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Saturday, June 15, 2013

Hasselblad Lunar Review

The Hasselblad Lunar comes as a kit which includes a Sony 18-55mm OSS lens with Hasselblad prominently written on the top. It does not say Sony anywhere. The body, of course, has been "pimped" beyond recognition but any Sony Nex user would be able to recognise the lens at first glance. So the lens does not seem any different to the regular Sony 18-55mm OSS. Now, Sony's lenses have a fine finish to them but I'm not the only one expecting more from a fancy camera kit at this price point.
 Hasselblad Lunar camera
It is also worth mentioning that there was a very expensive looking brochure detailing all the customisation options available for this camera. Yes, you can have one customised to your liking and I wouldn't be surprised if that is the only option available for people. I know I wouldn't want it any other way if I was spending this kind of money on an APS-C camera that is functionally the same as a much cheaper and aging Sony model.
The rear of the camera, apart from being massive, also makes it very awkward to pull the LCD out. It feels as if there is a Nex-7 hiding in there somewhere and the Lunar is just a housing around the original camera. The battery cover seems "buried" deep inside the external dimensions of the camera, again giving the impression that the Lunar is a housing on the outside of a Nex-7. If you scroll up to the first photo in this post, you can see the lens mount does not stick out like it does on the Nex-7 but sits at the same level as the front of the body. Catch my drift?

Don't forget to notice the "made in Sweden" which is surrounded by "Hasselblad" and the H logo. The lens, on the other hand, honestly says it is made in Thailand.Conclusions: I was able to play with this camera thanks to the nice folks at Camera Lane in Melbourne. They can order one in for you when Hasselblad decides to ship them. They also happen to be a Leica dealer that has been around for a long time in Melbourne. So naturally I asked them what their customers who have looked at the Lunar said about possibly buying one, because if anyone is deep-pocketed enough to afford this, it would be the same crowd that has an interest in Leicas. From what gathered, it was not positive at all. I don't think anyone wanted to put that kind of money down for this camera. Let's face it, regardless of what you might think of the price to performance ratio of Leica equipment, you don't see them everywhere in a cheaper form at 1/7th of the price no less. There's a sense of exclusivity, whether you care about photography or not. With a Lunar, you don't get either the performance or any real exclusivity. You are  just paying $1000 for each of the 7 instances of "Hasselblad" or the H-logo appearing on the body.

1 comments:

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