Get your Hasselblad Lunar now for only $6995!

June 11, 2013 Hasselblad, Sony 72

hasselblad_lunar_italian_malunarmah

Get your Hasselblad Lunar now for only $6995!

Yes my friends, just when we thought the new Leica X Vario was over priced we now have the opportunity to buy the Hasselblad Lunar on Amazon RIGHT NOW! There are eight of them in stock at only $6995 with the 18-55 Made in Thailand Kit Zoom. Yes, THAT Hasselblad Lunar, you know, the one that is really a Sony NEX-7 with a fancy covering? Yes, this IS indeed a Sony NEX-7. Same sensor, same menus, same control, same kit zoom. But instead of $costing $1100 it is $7000. 

The same soft-ish Sony old school 18-55 on the same innards of the NEX-7 with a HUGE outer casing and grip.

Haseelblad must be smoking something really strong to even think they would profit from such a thing.

I wonder how many they will sell within one year? Should be interesting. I have yet to see anyone shoot with one, even for a review. There have been 1-2 reviews but no one has shot with it, they just visually saw and held it and wrote about its cheap plastic feel. No shooting.

In any case, I would never recommend the Lunar but had to post about it being available in case any of you here are feeling a little bit crazy. It comes in Titanium/Brown, Bronze/Mahogony and Titanium/Black. It does appear one of the Bronze ones sold, as I believe there were 3 of each when listed, now there are two of the Bronze, so SOMEONE bought one 🙂

If you want this camera without the bling you can buy the NEX-7 with the same lens for $1098, take that extra $6k and go on a kick ass vacation to use it, but the people targeted by Hasselblad for the Lunar have enough cash to buy the Lunar and a trip around the world anyway. Then again, the Leica M 240 is $7000 and I own one and am not rich! But the M 240 is not an OM-D E-M5 with a Leica shell. It is unique and there is nothing like it. The Lunar is the nuttiest camera release of the past 20 years.

 

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72 Comments

  1. As predicted, the price dropped. They are selling for roughly the price of the NEX-7 today only at B&H photo.

  5. They’ll sell out. They are advertising these like mad on Bloomberg in NYC. …not all photographers buy cameras for taking photos. …don’t know what to tell the starving children.

  6. Steve, I can’t believe you’re devoting so much column space to criticising this (and the X Vario, I might add). Neither of them are designed with you in mind but that does not mean they are pointless. The target market for the Lunar, for example, are generally the kind of people for whom the opportunity to slip into casual conversation the fact that their camera is made of titanium, or is from the same company that provided cameras for the Apollo missions, is definitely worth $6000. Just like many M-system owners like to talk about Cartier-Bresson and creamy bokeh. It’s all valid.

    Each to his own, I say. Just because someone *could* make exactly the same image with an NEX-7 does not mean that they *should*.

  11. This is the most ridiculous and laughable thing EVER.

    I am a long term Hasselblad V user. It’s possibly, still, one of the best ever designs.

    I actually despise Hasselblad for this.

    RIP Hasselblad.

  12. I could not resist writing this review on Amazon:
    “Although this camera bares the Hasselblad name, it is not a Hasselblad. Is is a sony Nex-7. The lens that is shipped with it is made by Sony in Thailand and is exactly the same as the standard zoomlens that is shipped with the Sony Nex-7.

    You can buy that Sony Nex-7 for about 1/6th of the price of this “Hasselblad” Lunar and get exactly the same image quality. Why anyone would chose this Hasselblad over the Sony is therefore beyond me. And remember, the Sony Nex-7 has been available for about a year and half so this “Hasselblad” uses “old” technology.

    Looks are of course a personal taste but to be honest, this “Hasselblad” looks awful. They have added an outer layer on a Nex-7 body and ended up with something that just looks terrible.

    Hasselblad, the company that gaves us the classic 500 series camera, the 2000/200 series camera, that cooperated with Fuji to make the Xpan and the H series cameras is obviously no longer lead by people who want to make good cameras but by an investment company that only wants to make a profit. Companies like that have no interest at all in what they sell, as long as they make a profit and as soon as no or less profit is made, they sell that branch off.

    The Hasselblad Lunar or should it be called Luna(r)tic is a disgrace to Victor Hasselblad and to all other real Hasselblad cameras ever made. ”

    I wonder if Amazon publishes it.

