hartblei

Tarragona Foodphoto Festival 2011

2011-10-02T02:06:00.000-07:00

This is my last day here in Tarragona- will leave the Hotel very soon and heading to the airport.
I have to say Thank you to Klaus Bothe from Isarfoto for "dragging" me here, it was well worth it. I have met plenty of interesting people, saw some really amzing images of colleagues doing this business and got an impression of how nice it could be to live in a southern country like Spain. The Sea was just in front of the exhibition hall here in Tarragona, the harbour is obviously getting a pile of money from Quatar who plan to do a major amusement center here in Tarragona harbour.

The concept seems to go very well, sourrounded by delicious restaurants, ancient buildings and spanish hospitality.

I liked being here and I hope I could contribute a tiny little bit to this festival.

Greetings from Tarragona

Stefan Steib

See the writings on the wall

2011-09-10T13:52:00.000-07:00

Some people may have already mentioned I am radically supporting new concepts for cameras and also demanding these changes to happen ASAP - because the market will tell what the truth is- now this is done and proved by someone else - here is a link to Bloomberg.com

Canon Hanging on to Mirrors Means Opportunity for Sony, Panasonic Cameras -
Canon Inc. and Nikon Corp., the world’s two biggest makers of high-end cameras, may be missing out on the industry’s biggest technology shift since film rolls became obsolete.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-07/canon-clinging-to-mirrors-means-opportunity-for-sony-cameras.html

Now even the rumour of a Nikon Mirrorless camera helps the Nikon Stock to climb:

http://www.dpreview.com/news/1109/11090915nikonmirrorlessrumor_sharerise.asp

see also here:

http://www.mirrorlessrumors.com/

and here:

http://www.canonrumors.com/

I think the fog is already lifting, companies like Ricoh are also showing the way with their modular concept.

http://www.dpreview.com/news/1108/11080510ricohmmountpreview.asp

OK- enough links.

Greetings from Munich

Stefan

iPhone showing the way for future modular Cameras

2011-08-31T11:34:00.000-07:00

I happened to get my iPhone 4 about a year ago now, since then it has changed my communication habits quite a lot. I have centralized my several addressbooks, got all the apps to have a complete working office in my pocket, fax, scanner, database, VOIP, Skype and much more.
But what really amazes me most, is the camera - and - it´s recognition around peripheral makers. During the last days there were 2 really impressive launches of people whom you probably would not expect to do iPhone gadgets. first comes from the inventor of the Steadicam - Garrett Brown - a shrunk down mini steadicam to stabilize the iPhone.
See e.g. here:
http://www.digitalsecrets.net/secrets/SmootheeReview.html
and here
http://vimeo.com/17824739

And as if the other industry part - the audio people - have a lot of fun with their iPhones as well, Fostex , a company well known to the audiophiles has launched a microphone module now that enables the iPhone to catch high quality stereo sound, use it for interviews or other tasks that were previously impossible with the built in Microphone.

http://www.fostexinternational.com/docs/products/AR-4i.shtml

Why am I talking about iPhones ? Well this shows us the way to future modular cameras, I wish Hasselblad and PhaseOne/Leaf would take a close look to this. Innovation is not about more and more megapixels. It is about new concepts of cameras with usability, workflow, modularity and electronic interfaces to get this camera of the future to be a real communication device. Imagine an IQ180 with a dock for an iPhone 5, which enables (maybe) LTE and Wifi data transfer, gets firmware or correction files for attached lenses directly to your camera or checks in your or your Imageproviders database if you may need this for stockphoto or a possible customer who searches for this.

Putting Camera technology into the 21st century Data cloud, finally leaving the analogue camera where it belongs, in a museum. Lets face it, a camera which is still able to use film will not work for future concepts. The roots must be cut to achieve a better digital image and most of all an integration into future concepts of connected photography usage.

Some people don´t want to hear this, they think this idea will go away, if they just close their ears long enough. It will not. The proof is this little iPhone.

and- maybe if you close your ears too long nobody will speak to you again about Prophotography it will just happen elsewhere and with other gear, see RED´s new modular concepts or Arri Alexa M or cameras like Sony´s new Nex 7.

