That new Hasselblad digital back. >

mshchem

Subscriber
Joined
Nov 26, 2007
Messages
14,647
Location
Iowa City, Iowa USA
Format
Medium Format
That's a great little movie! It makes no sense. However, it makes me want to buy this and a Alfa Romeo with leather seats and drive around northern Europe. Work my way down to northern Italy. Oh yeah.

If you want to use abundant, amazing, Zeiss glass on a digital platform.

Looking at the silhouettes of all the film cameras on the shelf shows the target audience. If they sell 1000 at 15,000 a piece that's 15 million dollars.

I'm going to start looking for a nice Alfa Romeo 4C with saddle color leather interior...............And a refrigerator crate to live in after I sell my house
 

spijker

Member
Joined
Mar 20, 2007
Messages
625
Location
Ottawa, Canada
Format
Medium Format
Let's face it guys; square and waist level finders are passe. 4:3 is the new perfect format, even according to Hasselblad. And the new waist level finder is a flip screen.

The manufacturing cost of a sensor is mostly determined by its size and technology. Making a big 56 x 56 mm sensor even in an old technology with 30-ish megapixel will still be very expensive. Much more than the hobbyist with an old V-system is willing to pay for a digital back. So an old used CCD back from Phase One, Leaf or Hasselblad is probably the best option if you want to go digital on a V-system at a moderate price. Otherwise you'll need to upgrade to a modern 645 platform or stick to scanning film. Personally I keep medium format for film and darkroom printing and digital for a DSLR for now.
 
Last edited:

Patrick Robert James

Member
Joined
Jul 31, 2012
Messages
3,352
Format
35mm RF
With all the new cameras coming out these days I wonder what the point to this is. I mean Fuji just released a 100mp mirrorless for about ten grand. Yeah, you gotta buy the lenses, but still. If this thing costs 15 grand I don't know who would buy it. I'd think it would have to be significantly less than the Fuji, but I doubt it will be.
 

Theo Sulphate

Member
Joined
Jul 3, 2014
Messages
6,489
Location
Gig Harbor
Format
Multi Format
Patrick Robert James said:
... If this thing costs 15 grand I don't know who would buy it. ...
Click to expand...

Agencies and professionals who can consider it a business expense and whose volume of work justifies it.

Just like those super expensive specialty lenses used by National Geographic or the sports press in the 1970s, etc.
 

Richard Man

Member
Joined
Sep 24, 2005
Messages
1,301
Format
Multi Format
That is NO indication how much it cost. The first version came out at $15K, but then it was selling for $9K. It's like saying my first PC was a 386 with 4 megs of RAM for $2000 so now my Core i7 with 2TB SSD would be $2.4 millions ;-)

Chances are it will be priced similar to the X1D MkII, i.e. around $6000. Let's call it $7000 because... why not.

Just about any V camera can be used, including the 203FE. Since it is a cropped sensor, eventually you may want to shoot wide, so add the 907x "camera" (a thin smart bracket) and a 21mm XCD lens, and you have your digital SWC.

This is a rather brilliant system.
 

Sirius Glass

Subscriber
Joined
Jan 18, 2007
Messages
50,364
Location
Southern California
Format
Multi Format

But at what price?!? Not square.
 
OP
OP

warden

Subscriber
Joined
Jul 21, 2009
Messages
3,040
Location
Philadelphia
Format
Medium Format
If they price it at $7K they're going to sell a lot of them.
 

Maris

Member
Joined
Jan 17, 2006
Messages
1,571
Location
Noosa, Australia
Format
Multi Format
Even if that Hasselblad digital back was free, gratis, no charge, it still would not be of the slightest use to people who want to transform light sensitive surfaces into pictures by embedding optical images into them.
 

Theo Sulphate

Member
Joined
Jul 3, 2014
Messages
6,489
Location
Gig Harbor
Format
Multi Format
Sirius Glass said:
But at what price?!? Not square.
Click to expand...

One would hope the folks doing marketing research at Hasselblad determined there was a sufficiently large market to make it worthwhile.
 

Sirius Glass

Subscriber
Joined
Jan 18, 2007
Messages
50,364
Location
Southern California
Format
Multi Format
Theo Sulphate said:
One would hope the folks doing marketing research at Hasselblad determined there was a sufficiently large market to make it worthwhile.
Click to expand...

If it is the 645 format, one might as well stay with the 35mm format.
 

