Photokina 2012 - Hasselblad Lunacy

I really must write first of all about this new, just introduced Hasselblad´s APS-C mirrorless system camera. It´s name really, of course, is not Lunacy but Lunar. Why? Because this year is the "anniversary of 50 years of Hasselblad photography in space". Check. "Mirrorless Lunar sets new standards for materials and technology". Okay, lets play along even though I must at this point say that the technology is from Sony NEX-7. The difference from Sony technology is that it Lunar is "assembled in Sweden", what ever that means. Furthermore Lunar is "a distillate of Hasselblad tradition and cutting edge technology into a revolutionary and amazing design".

Design

Directly from behind this revolutionary and amazing design is exactly the same as Sony NEX-7 except for the different contour of grip which is about 10% of what you see back there. That´s the achilles heel of so many fancy design cameras, they look so digital from where you, the photographer, see it. Oh yes, Sony logo is changed into Hasselblad Lunar logo and, most of all, AF-MF/AEL switch is changed into something less clear. Why? They say that "the contrast in colour between the camera body, the lens, and the protruding control buttons, is faithfully reproduced to offer an evocative vintage look with a decisively elegant appeal". That´s why buttons are protruding. Let´s look at this vintage look and elegant appeal in some images I took at Hasselblad booth:

The top is machined high-grade aluminium ("more durable and much tougher than magnesium") plated with 24K gold. A gold plated pop-up flash, too. Black material around Sony E mount is naturally Compression Moulded Carbon Fiber because "this process combines the strengths and lightness of carbon fibers with the precision and design freedom of injection moulding parts. Lunar is the World´s first camera using this exceptional material". The grip here is mahogany "with waxless matt finish to optimise the grip. The best Italian wood is selected to create grips that come across like paintings of artistic perfection. Attention focuses on the most beautiful wood grain, on the original shades of colour, on the compactness and fragrance of the finest wood. Each camera is a little masterpiece that makes it absolutely unique." The (very) protruding "controls are made of uncoated natural titanium, typically used to produce strong and lightweight aerospace components. Controls made of this valuable material are guaranteed to last virtually forever without a sign of wear or oxidation". That sounds exceptionally good, doesn´t it. And that thingie attached to these perfect materials is...  well it´s a regular Sony zoom, but "assembled in Sweden" and named Hasselblad.

For all luxuriously driving shooters we have here a grip which combines "the very best Italian full-grain leather with perforated full-grain leather, the one used for the most exclusive car steering wheels and interiors for the leading state-of-the art manufacturers". Of course you have "the possibility to choose from wide variety of styles and colors." And "each grip recounts a tale of class and elegance that your fingers can read by covering the countless paths scored by the texture of these extraordinary materials". I am not quite sure what this means but I guess those cows did have a long and interesting life while walking these countless paths and gaining extraordinary experiences from barb wire. Anyway "the charm of times gone by is revived in a technologically perfect camera". Oh my, I salute thee, oh mighty NEX-7 in fancy clothes. This body has gold plating, carbon fiber and titanium as usual, but now, could also this lens and Sony LA-EA2 adaptor be "assembled in Sweden"?

Quite sporty, don´t you think? If the price of very best Italian leather feels too steep, you can also have alcantara on grip. Gotta love this structured carbon fiber.

 

Here we have an example of another wood and this time this painting-like grip of artistic perfection is made of olive tree. Maybe some of you have visited Lapland and know what a kuksa is. I guess our Swedish designer has been inspired by those artistic forms. Besides already mentioned wood you can also order a grip of beech or pear. Carbon fiber and titanium and Sony as usual but now we a different style of top plate showing a neutral Physical Vapor Coating. This "cutting edge technology in the field of surface treatmets" was "developed as a hardening treatment for high speed cutting tools". Sounds logical and sharp cutting but actually "it has recently evolved into top class aesthetical finishing. It combines outstanding hardness, second only to diamond, with beautiful bright colors". I wonder if Paul Smith designed Leica X2 with its bright colors has also physical vapor coating.

Last but not least we have an option to have "high-tech style" carbon fiber on carbon fiber. "The carbon grip combines a decisively high-tech look with the exceptional characteristics of resistance and lightness found in this extraordinary material. Available in three different shades of colour (black, titanium and silver), this is the right choice for those who love minimal style and exclusive details." Also that compression-moulded carbon fiber looks outstanding.

So, this is how it goes: You can choose any of these (and more) amazing materials and design your own Hasselblad Lunar body with the best possible taste. They assemble your chosen luxury together and send it to you at the cost of 5000 euros, delivery not included. I would say this is not too much for "evocative vintage look" because Lunar is "the ideal luxury camera". With the Lunar body you can have a Sony lens "assembled in Sweden" or be cheap and go and buy an ordinary Sony lens which, of course, is not as luxurious. As far as I know you can not send your own NEX-7 to Hasselblad to be pimped because it is assembled where non-assembled pieces of Ikea furniture are made.  