Hcam will follow these ideas, we are working on Modular versions, open the next B2 and then B3 versions to the Internet, Wlan and remote control. I hope we have company from the existing Pro camp. Lets see.

Interesting times we live in.

greetings from Munich
Stefan Steib

Theft of Hartblei Lenskit

2011-08-10T16:14:00.000-07:00

Today we announce something less amusing:
One of our dealers- Photo Universal in Fellbach was victim to a burglary. The Thieves robbed plenty of stuff, Leaf backs, Hasselblad Equipment and some more, also a complete Hartblei Protoype Lens set with 3x matching numbers #32. This contains 40mm, 80mm and 120mm TS lenses in a Pelicase 1500. Whoever gets an offer to buy this - these are stolen items, please contact the police or Mr. Seibold from Universal either by phone +49 711 957 60-0 or by email f.seibold@photouniversal.de
I also think that Photo Universal will reward hints which lead to solve the theft and get hold of the thieves.

TIA and Greetings from Munich

Stefan Steib HCam.de

2 heads - one thought

2011-07-27T08:32:00.000-07:00

Do you know this kind of dejavue if someone does something exactly like you have thought doing it ? This happened to me last week when I first saw the new proPsolution TSE adapter for the Canon TSE 17+24mm made by Matthias von der Ahé-of PPL Karlsruhe.
I was thinking of this for a long time, but as it is, there are priorities and we are a small company, so every project consumes a lot of my time. I also saw the version that Zörkendorfer has done some time ago, but this somehow did not make me happy.
The function of tilt on these superwideangles (especially if used on the HCam-B1) is not a priority, usability of the shift needs all possible thought and finally - PPL did this.
Concentration to the minimum and at best effort, very much zen, I like this a lot.
So I called Matthias von der Ahé immediately and we spoke very intensly and the more I heard I was sure I would love to see the adapter. The next day I had this on my desk and what shall I say,this is a mechanical juwel, looks like a big fork, rock solid and made with tightest tolerances. This is the art in doing these things, make it look harmless but put everything inside that you know, like a japanese Katana sword.
I tried this on the weekend and it works perfectly, for the HCam we will do a 7cm longer special version, which will be available exclusively by HCam, this will enable to rotate the HCam with battery from Landscape to Portrait, very cute, same as with our 40mm Hartblei. But with a MUCH larger image angle for both 17mm and 24mm Canon TSE´s.

In short, we have now dealership of this product, there is a new webpage on our site and I have also translated this to English and posted this to the world.
In Russian: Ochin Priadna - very pleased to find such a fine item to complement our stuff. Thank you !
I also think it slowly shows how our concept grows also in the heads of several other people, smart new retrofocus wideangles even for large formats, small+large chips in one concept, electronic aids by stitching and usage of large volume technology. It works !

Optimistically looking into the future
Stefan Steib - hcam.de

HCam-B1 test images on GetDPI

2011-07-10T08:11:00.000-07:00

Last thursday I got visited by Christopher Hauser, a young and talented Photographer from Munich who brought his Phase One IQ180 with 80 Mpix, so we could put this on my HCam-B1 and try some architecture. The weather was perfect, I had already spotted an interesting site close by, so after a short ride with Christopher´s G-Mercedes (nice car BTW) we arrived at the O2 building (highest in Munich) and the close office buildings which we wanted to shoot.
We did 2 setups from 2 different angles, with both 17 and 24mm canon TS lenses.
After about an hour we had done what we wanted to see , including a test whiteshot (unneccessary as Christopher found out) and several variations with different shift amounts and exposures, a well as tries with some additional tilt which with the 17mm is mostly luxury it seems (at least at near infinity).

You can find the thread, more data and images here:

http://forum.getdpi.com/forum/showthread.php?t=28197

In short I like that IQ180 a lot - only problem is the price tag. Well let´s see
how many cameras we can sell - maybe there is a big sock on christmas eve for little Stefan.....;-)

Greetings from Munich

Stefan

Clarifications about the status of Hartblei

2011-06-30T14:43:00.000-07:00

This is a copy of a letter I wrote in the getdpi forum first and also posted this to the pentax forum today. Obviously there is a wide confusion about the status of Hartblei which I hope to solve with this:

