Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/12/20
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]> 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 - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html