When I started out in the 1970s as assistant of a photographer who specialized in advertising the first thing I learned about Hasselblads was that they always needed a nickle. Despite the fact that the cameras were very expensive one needed a nickel (as a screw driver) to unlock the central shutter when a lens was not removed properly. I believe the shutter had to be released before the lens was removed or the other way around. I forgot. Back then I used to forget that too, especially around deadline when stress was taking its toll.
Still I was in love with the Hasselblad from the start. I looked at it as a studio camera, because it was a piece of equipment that was a bit clumsy to use outdoors if one compared it to the Rolleflex 6×6. Of course, this was ages ago. I was not aiming to become an advertising photographer so the camera was way over my budget. Instead I used to dream about the Hasselblad 500EL that was left on the moon by astronaut Neil Armstrong to save weight for the return to earth.
It took me more than 25 years to actually buy a second hand Hasselblad and as a portrait photographer I loved working with it on a tripod, because of the way the standard viewfinder would give me the opportunity to easily look up while photographing whereas most other cameras would partially hide my face and blocked the contact with the person being portrayed.
When I switched to digital photography in 2001 the Hasselblad became a gadget, a souvenir. Although there were plenty back-ends available to turn the Hasselblad into a mean digital machine, the costs were simply too high. If the Hasselblad would have been an all purpose camera I would have certainly considered the digital options.
Soon a whole new range of range of Hasselblads was released and again the cost of these cameras was simply too high to even consider buying one.
At Hasselblad they were sensitive to this issue, because they lost quite a few customers, so at the last Photokina they promised the world that they would produce a camera that would be within reach of “every” photographer.
Now that a cheaper Hasselblad is going to be released February 10th, I see a lot of complaints on the web about the price estimated at 11,995 EUR. Sure, it is a lot of money, but if you compare it to top range Canons it is really not that bad. Whether this new camera will be a success for Hasselblad will depend on the usability of the camera in situations where most professional DSLRs dominate the market.