"Hello from Munich

Just to shed some light on this unfortunate mixup (I know - this is why we are rebranding the professional part "hartblei.de" to HCam, I hope we will have this done soon) you can already reach hartblei.de on hcam.de also.

hartblei.kiev.ua is the original website of Hartblei Kiev, run by my Ukrainian business partner Sergeji Naumenko and his son Vitalyi (privjet Vitalyi), they build the superrotators, they always have built it and they will build it. The 45mm TS is a very good lens no matter what some tell about it and can be bought exclusively new as some other lenses with russian glass on their website plus you can reach them on Ebay :
http://shop.ebay.de/tilt-shift/m.htm...id=p4340.l2562 or here
http://stores.ebay.de/vk-no-store/Ca...=p4634.c0.m322
Hartblei Kiev also builds the Zeiss versions, but these are sold exclusively through my website :

hartblei.de now to be hcam.de. We also build the HCam versions (in Italy) and now the HCam Mamiya RB/RZ-645 adapter (in Hamburg).

now hartblei.com is the former website of hartblei, but unfortunately hold hostage by a former business partner Mr. Pissarenko, hosted in Slowakia and not having any Hartblei products at all. What they try to sell is scam, old Kiev bodies, arsenal stuff and cheap adapters, stay away ! same applies to the so called Hartblei Macro-Tilt and Hartblei shift adapters: they are marketed by some people around ARAX and former Hartblei dealer Michael Fourman , now to be found on several addresses on ebay. Hartblei has stopped any business with them, but they use the name anyway, but unfortunately it gets even more complicated, there are some dealers on ebay who also try to sell the lenses, all this makes the situation a real mess.

Hcam will sell the Hartblei Zeiss versions, but the HCam site, brand and the company will be separate from this chaos, this needs to be made very clear.
I always write in my own name and as such show exactly who is behind our products. anybody can email me, call me, skype me or get in contact by linkedin or facebook. I think this is essential.

Hcam does German/EU standards guarantees, support and consulting for
large companies setups, pro photographers and museums and libraries.
I have also specialised in digitalisation of cultural heritage/books and paintings, I am also an Apple certified trainer for Aperture and working with most of the largest brands in the business.

Hope this helps

Stefan Steib - HCam.de"

Nice sharpness - rework your DSLR !

2011-05-19T01:15:00.000-07:00

I have been quite lazy (busy?) the last year, so my blog was kind of left out, but today I want to talk about something which is a real improvement to your DSLR.
A year ago I ran into the German company Makkario:

http://www.optik-makario.de/

They will rebuild your Canon, Nikon or Sony DSLR and remove the anti aliasing filter.
This will actually give you about 25-30 % more resolution especially with our high end lenses which do resolve this extra by design.

I am using this now with growing fun, it is probably the best 500 € laid down for a Photo equipment since a long time. No change in usage needed,everything working (even the sensor cleaning !) - highly recommended !

I also had my UV and IR Cut Filter removed from the 5DMK2 I´m using and this is opening a whole new world of photography to everybody. there are nearly no drawbacks (you have to use a seperate Bluegreen Filter in front of your lenses when you want normal color)

So take a look at their website, you will be very pleased.

Greetings from Munich

Stefan

Hartblei Cam on Youtube

2010-03-10T05:27:00.000-08:00

Well after my visit to Birmingham show "Focus on Imaging" there is now a short video on youtube - made by Photowalktrough.com John Arnold.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icXwUCopLAo

We had fun on the booth, so see our "FrankenCam"in action.

BTW a term that arose recently in discussions what the Hartblei Cam is:

Macro Four Thirds.........;-)

actually describing it pretty well if you think about it.

Final version launch next days, new display, new flyer see more soon.

Greetings from Munich
Stefan

Heureka - a CAM is born

2009-09-14T12:47:00.000-07:00

After some months of silence, here I raise my voice again. Not because I did not have to say anything, but because I was so darn busy.
If you take a look at our new website, you will easily see what happened.
Hartblei has been pregnant and now given birth to something totally new, a medium format camera with a 35mm Nikon or Canon mount for the lenses.
I mean this sounds pretty crazy right ?

But after taking a close look to the fact that most backs use chipsizes well below 40x50mm it makes perfectly sense.

