Hasselblad responds to Lunar criticisms

dpreview, please stop including pictures with your Hasselblad Lunar news-or at least accompany it with some sort of explicit content warning...thanks

Perfect camera for paris hilton

We all seem to be experts on camera design judging by the critical comments made here. Hassy should ask us to submit our designs for their appraisal. Winner gets the production camera for nothing. The other submitted designs should be made public and laughed at!

Hmm just how rare is wood or carbon finer for that matter !

Jon

The wrong thing about this is that Hasselblad isn't a maker of bling and luxury but a maker of serious kit for pros. So this seems at odds with their ethos.

The whole crap is not worth spitting on.

I think you are too strident and miss the point Camediadude. This camera will cause "an almost magnetic effect that causes irresistible attraction.
A perfect union between camera and man has been acomplished." You are a photographer, are you blind (or just in need of a credit card)?

So why there's no better V or H-system? with Sony's high-end CMOS 6x6 or 6x4,5 MF sensor, multiple AF points, fast processor and LV, simplified body design for aerial/industrial use, faster focal plane shutter, etc?
And of course for extra charge on special order, a lightweight titanium or carbon version, walnut burl battery pack, dragon's skin body cover, gold-plated buttons, custom engraved body shell.
And we can call it a new H5D.

Consider the "swift and negative reaction" here as our loving present to you, Hasselblad, and do please heed our collective gasps of horror, and abort this abomination BEFORE it leaves it's monstrous womb. We are all die-hard camera NUTS here, and so between the lot of us, we may just know a thing or two. OR, feel free and go RIGHT AHEAD and ignore completely our horrified reactions here, but ... do it at your own peril. Ignoring us here sounds about right for a failing company, if that's indeed what you are, so just be our guests and just FAIL AWAY if that is what you aspire to do. But, don't say we didn't warn you ... with this REBADGED, RECLOAKED Frankensitinian Halloween Horror of a nightmare cam. (And please, keep it far away from the frail, the elderly and small children if you have any heart)

now the fools will be happy

Well this retro design reminds me of a classic road cruiser, just miss some tail fins. Not my cup of tea - but that's a matter of taste...

To me, the extreme price level for such a pimped Hassy-NEX would only make sense if it'd come with an exchangeable digital back ;-) + a good new small Hasselblad lens. But I'd surely go for a decent Leica, if I'd invest that money.

I suspect that Hasselblad is losing sales at an accelerated pace, which is why they sought out a partnership with Sony.

Between the high MP 35mm DSLRs and possibly Pentax's relatively budget-priced MF DSLR and Leica's S camera, sales must be dipping in Hasselblad land.

At least Hassy responded to critics....not being silent like Canon on their 6D

Hassy has designed an (my opinion) ugly case to fit a NEX-7, and want 4000 for it (the other 1000 is the camera itself). What's not to like or disagree here people, get real!

I hope that part of that $5000 includes an amazing lens instead of the kit 18-55 from Sony

"Alessandrini also says that the decision to use an unmodified Sony sensor for the first Lunar camera doesn't preclude the company from making sensor modifications for future models"

Yes, mr Luca says, buy a $1000 camera for $5000 and maybe, just maybe, they will indulge us with the sensor tweak sometime in the future. (how smart)

Mr Alessandrini:

Personally I expect innovation from Hasselblad and not this kind of pointless luxury object which, as somebody pointed out, will be obsolete in a not distant future...

Welcome to the consumer products market and good luck!

at that price point.. i rather choose to buy 2 body, D800E and 5d mark III, by the way, design is suck, X pro-1 just do better than this...

Sort of reminds me of those big American wooden panelled cars.
I like the fact that a few camera companies have been going back to that retro look of yesteryear with cameras, but I am still a bit unsure on this one's looks.
However with Sony and Hassleblad both high quality camera companies as far as quality engineering goes, it should be a fine camera one would hope.
Grace.

I respect the disappointment expressed by purists and enthusiasts, but I have to look at this camera as a functional and aesthetical object, and I see a very cool and well-designed camera with state-of-the-art technique. Yes, it's overpriced, but only in the camera-business. I have a passion for mechanical watches and in that field you won't get much for that price. You may easily pay, say 20 K $ for a watch just telling the hours, minutes and seconds. True, when you look at the Lunar you wouldn't buy it because of its technical functionality - it's primarily a luxury object, a device for those who want something different from the uniform black rubberclad crowd. Hasselblad degrading themselves? I find a collaboration between high-tech Sony and high prestigeous H a very good idea for both companies. / Sven

Part of the problem is Hassy is just starting out in this market with a Pimp Cam. At least Leica lets things get stale and old before offering ones designed for the mantles of Persian palaces. Wow us with performance and quality before grossing us out. Its like starting out something kinky before flirting and foreplay.

Why are people losing respect for Hasselblad? Because they have been a brand associated with extreme technical quality. The Lunar is embarrassing because it is a piece of jewelry that adds nothing in terms of technical prowess.

