New Digital Life for Old Hasselblads

[visualopsins]

"Professional digital back that brings valuable medium format film gear into the 21st century with a price to match the quality it delivers."

Hasselblad CFV-39 digital back

[Attila]

10 000 GBP let's count how many rolls of Provia can we buy from this sum.. I still like slide output lot better

[Orio]

This is for professionals with well paid jobs.
When I worked as cultural director for an art project, I produced several books, and some of them required professional quality images of a palace.
A photographer came with a large format camera and did the job in two days. The bill was about half the price for this digital back.
I mean this is the real world of professionals. It takes only 2-3 services for a real professional to write off the cost with gross income. 4-5 services if you want to count the net income with VAT subtracted.
I mean, this expense is nothing, really nothing for a pro.

[kansalliskala]

£5000 is about 7000 €? Just looked at a normal professional's hourly rate when the buyer is a corporation is about 70 € / hour (no vat included). At that price you would have to work 100 hours for the back, that is about three weeks. And not pay rent or eat that time.

[Xpres]

The sort of pro' who would use this back would not be paid by the hour - he would employ others by the hour.
It's all tax deductable anyway...

[kansalliskala]

You mean the kinds that get $15 million loans against their photos or the kinds that most people know as "Spock"?

[ludoo]

Gear investment gets paid off in a longer period, for IT professionals it's the same: any gear you need for your job represents an investment that's usually spread over 3 years. So 12k really means 4k per year, that's easily paid off by a regular work flow.

And don't forget that a professional does not pay VAT, and he can deduct equipment costs from taxes, so the real cost is around 6 or 7k.

[Orio]

Kansalliskala, the event I reported happened 12 years ago, and yet the equivalent of 5000 was the bill.
I don't know what table you refer to, but let me grant you that for highly specialized work, 5000 Euros are normal bill for two full days of work on location with large format camera and sophisticated techniques such as light painting.
We are speaking of publishing professionals, not simple wedding photographers.

[Esox lucius]

[kansalliskala]

[Orio]

[Himself]

My 2c here maybe I can shed some light.
Taking the price said by you Orio: 5000 pounds? it is the shooting days + licence/licences for whatever you used the pictures.

[Orio]

[kansalliskala]

Orio, you are probably right about the high-end photography prices.

But Hasselblad is not like that - it is a work-horse. Most our different wedding etc. portraits - even our school and miltitary pictures were taken with them. And there are tens of thousands still around in perfect working condition. I'm kind of frustrated that "they" didn't introduce a reasonably priced 16-25 mpix back to these cameras but instead decided to upgrade the old camera to be sort of a luxury item.

High end photographers have had their digital Sinars for a long time but the price of them is even more. Can't imagine which kind of prices one must take to buy them.

[kansalliskala]

[Farside]

To put the real cost of this digiback into perspective - a good mechanic at the early years of his career will spend thousands on high quality tools which he expects to last him for years. Many people who 'gave up the tools' and hung on to their toolsets through their later years are stunned at the cost of replacements now - on a par with a decent Hassy setup, now and then