And- what was the dream of all Architecture photographers for some years?
Wider wideangles for MF ! If you use a Rodenstock 23mm that´s about as wide as you can get, but is this enough ? I would say NO !
Now we have a large scale manufacturer like Canon who has born a small miracle - a 17mm TS lens which seems to be a real gem. sharp (nearly)distortion free and "only" 2500 € which I believe is a bargain for this lens. Now what can we do with this and a camera which uses an EF mount and a Medium format back up to 60 MP ?
Yummy ! To make this even better, we have cooperated with Nurizon and their new Acolens software V2 Supershift will support our Camera. tata !

I think this will wake up some people in the industry, we will see what the big boys will do. At the moment I sit here with a big grin in my face and send you

Greetings from Munich

Stefan Steib

Final Versions Zeiss approved

2009-03-26T02:20:00.000-07:00

After 3 years of hard work I can proudly announce that we have met the needs of our partner Carl Zeiss, we offer great MTF values in all tolerances now (down to 5% symmetrie which is superb !) even with our complex TS mechanics .
The 40mm delivers 200 LP/mm which is outstanding, probably one of very few lenses on the Photomarket which can reach this.

More reason to be proud: we made it to the top news on DPReview:
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0903/09032403hartbleizeiss.asp
There will be an in detail test of our 120mm soon.

And DigLloyd.com the specialist for highend lensreviews with an indepth knowhow about Zeiss lenses will also get a test kit from us.

We have new partners now for Sales : there is Fotograf Dunyasi in Istanbul to whom I send a warm welcome, they are a large and competent supplier in Turkey, so thanks to Mr. Celtikci who was initiating this.

We are also close to get a new Japanese/Hongkong/China and USA distribution which is very good news more to this later.

And then we have available again our Color and Sharpnesstargets which are a real help for using your camera best at repro or all precise color work.

We will not stop here. There is the wideangle(28mm) we are working on and even a longer lens(180mm Sonnar) is one of my personal favourites. If you want to vote for this and leave a comment.I know this lens is legendary and with good reason.

So tell us what you think and drop a note here or at s.steib@hartblei.de.

Greetings from Munich
Stefan

Canon 5D Mark 2 or Video has reached our TS lenses

2009-01-17T13:52:00.000-08:00

Today I unwrapped my new 5DII with a nice BG-E6 Grip and extra (expensive) batteries. After some tests (I already had a 5DII at Dinkels Presentation last year for a day) I quickly dug into the video stuff and now I have a problem. I think I either have to learn FinalcutPro or Premiere, because this output is so amazing, I think it will not leave me just store the files on my disks, now I want MORE ! And as you certainly can imagine the Hartblei lenses run into a new height of imaging quality here. Now you can literally see the smoothness of the real detail MOVING......... bosche moi it´s so nice.
I was a photography guy for the last 35 years. Well now it´s time to learn something new ! If I interpolate the time I have spent with photography to taking films now I´m a little afraid.... but nicely and Excited and I cannot wait to go on and do it.

There are some crazy guys in the US who do these Pro/film adaptions for the Canon 5D bodies, there is a lot of videoequipment (steadicam stuff and car mounts, smooth moving tripod videohead and a good mike I will need). So the camera is actually only the starter, Oh my and I need another bit of space in my appartment where to put this all....

So Life is interesting here, we are expanding our dealership, I welcome Volker Braun, Ex Sinar doing our lenses in Northern Germany now, we are in Contact with some more countries now and hopefully we will also settle down in the US of A soon.

Greetings to the new president and all my best wishes, he has a huge lot of work to do and I hope Amerika will solve it all.