If Bulgari had made the Lunar it would not have been embarassing. (Then it would just have been an ugly camera.)

"This [the Lunar] is not a NEX-7 camera"
Oh yes it is.

"we're just using more expensive materials"
with a 2000% mark-up!

How is he permitted to say those things and not get called on them?

I don't really see the difference between this and a diamond encrusted watch. Why are people getting so excited over an obvious luxury good aimed at oil sheikhs and Chinese billionaires?

So it's not for us, it's not our style, and it's something completely different? Well, hooray for those who do like it.

Jeez, all this "I used to have healthy respect for Hasselblad" is just a bunch of blustering internet forum non-sense. When was the last time any of you spent a single dime on Hasselblad equipment?!? If this new camera allows Hasselblad reach a new market of buyers, more power to them. Companies don't survive and pay the bills on "respect" alone. People actually have to buy their products. If you people don't buy this camera, so be it. Some trust-fund baby with a lot of discretionary income to spend on a compact camera sure will. That's fine by me if it helps Hasselblad stick around for another decade or two. Remember, it's a very competitive world out there, and many camera companies have bit the dust because "respect" alone wasn't enough to keep them around.

And its not looking like Sony's NEX-7 are made of inferior material either ... I used to have healthy respect for Hasselblad, but sorry this is all gone in a very short time I must say

'...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.'

look dude, i know nothing about sensor, but other high end cameras is using their own proprietary sensor but hasselblad use sony sensor and you call it expensive material? i'm not saying sony's sensor is cheap but you can't put this future product in the same price range like the M series. if you want people to think that this is a special product, use your own designed sensor.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

You are now witnessing the collapse of respect on two well known brands.

Other manufactures should now take note of the lesson:

Destruction 101: Brand Implosion.

Very important lesson.

.

Investing in a super durable camera body may have made sense back in the days of film, when you can use the same body for decades. It makes no sense at all in the digital age, because the electronics become obsolete way before the body wears out. Anyway, machined aluminum is not exactly high tech exotic materials....the Pentax K-01 frame is also made from machined aluminum.

Regardless of how superior the materials and construction of the Hasselblad Lunar may be, what is clear is that the company now has a full-blown public-relations disaster on its hands. Hasselblad's most astonishing failure -- so far -- is that the company seems not to have had the slightest clue in anticipating this sort of repudiation. That suggests the company is woefully out of touch with market reality and perception. If the materials from the which the camera are so expensive and labor so involved, this was never hinted at in the press materials.

Give Hassy a break! They are trying to do what Kodak failed to do...re-invent themselves in a changing world.

À chacun son goût. This is a refined object for the select few (not the 47%). Wait until this goes on the next Soyuz mission.

If it quacks like a duck, walks like duck and swim like a duck then it is a duck!

$100 sensor in a $4900 body. Give me two.

It is a good thought that to make a high-quality mirrorless camera receives a supply of components from Sony.
However, it will be Contax that a user demands.
Do not you want to use the Ziess lens with a mirrorless camera like RX and RTS III?

If it walks like a NEX-7 and quacks like a NEX-7...

Mr. Luca is trying to the following:

We used to make some top notch Medium format camera, we even send some to space. We know how to make some good stuff. But unfortunately in order to manufacture a modern camera today you only need Lenses, LCDs, EVFs, Sensors and some electronics. Unfortunately we don't make any of this stuff. So we buy some Sony and integrate some complex holding devise with rounded spinning knobs and engrave a big letter H on the body.
C'mon people, give us some slack. Hey, we trying, We need to make money over here, like every one else, stop picking on us.

It really doesn't bother me if Hassleblad want to dress a NEX-7 in bling for very wealthy people. However, it's a bit of an insult to people's intelligence to try and convince people that this is anything but a NEX-7 inside a body redesign. The specifications and the control layout seem virtually identical to the NEX, and only appear to be cosmetically different. If Hassleblad were just using Sony parts to design their own camera, it seems odd that they ended up with something so similar to the NEX-7 in specification and control layout. The control layout of the "Lunar" is more similar to the NEX-7 than it is to the NEX-6.

"keeping the same values that made our company famous. For example, that involves using the best material available..."
Gold and gems?!
Either he was lying, or Vitor Hasselblad did not use the best materials at his time.

Ok, so there seems to be some confusion in management's mind as to how much Hassy technical input there was to the prototypes (mock-ups) on display that seem to be internally identified as NEX-7s.
That's all fine, and the NEX-7 seems a technically competent basis for a mirrorless that will have the Hasselblad name attached to it.

But my first (and strong) reaction to the Lunar wasn't so much about the technical details, just the plain fugliness of the camera. My first impression was of a NEX covered in modelling clay.
I didn't notice Mr. Alessandrini addressing that issue, but rather getting defensive about things that don't seem to be fundamental problems.