Hasselblad defends Lunar's concept and pricing
Hasselblad has gone on the defensive, answering the criticism the firm's compact interchangeable lens camera system has received since its introduction at Photokina yesterday. Olivier Laurent speaks with Hasselblad's Luca Alessandrini and Peter Stig-Nielsen
Author: Olivier Laurent
19 Sep 2012 Tags: HasselbladPhotokina
Hasselblad unveiled Lunar yesterday, an interchangeable lens camera that is strongly reminiscent of the Sony NEX 7 and uses the Japanese firm's technology – from its sensor, to its image processor and lens mount.
The launch, which coincided with Hasselblad's announcement of its strategic partnership with Sony, has since been heavily denigrated, with critics condemning Lunar's retail price of €5000, forcing Hasselblad to go on the defensive.
"We realise it's difficult to explain what we're trying to do when we launch something for the first time," Hasselblad's new business development manager, Luca Alessandrini, tells BJP. "After a little while, when you come out with more products, then people will start to understand. But in the beginning, when a product is coming out of the blue, it's a hard one," he admits.
At the origins of the project, which will see Hasselblad release a series of compact, digital SLRs and mirrorless cameras, is the question: "What does Hasselblad mean to people?" and "Which have been the key values of the company, that has been around for 40 or 50 years, that have kept people coming back?" says Alessandrini. And the answer is quality and durability, he explains. "We decided to look at what we could do with the Hasselblad range, and one thing was to go back to our heritage, which is to develop cameras for more people, while keeping the same values that made our company famous. For example, that involves using the best material available. In the 1950s, it was stainless steel. Nowadays it can be carbon fibre, it can be solid aluminium. In this camera we're embedding our titanium controls. We're embedding our core values that, in the past 15 years, we've put into the H system."
He adds: "I've heard a lot of crazy things about this camera. People are talking about ‘rebranding'. I think rebranding is something really different from what we've done. We have, in this industry, many examples of what rebranding actually is," he says, referring to Leica and Panasonic. "In their case, it's not a partnership, it's an original equipment manufacturer process, because their cameras aren't really different. They use a different logo, but the cameras are made of the same material, are sprayed with the same paint, and are assembled in the same factory, with the same low-cost labour forces. It's not a partnership. What we're doing is creating different cameras. What we are doing is buying different components from the best suppliers, and applying our knowledge and expertise to create a different camera. This is not a NEX 7 camera, just because we are buying components from Sony. The hardware is just a small part of the whole. It's not because we're using a Sony sensor that it makes the Lunar a Sony camera."
In fact, says Alessandrini, Hasselblad has an entire R&D team in Sweden that is actively working on the development of the Lunar camera. "For example, the camera's body is made of aluminium. 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."
When it designed the Lunar camera, Hasselblad was mindful of keeping the look and feel of the firm's flagship cameras. "If you take Canon, for example, all of their DSLRs look the same, but their Powershot cameras have a completely different look, and the same is true of their mirrorless model. So, the question is: ‘What is the Canon style?' What we're doing is designing three cameras – a compact camera, a DSLR and a mirrorless – with the same style," Alessandrini tells BJP.
But Hasselblad doesn't rule out adding more of its DNA into the camera's internal components. "We believe the sensor we are using, made by Sony, is exactly what we want. This sensor is magnificent. For now, we don't see any reason to modify this sensor. We want to do things only when we know we can do them better," says Alessandrini. "But this is just the first model we've done. Maybe the second or third model will be different. We launched this one now because we know that what we've been able to achieve here is enough to guarantee that this is a Hasselblad camera. If we were not sure about that, we would not have launched it."
And if Sony were to release a NEX 9, Hasselblad would not automatically use the camera's technology to unveil its own version, warns Alessandrini.
In the end, Hasselblad, with this new initiative, is hoping to attract a larger, younger audience to its range of cameras, says Peter Stig-Nielsen, Hasselblad's director of professional camera products. "I've been longing to talk to a younger audience of potential professionals, and I really believe the Sony name is familiar to this audience. Sony is in the gaming industry, the music industry – things that relate to a young generation. I think the Sony brand and the Lunar product is going to help spread the message about what Hasselblad is."
And, adds Alessandrini, Hasselblad is not forcing anyone to buy the Lunar camera. "We want to be very honest: we have a tradition of choosing the best materials for our cameras. People have the choice – they can like, or not like, this concept. But 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."
Visit www.hasselblad.com for more details.
Comments
So basically what they're saying is that it's a Sony Nex-7 built with better materials for more durability? What a ridiculous excuse. For 6 times the price I'd rather buy 6 Sony Nex-7 cameras that will last me much longer than this piece of crap.