greetings from Munich
Stefan

New products out

2008-12-15T15:50:00.000-08:00

Huuh, what a lot of work this was ! Now shortly before Christmas we have some rest and take a look back to this year. We were establishing our relationship to Phase One and I have to say it´s a really good and productive "One". Thank you Espen for your patience with us, we have now delivered the final product and it can be shipped away to Phase customers, we did all this in 8 months from our first meetings until the finished product. We changed nearly anything from the first prototype to now and I think we can be proud on the product - so also thank you Sergeji and your crew in Kiev.
We had a lot of difficulties to solve from the exchange rate crashing down on the Grivna up to Banking problems with Ukraines suffering economy.
But nobody should underestimate the will and improvisation that EX-GUS People are capable of. I think we could all learn a lot here in cosy old western world.
I believe the Ukrainian Economy will come back and be stronger than ever,they still have growth, lets wait where _we_ go next year here in Euro land or US or Japan.
Then we also managed to prerelease our new improved 35mm Models, to the dealers and already tested by some key users, getting nice results and a lot of feedback.
And now we officially launch them to the website and the endusers.
I will do some finetuning to the german and other language sites the next days, so please don´t wonder if there´s content appearing and dissappearing. Tomorrow hopefully i will redo the flyer in german and english, if anybody finds a mistake on the website you´r welcome to send me an email,slowly I´m getting blind on too much detail.
It´s time for a break now.

Yup- a little tired Stefan sends you greetings from Munich
I hope you all have time now to lean back and see wht this year was all about for you, for your families and friends.

Merry Christmas and a happy new Year

Stefan

Full Format is coming heavily!

2008-12-02T14:57:00.000-08:00

As I write this the new Nikon D3x has appeared. See here http://nikon.de/product/de_DE/products/broad/1726/overview.html. When we were starting the Hartblei Superrotator project over 3 years ago, I knew this would happen. The consequence was logical, the advantages too good to not go there. We have now 4 Over 20MP Bodies available from Canon,Nikon and Sony. We do lenses for all of these mounts and they work very well , especially with high resolution, where many lenses show they simply fail to resolve what these cameras can do.

I have today uploaded some samples of pics I did recently, there is a panorama and a cutout here http://www.flickr.com/photos/hartblei , I will do some more stuff with the 5D II as soon as I get mine (hopefully soon!) as well as with the new Nikons and the Sony.We are working right now with some pretty good and knowledgeable dealers, in this connection I want to welcome Andreas Tischer from Digitalstore Vienna http://www.knips.com who will also sell our lenses in Austria.

I have been on the Photoadventure in Vienna a week ago and did like the concept of the fair pretty much, combining outdoor photography and travel with trendsports.
Cool concept and nice people visiting to the booth, learned some new austrian words
(bad lens synonym: "Gösser-lens" - Explanation for the non austrians- Gösser is the biggest brewery in Austria...;-) whereas this was not attached to our lenses but after a look to my samples the customer declared compared to this most others are GL´s.......

Good as always: Austrian cooking, I´m lucky I do not live there, I´d gain 20 kilos in a month I bet.....Vienna what a city.

So this is maybe a perspective, maybe one day I´ll move there, but then I have to diet ;-)

Greetings from Munich

Stefan

A long summer break...;-)

2008-11-17T14:12:00.000-08:00

Welcome back to my blog, which was kindof deserted for some time.Shere lack of resources I´d say and being flooded by work.
Actually I just returned from the Canon Roadshow 2008 running through 8 german cities.
We are launching new products right now- wait a little for the website to catch up (see sentence Uno por favor...;-).
We also launched a new 45mm medium format TS Superrotator for the Phase One sales channel exclusively. There will be more to come from that cooperation, we are now delivering the announced lenses, kinda hercules work for such a small company.

But some thought to existing readers. Hartblei is slowly getting into the knowledge of photographers. They are realizing that their new full format chips will not get them anywhere if there is no decent glass delivering detail.

We are going a long way for that purpose, making no compromise not for quality nor for economy, yes the prices are "substantially" but I think (and a growing number of happy users does the same) there can only be ONE "the best possible Quality".
Maybe we are chasing an ever moving target here, but we get closer.

I also wish we could do this kind of quality for a budget and deliver this to thousends and thousends of Photograpers making them happy. But right now we can´t.

My apologies to them, for the rest who decide to buy us anyhow:

Thank you for your trust and your pictures you take with our lenses.
This is the best reward for us !

Balschoi spassiba

Stefan

PCP Dealers and Tryouts

2008-04-24T15:08:00.000-07:00

After the PCP Tour is over now, my resumee is absolutely positive. We have now got good contact to all the PCP Group Members, won most of them as our dealers and thus enable potential customers to take a look at our lenses and try them out.
This will tell more than words and all demo material made by us, the customers can directly decide if they like it or not, for their kind of work and their needs.

