Hasselblad responds to Lunar criticisms

I'm currently ashamed of being Swedish. In fact, I think the embarrassment of this travesty is so great that it spills over to Sony, which makes me doubly embarrassed as a Swede AND a Sony shooter. Apologies to all, let's just forget this ever happened.

Return to retro "Hassy square" and Victor will stop spinning and screaming. Make that 36Mp square full frame mirrorless using NEX mount (and all the other Sony innovations) and we'll forgive you for your temporary lunacy.

If you don't like it, don't buy it. What's the big deal? If the innards are good, what's wrong with another company using them? People tend to forget that camera development is a lot more expensive than it used to be. Back in the film days, you were basically designing the body shell and controls. Then you loaded it up with film. Fairly easy, compared to what is involved in putting out a camera these days. So if someone else has good digital innards that you can use, it makes sense for a company like Hassy to use them. It's simple economics. Then they can put their efforts into the outer body, like they did back in the film days.

I just wish they wouldn't use those ugly silver NEX lenses.

The Lunar will quickly become the Pontiac Aztek of cameras. I don't think I've ever seen an uglier design.
Collaborating manufacturers can potentially produce wonderful innovations, but this will only hurt the reputations of both brands. Read the posts and stop now before it's too late!

God help us, three different cameras with this same desing!

Just a few Allesandrini quotes:

"This is not a NEX 7 camera, just because we are buying components from Sony."
Until Hasselblad can tell us what has been changed from NEX7 apart from the outer shell, I assume that it is a NEX7 inside.

"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"
Are we forgetting that NEX7s body is magnesium alloy ?

"I've been longing to talk to a younger audience of potential professionals,"'
A younger audience dont have extreme bootloads of money. Professionals dont want bling-bling.

"We want to be very honest: we have a tradition of choosing the best materials for our cameras"
Honest ?? What does the leather inlays and gold and silver trim have to do with being the best material for a camera, apart from bling-bling ?

Whenever I heard or read the name Hasselblad I automatically thought of the 500s, the 200s, the Flexbody, the XPan... Of great studios and respected photographers... Of astronauts in the moon... And now they have almost ruined all those memories. What has been seen cannot been unseen.

At least they made me laugh.

OK guys, you cannot afford it! We got it.
Stop complaining, it was not meant for you.

I understand it is ugly, yet most of the luxury watches and expensive purses are very ugly as well.
It is just the way it is.

this hasselblad is like the photokina... overall dissapointing.....

the defensive reaction makes the (lack of) effort even worse!
- take Sony camera
- stick Leica logo on
- put price up
- hope nobody notices <<< ooops!

Just let's stop critising, Let them go ahead and break the record: the ugliest camera on earth.

Original Hasselblad was designed by the same Swedish guy Sixten Sason who also designed the first Saab car models 92-93-96-99. His colleague Björn Envall ex. Saab design boss should have designed this camera. I bet this is a 100% italian job NOT Swedish. Looks odd to say the least.

Well, it is not that they use NEX-7 sensor, it is more that they use the whole NEX-7 and put just a different shell around it, a 5x higher price sticker and hope people are stupid they will not notice that what they use is in fact NEX-7 camera and sony lens with perhaps differently colored firmware.

Yes, here is a value in Hasselblad trade name...but if they think they can copy Leica-Panasonic partnership they are deceiving themselves. What exactly they offer to sony beside their own name? It is just a pure rebranding.

The chinese will make their own copy of this skin, for 50$ or less.

typical denial mode of a manager... so he say it is not the same?

but he does not tell what exactly is different...

it´s total bullsh*t what he said..

they try to milk the hasselblad brand.. it´s simple as that.
but even the most naive manager should know that this can backfire.
have a look at history.....

So we all know that the most important elements with regards to IQ are the sensor and the lens... and both of those are exactly what you can get with the NEX 7 (they even admit to NOT tweaking the Sony sensor)...heck, you can get a pretty good combo with the F3, 5R or the 6, for that matter.
I think they are totally out of touch with reality.

Sad thing is they will definitely sell a few of them and declare it a great success.

Luca Alessandrini can cry a Mississippi River all he wants.

If you want to sell expensive cameras, fine. But please don't play the photographers as fools. You might be successful selling amazing cameras that cost as much as expensive luxury cars. That's fine. Digital MF systems aren't cheap. But to think those same customers are naive enough to hand over large sums of money for a mirrorless camera that when it comes to image quality, will be no better than the competition (and there's a lot of mirrorless competition). The justification is the materials are more expensive for the lunar. Okay, I guess all the current mirrorless cameras on the market are malfunctioning and falling apart due to not using more "expensive materials." Not!

Hasselblad definitely has the right to do what they want to do. Customers aren't forced to buy one of these new Lunar cameras if they don't want to. But can Hasselblad please stop treating their customer base like naive fools that don't know any better?

Why defend yourself if there is nothing wrong?
This was a horrible way to get into other markets than medium format.
Step one. Fire the designers and consultants. Zero market research was done.
Step two. Apologize for burning our retinas with such hideosity that only Medusa could rival.
Step three. Ask what the photographers want NOT what over paid designers want.
Step four. Build your own bodies, lenses and buy the best sensors out there without partnership.
Step five. Mark it up however much you want because this is a niche product and not for pros or the masses. This is for insecure label whores with more money than sense.
Start with image quality and performance and less on endangered species and gems. Just screams pimp. Do that for a few years and you might get a following. Better yet just stop while you are ahead and make the best medium format gear while flushing millions of dollars/Euros down the crapper and save all hassle-blad

Still don't see why they are teaming up with a TV manufacturer...

