Hasselblad slashes its prices
HTS 1.5
Hasselblad has dramatically cut the price of all its digital camera products, with the H3DII-31 now retailing at under EUR12,000.
'We've worked for four years reducing the price of our products,' CEO Christian Poulsen told BJP in an exclusive interview. 'We need to broaden our market.'
Under the new structure, the H3DII-39 with the HC 80mm lens will retail at EUR14,995 and the H3DII-39 Multi Shot at EUR19,995. The H3DII-50 (body only) will now be priced EUR17,995, with the upcoming H3DII-60 available for EUR22,995 in April 2009. The cut reprensent a 40% drop from the original pricing.
To achieve these price reductions, Hasselblad has discontinued its buy-back upgrade offers. 'When you buy a new camera, you have to be happy with it,' Poulsen says. 'I don't think we are punishing anybody. Our products have a longer lifetime than other digital SLRs. In five years you would still use a Hasselblad you purchased today. Poulsen also adds that some customers have been abusing the upgrade scheme by purchasing non-working Hasselblads on eBay to part-exchange for a new one.
Cost reductions have also been achieved with the the launch, two years ago, of the H3D integrated system. 'When you integrate a camera, you don't have to duplicate some things, and you get the production costs down,' Poulsen explains.
Hasselblad hopes 35mm format photographers will make the leap from their DSLRs to medium format systems. 'Our initial pricing has been one of the main barriers to entry, keeping many high-end 35mm format photographers away from our systems,' says Poulsen, who does not believe that Leica's S system will take away market shares from Hasselblad. 'It's an interesting development,' he says of the S2's launch (BJP, 24 September). 'It is something that crossed our minds before. But we already have a similar product in terms of sensor. I question whether there is room between the top 35mm cameras and us. I doubt it. But Leica has a fantastic name.'
Hasselblad has alsoaunveiled a new H3DII model with a 60 million pixel resolution sensor. The H3DII-60 will provide 94% full-frame 645 coverage.
The new model will be available in April 2009. The firm has also expanded its range of HCD lenses with the release of the 35-90mm f/4.0-5.6 lens. This is Hasselblad's first zoom lens optimised for the H3D system. 'A lot of modern-thinking photographers have got used to zoom lenses,' Poulsen says. 'This 35-90mm lens is fully compatible with all of our systems and will retail at £3695.'
The new lens will be released in January 2009 at the same time as a tilt-and-shift adapter. The HTS 1.5 is designed to be used with the HCD 28mm, HC35mm, HC50mm and HC80mm lenses. It can also be used with Hasselblad's other lenses and works as a telephoto converter, extending the focal length of a mounted lens by a factor of 1.5. The adapter will retail at £2695.
Visit www.hasselblad.co.uk.
