Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/12/20

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Subject: RE: [Leica] OT: Hasselblad History
From: "Austin Franklin" <darkroom@ix.netcom.com>
Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2001 15:13:29 -0500

> At 01:32 PM 12/20/01 -0500, Dan Post wrote:
> >Marc
> >Correct me if I stray off course, but I thought I read that Victor
> >Hasselblad was actually an ornithologist, and he specifically
> designed the
> >camera to photograph birds in the manner he wanted. I always thought that
> >the reason the camera was such a success, was because it was
> designed by a
> >USER and not by an engineer with some vague notion of what a photographer
> >needs (shades of the Edsel!).
>
> Sorry, Dan.  Victor Hasselblad had little input into the actual design of
> the camera bearing his name.  Read Nordin's COMPENDIUM for details.
>
> Marc

Marc,

I believe Dan is completely right.  What I read is that the entire concept
was his idea...as well as the original HK7, he designed and made him self,
with a couple of other helpers, which is the basis for the civilian
Hasselblad.  There is even a prototype that was at least designed, if not
made, by him, called a "Rossex", which, conceptually, is nearly identical to
the modern Hasselblad camera...  He did not "design" the internal mechanisms
of the civilian camera, but that doesn't mean he wasn't the chief
architect/engineer of it!

It isn't the internal "details" that make a camera "functional", but the
overall concept of how the entire camera/system works with the user that
makes a camera "functional".  I certainly would give VH credit for that.

There is a book called "Hasselblad, I am the Camera" you might want to read.

Regards,

Austin

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Replies: Reply from Marc James Small <msmall@roanoke.infi.net> (Re: [Leica] OT: Hasselblad History)