  13. These private equity firms really thinks they are god and people must worship them. If they think they can revive the firm this way, what they are really doing is destroying this legendary brand

  14. Well, somebody is buying that thing. There were 8 available and now there are only 3 left. Obviously these are rich fools who only care about the Hassy name.

  16. I am wondering about two guys sitting together after taking pictures having this conversation

    Guy with NEX-7: Hey did you know that our camera is essentially the same?
    Guy with Lunar: Yes I did. But this is more professional

    LOL

  18. I love my Hasselblad 500cx, but this Lunar camera is a stain on the fine Hasselblad cameras used by NASA. Why did they have to bring “Lunar” into it? Perhaps it’s just similar in spirit to a Hermes Leica. All in all, I think it’s just an ugly camera.

  19. We are missing the point, we should be wondering if there is a non photographic cognoscente market that values the status these objects are deemed to confer. This is the norm in the watch world let me quote the ‘watch snob site’ on the Bell&Ross watch ” Bell & Ross is a prime example of a company that is selling nothing more than a cool-looking case and a dynamite marketing plan. Every single one of its watches use nothing more than a stock, off-the-shelf ETA automatic movement, the same movement you can buy yourself for around $300. Yet, the price of the average Bell & Ross hovers around $4,500.”
    I can’t see much philosophical difference between a Bell&Ross watch and a ‘Vario Lunar’. There are many pricey watches doing just fine off the back of an ETA movement. They don’t keep time better than a digital Timex. A Bentley is a bling Audi, I exaggerate a bit but not a lot, and what about Vertue mobile phones , that boast of the materials used in their case but their innards are the same electronics found in most mobiles and they certainly don’ have the functionality of a comparably cheap Iphone but do confer some form of status for those that desire it. These are $4500 phones, and as Wiki says they are popular in Russia, Asia , and the Middle East.
    Now for the life of me I don’t understand buying a VarioLunar as I regard myself as photographic cognoscente (we all live in illusion) , But I have bought watches that make no sense, in one of those moments where you loose all reason, a magpie moment, and are just drooling and muttering ‘mmmm shiny’ over and over again and your credit card seems to leave your wallet through its own volition, and a while later you wonder why, and are contemplating the 12 step programme on needles thing addiction. We have all been there , we have all bought things cause we have been seduced by artefacts as tattoos and not for their use. You may say yes but never to the tune of $X thousand , but that is just a relative thing. I plead guilty to owning a Bell and Ross Watch but mmmmmm its so shiny, in a matte black ,- I can give you the manliness that you lack- sort of a way.
    That said I would take a bet that both the Vario and Lunar will not be the success that Leciablad want, but if I am wrong as Oligarchs the world over rush to the Leica Vario equivalent of a Tupperware party then hooray, it might even help Leica be more viable……….That siad Leica have always supplemented ‘proper’ cameras with gewgaws, i.e the 1929 Luxus Leica,…. plus ca change.

    • Bell&Ross analogy is indeed interesting..But I choose Piaget Altiplano Skeleton over Bell&Ross anytime Adam

      Anyway, I agree with you that everything is relative. That is truly understandable and yet crazy concept.
      If you have money, go for it. If you don’t, find something else. But knowing this thing like Bentley is the Bling Audi, Bell&Ross just a bling swiss movement(i don’t know). it’s just sad.

      Marketing like this is just pure sadness.
      I’m sure it’ll work just fine on the olden days but now people read through internet. They’re learning constantly..They discovered things.

      Personally I feel sad to know that there is someone out there buying this product yet I know that there is a camera being sold out there that exactly the same with less price. It’s sad not because they buy the product but because the way they’re being drawn to buy the product.

      But then again, it’s all about the money

      Kind regards Adam

      And Thanks Steve

  20. Check out the “Special Offers” tab below the price of the Lunar on Amazon. If you buy the camera for $6995, you can get the Velsey Deluxe Gadget Bag for only $14.95! That’s a $10 savings over the regular Amazon price. But hurry…it’s only while supplies last.

  21. Ah, the marketing men at Leica had a cunning plan…lets release the X Vario just before the Hasselblad Lunar, and presto! It doesn’t look so pricy after all!!!

  23. “Only 3 left in stock.”

    I can’t believe that there are at least 5 people who are willing to pay for this. Ridiculous.

    • Three of that style. Remember, there’s three different styles Steve is talking about, and he was noting the total of all varieties. None of have sold since last night.

