a strong financial partner, Ventizz Capital Fund IV L.P. will support Hasselblad and its management team in entering new market segments as well as in the further technological development of existing product lines.
Ventiz bought the company with the intention of cashing in on the brand name "entering into new market segments".
What they came up with is an idiot called Allesandrini that came up with the Lunar that is a horribly pimped up Sony Nex camera.
The Lunar was the laughing stock of Photokina. A $ 6,000 pimped up plastic Nex with a snakeskin grip.
As far as "the further technological development of existing product lines" goes Hasselblad came out with the H5D that has the same sensors and image quailty
as the H4D, but a different paint job.
With little progress on the flagship cameras and the disastrous Lunar project Hasselblad does not seem to be in a strong position.
Things look even worse if you compare their $21,000 40MP sensor camera and macro lens to Nikon's 36MP D800E
and 105 mm Macro for $ 3,700.
Photogy article here:
http://www.photigy.com/nikon-d800e-test-review-vs-hasselblad-h4d40-35mm-against-medium-format/Full frame
Crops
$17,000 dollar difference?
Hasselblad has a problem.
Nikon just came pout with a 24mp crop sensor DSLR. The same sensor technology scaled up to a full frame
would be over 50MP .
The D700 was 12 MP the D800 is 36MP and with significantly improved dynamic range.
That is a 3x MP count increase in one generation. Hasselblad made zero MP count increase from the H4D to the H5D.
MF sensor development has come to a standstill in both Hasselblad and Phase/Mamiya/Leaf.
Dalsa that makes MF sensors no longer mentions MF photography under the list of applications of it's products.