Hasselblad sent an e-mail ten days ago about decreasing the cost of their equipment. (Probably the announced "up to 40% savings" will be on something like filters!) I sent this e-mail in response, but got no reply so far:
Jorgen - I guess seeing will be believing, but I'm not holding my breath. I still use my old ELM and film for aerial photography. Unless that kind of high-end shooting was a daily event (And in little Eureka, CA, it definitely is NOT), then nothing would ever justify the stratospheric prices of Hasselblad. I have used Hasselblads since working with KameraBild in Stockholm in the 1960's, but your prices are WAY outside the league of any but the most affluent photographers.
For those of us who must justify capital expenditures with a reasonable payback on investment, Hasselblad has not even been close to practical for years now. However, I still love my Zeiss lenses and use an Imacon Photo scanner for my "hybrid" digital approach when a project calls for medium format.
Speaking of "hybrid", I have even adapted Hasselblad lenses to an Olympus E-330 DSLR for some aerial photography. You might enjoy my "Lympa Log" (Leica R lenses adapted to Olympus 4/3), especially the page with the "Hlympad" photo:
http://www.northcoastphotos.com/Lympa_2007_12_07.htm In fact, ALL the architectural photos on that page were taken with Hasselblad.My "Lympa" kit will be my photo journalistic mainstay in Swaziland for two months, coming up next month. But I will be following your new Hasselblad pricing.
Best regards, Gary Todoroff
If "no news is good news", then what is a lot of news?One of the big news items at the opening day of this year's Photokina is that, in addition to launching a range of new products, Hasselblad has also announced a dramatic new pricing strategy, with up to 40% savings on all of our digital camera products.