  24. Is the grip made out of pressure treated lumber?… i shoot in the elements and don’t like the way thompsons water seal feels on my fingers after a day of shooting.

  28. Lunatic indeed! Probably they just develop this model based on the voices in their head!

  29. I am really starting to wonder if ‘Blad and Leica had a “gentlemans bet” on who could make the highest over-priced camera built with the least effort and get the most sales.

  31. “But the M 240 is not an OM-D E-M5 with a Leica shell.”
    Having just bought an OM-D, I feel deeply offended by this statement…
    😉

  32. I hope I never find one in my corn flake packet as a give away toy. I’d chuck it in the bin.

  33. Hi Steve
    Smoking something indeed. It must be one of those luxury bling things that you buy like a solid gold pen. It’s still a pen but the casing is really a piece of jewellery. A Sony NEX just for show rather than take pictures.
    I agree with all the comments made earlier. Bring back the Hasselblad V system please or a modern version of the X-pan. Can’t see where the $7K went given that the X Pan and the V System were more complex and cost less than the bling thing.

  34. Spending USD7000,- for a Leica M240 and saying that it is unique and that there is nothing like it is also a pretty bold statement. Real photography is not about the Tool, it is about the Eye. People tend to identify themselves more with Tools (status) then with the outcome (average).

  35. You’d have thought they would have cleaned the lens hood before taking a product shot of their $7000 masterpiece. 😀

    • That’s the new carbon-look plastic. It is nice right? All the budget-import tuner cars have that stuff all over.

  39. Is it just coincidence that two cameras which have been heavily ridiculed – the Leica X Vario and this ubershambles – became available within hours of each other?

    Did the Leica people say, “If we put the X Vario out there on the day the totally absurd Hasselblad Lunarturd goes on sale, then maybe our effort won’t seem so feeble.”

  41. I actually like the idea of high end re-housing on existing bodies and rebadging is nothing new, Hassy did this with the H1 and Xpan & some of the Leica/Pannys are cool.

    The price point and styling on this does seem to be like something from the moon…

    It’s not going to sell on Amazon, it may sell in expensive high end department stores: Harrods, Selfridges, Galeries Lafayette, etc…

  42. While Fuji is announcing groundbreaking technology in sensor design, with its organic sensor, these guys and Leica are choosing to put out uninspiring crap like this. What a joke!

  43. The Lunar, while being insanely overpriced and gaudy almost beyond belief, can mount a few truly excellent, and very fast, Zeiss lenses. The Leica X Vario on the other hand…

    Choose your poison.

  45. ok I don’t want to ever hear how ugly the Pentax k-01 is ever again..this one takes the cake even if it IS a Hasseblad….ick!

    • Remember when Pentax launched the K-01 and everybody laughed? Pentax came straight out to defend it and declare it was a design masterpiece. Nobody bought it and it was quietly dropped.

      Some companies might think they know what people want and will buy but as Pentax proved maybe it is just wiser to actually ask them in the first place rather than spend millions on a dead duck nobody wants and will ever love.

      Hassy and Leica, are you listening??? Obviously not.

      • Maybe if they cut the price like Pentax did, people will be willing to fork out $….but then again…they might as well just buy an NEX 7 haha.

        • They’re obviously not listening.

          I want to hear someone that choose to spend this money over the Leica M 240
          I bet he’s going to say
          “Naahh,,Leica is too mainstream..I chose Lunar because it’s different”

          LOL

  46. You can buy a car load of used Hassi film cameras, maybe a used film new type, maybe even a digital. Or any thing else!

  47. This reminds me of Hans Landa’s ridiculous wooden pipe in the opening scene of Inglourious Basterds.

  48. I can’t imagine Hasselblad making more money on the Lunar then the V system which they just discontinued. Who on earth would actually buy this!!? Seems like an incredibly bad business decision if you ask me.

    So sad to see a company once totally synonymous with quality to be reduced to this.

  49. Steve! You do not get it, the camera comes with a free sandisk card, now how cool is that!

  50. They should have kept the V-system and left this thing on the drawing board (or bar napkin, seeing as being badly drunk is the only explanation for why they thought this was a good idea).

  51. “Haseelblad must be smoking something really strong” – cracked me up..got people in the office thinking I am smoking something too…

    • … imagine Victor Hasselblad smoking really strong grass with his Hasselblad-cube in his left hand 😉

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