[rollei_list] Re: Decline of Rollieflex/Film
- From: Marc James Small <marcsmall@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2010 15:56:02 -0400
At 04:42 PM 3/25/2010, Austin Franklin wrote:
>Anyway, what's the point of what you've cited? I know all that. I've been
>using and collecting Hasselblads for decades. It has not a thing to do with
>your claim that somehow Hasselblad didn't have anything to do with the
>decline in sales of the Rollei TLR. And, I'm still a bit miffed how anyone
>could believe that. IF the Hasselblad weren't around, what would people
>have bought if they wanted a high end MF camera?
Austin
A much stronger case can be made that Hasselblad
demolished the Zeiss Ikon MF line than that it
hurt Rolleiflex. No one who wanted a reliable
camera ever considered buying a Hasselblad 1600F
or 1000F: these cameras were denounced in every
review for their erratic behavior. Great lenses,
bad camera, I recall Herb Keppler described
them. Hasselblad WANTED to get into the pro
market but just could not do so until the 500C
was introduced. And, in the end, the Hasselblad
competed directly with the Ikoflex and the Super
Ikonta and did them in to the death for quite a
few reasons. They went away at the very time
when Hasselblad finally got its act together with
the 500C. Voigtländer did not re-enter the MF
market after WWII, in part due to the British
Army's support of Franke & Heidecke.
And, of course, it took the Soviets to make the
1000F a viable product: my Kiev 88 is what
Hasselblad ought to have been making in 1948!
(To keep the record straight, Austin, I own a
Voigtländer Bessa, a Bessa 66, two Super Ikontas,
two Ikoflices, six Rolleiflex TLR's, and three
Hasselblads. I have run a LOT of film through
all of these, but I can honestly say that I have
no bias here, just love for the different abilities of all of these cameras.)
Marc
msmall@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Cha robh bàs fir gun ghràs fir!
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