Eric Rose

Member
Joined
Nov 21, 2002
Messages
6,842
Location
T3A5V4
Format
Multi Format
My Micro 4/3rd's camera will produce better images than a scanned 6x6 negative. Plus there are no artifacts. In addition to that I can do 4k video which is important to me. A cropped sensor on the Blad is of no interest to me. I would buy a Fuji 100mp body and lenses before I would spring for a cropped sensor on my Blad. 150 or 200 mpx 6x6 sensor would get my attention for still photography without video. Anything lower than that is a waste of my time and money if I have to lug two different cameras around.
 

Sirius Glass

Subscriber
Joined
Jan 18, 2007
Messages
50,364
Location
Southern California
Format
Multi Format

You mean WOMBAT? Waste Of Money Brains And Time
 

Eric Rose

Member
Joined
Nov 21, 2002
Messages
6,842
Location
T3A5V4
Format
Multi Format
Any business that is doing well will lease this product since it's a write off. Same goes for the new Apple monster computers. Neither product is aimed at people who plunk down cash.
 

mshchem

Subscriber
Joined
Nov 26, 2007
Messages
14,647
Location
Iowa City, Iowa USA
Format
Medium Format
Sirius Glass said:
I am less than totally not interested in digital Hasselblad back especially if it is not square.
Click to expand...
The Marketing department has a couple of slick videos for this new back. In one there's a 50 plus male model, listening to vinyl, driving a mythical 65 Mustang plug in electric conversion, taking digital photos with his mint Hasselblad 500 series camera.

When the final work is displayed in a gallery, two nice looking ladies are viewing the PERFECTLY SQUARE PRINT. So we've come full circle, used to be people complained about cropping square to make a rectangle, now Hasselblad is saying crop a rectangle to make a square. .

Go to Hasselblad and watch the videos. I think it's cool, but I'm not buying one. Ektar and TMY for my blads, 12 fps of my cats with my D5 , and my "old" AF-D lenses that work with my F, F2, F3 and F5.
 

Eric Rose

Member
Joined
Nov 21, 2002
Messages
6,842
Location
T3A5V4
Format
Multi Format
mshchem said:
Go to Hasselblad and watch the videos. I think it's cool, but I'm not buying one. Ektar and TMY for my blads, 12 fps of my cats with my D5 , and my "old" AF-D lenses that work with my F, F2, F3 and F5.
Click to expand...

That video is such a pandering bunch of crap. There is so much wrong with it the AD should be strung up.
 

Richard Man

Member
Joined
Sep 24, 2005
Messages
1,301
Format
Multi Format
People have such strong opinions ;-) Rest assured that a small number of pros and well-heeled amateurs are buying $20K-$50K medium format digital stuff (not me of course), and not leasing them or anything. I know a guy who drags his H6-100C all over the world, and also his Profoto lights (not even the monolights but full battery pack, to Africa and Mongloia). Then again, he won book of the year and half a dozen other major minor awards this year, so dedication pays off.

Funny things about camera products, rarely do sh*te sell just because they have good ads, and rarely do great cameras die because they have shitty ads. The Stellar/Luna did not sell, despite Hasselblads' ads, although the V did, and no doubt the "Moon camera" ads helped.

Me? I love the CFV II 50C + 907x + XCD len possibilities. Great addition to my 203FE.
 

mshchem

Subscriber
Joined
Nov 26, 2007
Messages
14,647
Location
Iowa City, Iowa USA
Format
Medium Format
Eric Rose said:
That video is such a pandering bunch of crap. There is so much wrong with it the AD should be strung up.
Click to expand...
I wondered why the guy would put on a LP record and leave. It wasn't a crappy auto turntable so the needle would have been ruined . The electric Mustang put it over the moon for me. I don't mind being pandered to. I wonder what will show up first, that back or Eastman Kodak's new Super 8 camera .
 

Richard Man

Member
Joined
Sep 24, 2005
Messages
1,301
Format
Multi Format

He was downloading from the turntable to the electronic music device ~_o
 

mshchem

Subscriber
Joined
Nov 26, 2007
Messages
14,647
Location
Iowa City, Iowa USA
Format
Medium Format
Richard Man said:
He was downloading from the turntable to the electronic music device ~_o
Click to expand...
Yes, but he started the record then grabbed the camera and his phone and walked out. He never lifted the tonearm off the record. They got the high end manual turntable correct, just the wrong workflow . I remember buying replacement "cartridges " for my fancy turntables. God I don't miss vinyl, I listen to AM radio, that's my form of analog torture.
 

Richard Man

Member
Joined
Sep 24, 2005
Messages
1,301
Format
Multi Format
Yes, I know, but... it's a commercial ;-) Maybe he has a steam powered robot that will come in the room and remove the turntable arm for him, heh
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn more…