I used Hasselblads as my primary cameras for many years until the digital age. I could never warm up to the H series and now this.
Victor must be rolling over in his grave. His original concept of a box within a box and the square format was so elegant, but they threw it away.
Ironically, they had a V-series camera sitting in the display case with this new abomination. If they had any brains, they would forget this nonsense, update the V-series and perhaps offer a relatively inexpensive scanning, square-format back for V-series cameras.
Yesterdays tech at tomorrows prices
Please, don't insult my intelligence.
Doesn't matter how much lipstick you put on a pig, it is still a pig...
They're also acting all the wrong way towards customers "Hasselblad's nor forcing anyone to buy the Lunar?" Like they could force people to do it? Arrogance on top of stupidity...great.
I've never shot with a Hassleblad but have always perceived the brand to be aspirational and a company that produces beautiful products that can help make wonderful images.
It's terribly sad to see this rather ridiculous confection and to see them dig themselves into a hole with silly comments about being down with the kidz as they appreciate Sony...
I've looked at the Nex-7 and I think it's brilliant..why on earth would anyone buy this (apart from a Hasselblad completist) after all isn't it the images that count rather than the durability of a camera hewn from granite (or whatever it's made from).
Shame but with the demise of Kodak it's clear to see that no brand, no matter how iconic, is safe and hasselblad are clearly on the same slippery slope that Kodak were on a few years ago.
If Hasselblad think the sensor from the NEX is better than anything they can come up with for 6x the price, then Hasselblad may as well just give up.
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
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.
Hassy uses more expensive materiels but the output is the same. Personally I think the NEX7 looks nicer than the Lunar- that's part of the problem right there (keeping my comments in strict regard to this release only).
When you subject yourself to a greater audience be prepared to handle them properly and not dismiss their needs.
That is a big no no, strike two hassy (first strike is the lunar).
Carl
It is time for the responsible people to be kicked out or resign!!! Come on, this kind of attempt at marketing is a load of complete B.S. and a complete ignorance and incompetence of what is market and customers.
"For example, the camera's body is made of aluminum. It takes five hours to machine this down."
That is cheap, not even of duralumin (aircraft grade aluminum). Five hours to machine??? Using what, hand tools??? A CNC can do this very quick in minutes and to 0.01mm precision.
No lessons learnt from the demise of Kodak? Why Sony - when the real choice is about working with Canon or Nikon. Or, indeed, Apple.
time to re-evaluate your strategy, Hasselblad...
so tell me why I should buy this camera instead of 5 Sony NEX-7's??
Luca Alessandrini & Missing the Point
It's not just that it's a NEX-7 in a modified body that has folks reacting so negatively. I mean, yeah, it's a NEX-7 at heart, clearly, with essentially the same control layout, rocking a Sony lens right now, and an APS-C sensor for full-frame money. It is not clearly going to produce files that are in any way distinguishable from NEX-7 files. That's not inspiring.
And when you have photographers the world over who would jump for joy for a digital Xpan, who were hoping for a digital Xpan... where Hasselblad had an opportunity to bring out something that no one else has brought out, to bring a great part of their past forward, to make a digital camera unlike any other digital camera, that can produce images no other camera could produce... to see that hope die in the face of a huge, ugly NEX-7... man. Just, man.
Oh dear - so Leica has Fuji clearing out the street photography drinks cabinet by making camera bodies which beat them at their own game. Now they have Hasselblad doing the old trick of dressing Japanese camera technology up in a fancy alloy body shell and selling it for a ludicrous mark-up to the foolish rich. This is totally pissing in their prestige brand exclusivity punch-bowl. Hilarious!
Clearly the design department are on lunar dust with this one!
Call Johnny Ive and see if he can help!
While it's inexplicable that the XPan - itself an outside product, bought in by Hasselblad - has never been followed up digitally, the Lunar will include Sony's multishot sweep pan. By capturing 42 raw images at 10fps as the camera is panned, then seamlessly and intelligently stitching these to make a 23 megapixel panorama, it makes most panoramic format concepts like 2 or 3 stitched sensors in a row redundant. Hasselblad might improve on it or offer a motorized pan accessory to improve the results - who knows? Apart from that, the Lunar is really quite ugly and looks almost as odd as Konica's Aiborg.
Hasselblad is pulling a fast one!
If it's not a copy of the NEX-7 why does it have the exact same layout for every single button and switch as the NEX-7 then? Please. It's the internals of the NEX-7 with a Hasselblad body at 5x the cost.
I'm pretty sure the NEX-7 doesn't have a body made of 35 cent plastic by the way.
If it takes you a day to make three bodies then maybe you are a sculptor not a manufacturer of cameras and should be selling these at an art exhibit.
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