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Update on September 19, 2012 at 11:27 by Pekka Potka

I´m must correct one mistake in previous text because Angry Swedes are now throwing their eggs at me through my mailbox: Hasselblad Lunar is not a Swedish design. Hasselblad is not related to any country but is owned by an investing company. Still, hopefully and sincerely "assembled in Sweden" is true and more than just fancy words to make things look glamorous among the aimed target group for marketing.  And yes, the grip did not feel bad at all in my hand when I tried the camera. Shapewise the design is sound even though the protruding controls where a bit high for my thumb. Just buy matching gloves if you want to keep enjoying the "fragrance of the finest wood". ;-)

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Photokina 2012 - Some last thoughts before show

My Photokina starts "officially" on Monday morning at 11am with Olympus press meeting. Then it goes on with Canon in the afternoon and Leica in the evening. Right now I can´t write about any possible product details but there will of course be new stuff coming. I have known for a few weeks what Olympus has in their pocket. Leica is taking wholly new steps but stays very much Leica, so don´t worry Leica shooters. Unlike many other companies, Leica has kept all their product images in-house and thus avoided seeing them published at internet rumor sites. Breaking NDAs seems to be one of the more popular hobbies these days.

During the next days I have several meetings, some of them just to keep in touch and exchange information. Of these I mention here one in particular. I have on Tuesday a meeting with Mr. Toshi Terada, who is Manager of SLR Product & Marketing Planning Department at Olympus. There has been so much writing about Olympus FT series future and FT-mFT merger in the internet that now is your chance: be free to send me questions to ask, preferably as comments to this blog. Of course you can ask anything regarding Olympus system cameras FT or mFT. But as you know companies do not tell about future steps and camera models too much in advance. So be realistic in your expectations and think about what to ask if you really want it answered. Also my hands are tied (by me) in what I will write because the better I keep confidentiality the more I will get to know. That´s the name of the game, for me at least.

My Photokina ends "officially" at Canson Infinity booth. I will be there presenting a swollen "combined Photokina version" of my print portfolios and telling about my photography and my experiences on printing on Canson Infinity materials. Canson Infinity is in Hall 6.1 and I will be there on Thursday afternoon and all day on Friday and Saturday. You can even have one or two of your images printed there. Please come in to say hello, if you happen to be visiting Photokina during those days.

Trends

Looking at what has been already published (and of course I´m reading rumor sites, too) I see a few trends happening:

Connectivity: More and more cameras will be connected to social media or the internet in general. Wifi is naturally an obvious method but it also is not a sure and easy way for those who are not familiar with managing wifi connections. Mobile cell phone technology is more likely the future.

Mirrorless: Reflex or mirror cameras are going out. They are not vanishing today because they still are better than mirrorless cameras for many applications but eventually they will lose. And I think it actually happens faster than we now think.

Narrowing market for APS-C DSLRs: Sort of related to above. Several and ever cheaper full frame (24x36mm) DSLRs are being introduced and on the other hand mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras are getting ever more capable and more popular. 

Large sensor compacts: With Sony RX-1, a full frame 35mm focal length compact camera, we now have the camera I was asking Canon to make for a few years. They didn´t (the price would have been too high then), Sony did, and I´m tempted... Sensor prices have gone down. The size of sensor and electronics in not an issue. Human factor and ergonomics dictate the body size and then the lens size is dictated by sensor size with the aimed for image quality, lens speed and other parameters of the lens.

Dying market for low-end compacts: Cell phones are killing low end compacts. Period. We buy more than 1.8 billion cell phones with camera this year. Next year even more. We are going to use a dedicated camera only when we want a "better" picture. Seeing this companies are concentrating their efforts in high end compacts.

Large sensor video cameras: I think the era of DSLR as video camera came and went already. They showed the possibilities and also the missing ergonomics. Hybrid cameras are here to stay for us who want to mix it but for anything more ambitious video work a dedicated video body (and dedicated lenses) is better and eventually (with rigs and mics and all) not more expensive. 

Higher lens prices: Lens prices are going up with more megapixels in sensors. There simply is no way to make cheap, high quality lenses. There is no way to keep lens prices the same if they must keep out resolving more megapixels. Electronics gets cheaper, lenses get more expensive. Canon´s new 24-70mm zoom is an excellent example of this trend, very high image quality, more than double the price. To counter this we will see ingenuity in software corrections. We will see variable lens structures where stepper motors move more lenses than just needed for focusing and/or zooming. And of course we will see more lenses with good lens elements but cheap mechanical construction.

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CIPA statistics for SLR and mirrorless

Camera & Imaging Products Association (CIPA) is the organization of Japanese camera makers and companies making related devices. Their newest statistics for third and fourth quarter of 2011 makes for the first time division between single lens reflex cameras and non-reflex cameras in their category interchangeable lens cameras.

I collected their data into a colorful graph below.

This image has Q3 2011 on the left side and Q4 2011 on the right side. From top we have SLR shipments to Japan (red) , Europe (green) , Americas (blue) , Asia (yellow) and Others (grey). Below white demarcation line we have the shipments of mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras to same destinations. The graph shows percentual shares of shipments during both times. Actual total shipments for Q4 was less than Q3.

The share of mirrorless rose from 19% in Q3 to 27% in Q4. It is now a little more than the share of SLR shipments to Europe which is again the biggest marketing area for ILCs. In Japan mirroless surpassed SLR during Q4.

Otherwise the graph rises only questions. Like, why did shipments to Asia drop so dramatically, below 50% in quantity? How much are the effects of Asian nature catastrophes seen here? For how long will Canon stand looking at their ever diminishing market share in their home market? 

I would guess mirrorless will be bigger than SLR by early 2013.

This graph is about camera bodies. During 2011 lens sales world wide rose by 12% for 35mm lenses and by double of that for smaller formats. 35mm lenses have now a 22% marketshare of all lenses. In Japan 35mm lens sales declined by the same 12%. 

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