I guess I'm confused why there is so much negativity over this camera. From what I gather, it's meant to be a luxury item. No, from a practical standpoint it doesn't make the most fiscal sense for your average photographer, but it's not in any way geared towards your average photographer. It's a luxury -- plenty people buy expensive cars, jewelry, etc... A lot of expensive cars are not practical for picking up groceries after work, but you don't buy a Lamborghini for everyday errands. Even if 99.9% of photographers can't reasonably afford the Lunar, that doesn't make it worthless to them. I imagine 99.9% of photographers have little interest in owning a gold or osmium camera, but this is still a case of two companiea with vastly different niches in the photographic community creating a partnership. Innovation and cooperation in technology is hugely important in developing new and improved gear which could someday make its way into the hands of others photographers. Innovation will be scarce if we view the D800/E and NEX-7 as the final discussion of today's camera technology.

The folks at Hasselblad seem like relatively intelligent people. They see a niche that they believe they can turn to a profit -- an ultra-luxury mirror less camera with modern features. Maybe they'll succeed, maybe they'll fail miserably. I certainly won't be buying one, but I'm interested to see what comes of it.

How in the world did the original news story for this camera get more posts than any other camera announced at the show? Almost all of the comments were against it.

I know publicity is supposed to always be good. However, in this case I probably would have just bit my tongue instead of trying to tell the entire community that they don't know what makes a good camera.

Get over it, nobody is forcing anyone to buy these cameras.

That thing looks like it belongs in the Sharper Image stores. However, even they couldn't sell it at that price.

So I guess the costs to develop a housing for the Nex7 are far more than the cost of developing the Nex7 itself? Correct me if I'm wrong, but it looks like a Nex7 body in a fugly case, right? I'd be suspect of the claims that the lens is not just a rebadged Sony 18-55 too.

The fact that Blad reps are already on the defensive about the thing shows the criticisms have touched a nerve. And he's right, nobody is forced to buy it, but anyone that does clearly has more money than common sense.

Maybe I'm crazy, but I would've taken one of their lower cost 49mm sensors, cut it in about half horizontally and put it into an XPan-like body. That people would happily pay more than 5000 euro for.

Also, at least release something that resembles a V-camera, if you're going to call it Lunar.

They really should have come out and said we tested the market and we are willing to listen to our customers. We will come back with a product that offers functionality and a pleasing form.

This iteration obviously was not received well but we are a company that can adapt. However, they are not a company that can adapt. They continuously try to pass off someone elses intro camera with a retro feel as a high end camera.

I actually hope they succeed. I must be the only one that loves the look of the Lunar. I think it is elegant and modern at the same time. However, I would only be willing to pay a few percent more for that. Not 5x or more the MSRP.

When I saw the Lunar I couldn't believe such aberration. After reading what its perpetrator had to say, I understand it. This man thinks we are fools...

They've got competition!
http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2012/09/product-announcement-lensrentals-looney

Sad that Hasselblad couldn't look at these formats and see what innovations (viewing, ergonomics, image processing, lens adaptability, etc.) it could bring to the table.

You can't rationalize crap no matter how hard you try. He's in denial. The whole design group should be canned.

When the only thing that you have going for you is your reputation and you loose that you will know it is time to close up shop.

Honestly, did they think this was going to turn out well for them?

This whole Lunar thing is turning into one big Hassel for them.

It's an ugly looking thing.

Right, because cameras that are "using carbon fiber, titanium, wood, leather and precious metals – including gold" parts make such great quality images.

"we're not robbing people by making a huge profit on the camera. Our profit margin is the same as everyone else's; we're just using more expensive materials."

Means we are just incompetent and we can't make money off of people who are practically willing to donate it to us.

The problem is that the only thing differentiating them from their competition is their expensive materials and ridiculous price. These guys should have teamed up with Bose to make a great speaker/camera.

His arguments are not convincing at all.

Unfortunately for Hasselblad , the lunar bodies that they are showing at the floor says (if you go into menu)

Body: NEX-7
Ver. 1.00
Lens/Mount Adapter
Ver. 01

I thought at least they should have taken the time to change that part ...

Given this Nex-7 example, I pretty sure the other two cameras they are planning are A99 and RX1 with Hasselblad name tag and woods

Please put more effort next time. Sony is not making traditional DSLRs anymore. A better strategy would have been if Hasselblad offered a DSLR version of A99 ...

Rebranding and re-named, Hasselboobs.

Lie #1: We are just buying some Sony components
Lie #2: Having three different cameras with a common style means making the ugliest camera Ever
Lie #3: We are making a small profit margin over $6500 priced Sony NEX with more ugly details assembled in - Guess the country ;)

Lack of answer to the main criticism: Why on Earth is it so tremendously Ugly?

It seems they realized faster than Sigma that they are going down, still they seem just as stubborn as they don't seem to have learned Sigma's lesson.

how about "not" using expensive material that has no reflection on the outcome of the photos, and give us a lower price camera.
Its better to get a dollar out of a million people, than get a million dollars from 1 person. "famous quote of a sensible shopper".

That interview will not change most public opinion on the Lunar.

It is what it is Hassy, this many criticisms account for something- at least for this camera. Don't take them lightly is my advice.

Carl

So basically what he's saying is, you're getting a Lexus car aka Toyota Camery. No thanks. Add a medium format sensor in this for the same asking price and I'll take a look at it. They didn't learn anything from Sigma's camera/price stunt.