On the tour we got direct contact to many companies who are now aware we are doing our thing, yes we even got an invitation to join the Canon roadshow for autumn 2008.
The cooperation with Apple was a big success, my demos on Aperture and the MacPro with a 30" cinema display were giving many people an idea of what these lenses can do if you connect them to the right workflow.
This was combined with a real content demo tethered shooting with our lenses and immediate manipulation and correction of the resulting files with Aperture, blazingly fast and uncomplicated.

I want to thank all the PCP Members for these shows, their work and engagement and preparation. Special thanks to Melanie Grage from Probis Hamburg who was looking after all and everything at the same time.

There were a lot of real Pro´s attending for the shows, I answered many questions and met some of our new customers, who sometimes took over the demo and enthusiastically told their colleagues about their experiences with their new lenses (Frankfurt...;-)

Again : because I want to say this is only possible with the good work my partner Sergeji is doing in Ukraine - ochin priadna - very much pleased - and balschoi spassiba - many,many thanks. I think we are on the right way !

Greetings from Munich

Stefan

360 degr. look to Mumbai fair and PCP first impressions

2008-04-02T14:17:00.000-07:00

Thanks again Vivek Dev Burman - he has sent me a little present, a 360 degr. panorama of our booth on Mumbai Photofair 2008. you can take a look here : http://www.hartblei.eu/photos/hartblei_3c1.mov
By the way my Girlfriend was pleased Vivek, no not what you think about, for the Indian dress.....;-)))

I´m writing this in Hamburg evening after the first PCP event in a nice location called "Edelfettwerk" which is a club, event center and disco, kind of stylish, just right for Photographers. Hamburg was rainy outside but inside the People were curious and asking a lot of questions, about our lenses and about aperture. I have a nice 30" Cinema display to showcase my pics with a superfast MacPro with 6 Gigs and quadcores - whew... Again people look to the Hartblei demo pics and are blown away. The new 2.1 Aperture does it´s own to support this, actually I think this is the best demo software available for Photographers to impress a customer.

Tomorrow I will go to Berlin and get close to were the friday show will be. I can walk to there , a little comfort after all this travelling. But one thing about the hotel booking engine - why oh why do they also start to change prices now if you book longer which actually should be cheaper for the Hotel ? This kind of pricing is a result of analysis of the customer who is driven as far as possible and squeezing every single euro out of them, similar to what the gas stations do now , rotating the prices sometimes several changes a day, or flight companies who have minutewise changes for their booking machines on the internet, to prevent customers to get a clear sight on price comparison. My comment: may be this gets you some extra buck for the moment, but this makes me angry and I´ll look elsewhere at the next chance I can, no happinesss factor for the customer, my comment for Hotel.de and Ibishotels : I will not book this again if I have the chance to change !

Greetings from Hamburg

Stefan

Mumbai-India Photofair 2008 + PCP TOUR 2008

2008-03-23T17:50:00.000-07:00

It has taken some days for me to settle with all these new impressions. I have seen a country in movement, enthusiasm for photography like 30 years ago in germany on my first photokinas. There are real Pro´s in India and they seem to like our lenses. Most of all they listened very carefully on the cost savings you could expect when using hartblei Lenses compared to a viewcamera/Medium format back setup. For the show I had done a new poster which made a lot of people look closer, shot with a 5D and the 120mm makro, a full Din A1 with real nice sharpness and depth of field.
I had the most warm welcome from Jaswant Vaghela and his Partner Saikat Adhikari, thank you both for your hospitality, this was more than business I think I found some friends there. And special greetings go to Kolkata Photographer and 360 degree specialist Vivek Dev Burman (http://kolkata.360cities.net/) . Thanks for all the cold beers and your company I really enjoyed these days in Bombay. There are schools like the Shari Academy, who do a nice work and give birth to a new generation of Indian Photographers. I met so many interesting people, I´m sorry if I do not list all of them here.
Ochin Priadna India - this will not be my last visit - I promise.

PCP Tour 2008 is a big thing in Germany. Many of the largest and most competent Pro Photo dealers arrange for a 7 largest city tour through germany, showcasing the latest and greatest of actual Phototechnology. Hartblei has joined the tour by a cooperation with Apple Germany I will demo our lenses on the newest Apple equipment with Aperture 2.0 - I happen to be Apple ADP for Aperture, so this was an easy match after the idea rose to join our two efforts. I will do the demos in close cooperation with Apple who made it possible for us to get into the show on a very late date with full appearance in advertising and coverage. Thanks to Jeso Olgar and Rebecca Strauss from Apple Germany for this. from 2nd to 17th of April we will tour all over Germany and everybody who wants to see what a Macbook Pro , aperture 2.0 and a Hartblei-Zeiss Superrotator are able to produce is invited to take a look and visit us there.
more infos´s here: http://www.probis.de/web/pcp-online/news/tour2008.html

To morrow I will go to Kiev again for a week, our new office has to be equipped, telephone, fax, internet and a serviceline to be set up. thanks for showing in and reading my blog

See ya folks

Stefan

Freelens, India and Aperture 2.0

2008-02-14T13:49:00.000-08:00

Yesterday evening I was attending a meeting of german photographers association Freelens in Munich. Besides meeting some interesting guys who told a lot of stories on todays job of a photographer, I had the chance to showcase my lenses and get some reactions. Most were I´d say very positive, only the price of our products is making the people stop buying them immediately. Well - that´s were our dealers come in. You can now rent our lenses at several places in Germany, Austria and Switzerland (more to come soon). So it´s fairly easy to find out if it´s worth owning them or if you only need them once in a while.
Besides that pro talk, it was a nice evening and we discussed a lot of things, about motocycles (did I mention I ride an old BMW ? ;-)))) and funny stories which happen in this crazy job that we all love.
For Photographers interested www.freelens.com

Tuesday afternoon 4.00pm was an important date for Aperture users worldwide. Version 2 popped up on Apples website (store first....:-))) and after some quirks with sent out 1.5 activation numbers.... I finally managed to run the new prog.
Huuh - There must be pain now in Kopenhagen, Göteborg, Rochester and Jena. Aperture 2 features the coolest built in tethered shooting mode available for any usual DSLRs. It´s fast, it delivers full control on your camera- the features do match a leaf-capture, capture one or sinar software,if not surpass them (database wise) and the package goes for 199 €......... autsch/gotcha.

An announcement on new Hartblei activities: we will attend the Mumbai 2008 Photofair 13-16.02.08 in India which is the largest Indian show for this fast develloping market. So anybody in asia interested to see us - come there to the booth of Even systems http://www.evensystems.in , all info requests about the show and hartblei in India send to Jaswant Vaghela jaswantvaghela@evensystems.in Telefon/Phone +91 22 67103383 Mobile +919867181921.

Greetings from Munich
Stefan

PMA and confidence for the USA

2008-01-26T05:32:00.000-08:00

Well - in my last blog I was quite shocked about the devellopment in the USA regarding the subprime crisis. In the meantime there are also banks concerned about this with losses of billions and billions.

I think this is a chance. We need to remember that value will not appear from out of nowhere, it´s always a result of hard work and spirit. I think there are a lot of photographers in the USA who are among the best in the world, they are working hard and they are demanding to get the best tools they can get to do their daily jobs.

As we think this absolutely right, Hartblei will showcase their lenses on the PMA 2008 in Las Vegas from 31.01. until 02.02.2008. Visit us on the Carl Zeiss Stand in the German Pavillion, LVCC Level 2 , Section 16/S2.

There will be Richard Schleuning from Zeiss USA who will show you the lenses,I say thanks for this and that Zeiss made this possible in such a short time.
I know that they will do a good job and Zeiss has taken a new way of direct customer contact with their own sales channel which I think will be of great value for them.
Stick to your customers wishes and listen, listen a lot......;-)

Hopefully you will like what you see there, if there are any questions left, please contact me by email s.steib@hartblei.eu

Thanks for reading this
and greetings from Munich

Stefan

Dollar low and exchange rates

2008-01-11T10:15:00.000-08:00

Well, I hope you are not personally concerned of the actual subprime US crisis. Today American Express has reported 300 mil $ losses, 2 swiss banks have been hit recently and also today Rolls Royce states, they will lay off workers, because the actual low dollar. We had this before with Airbus industries and german car makers, stating they either need to lay off personal or switch production to happen more in the US.

I understand that large multinational companies have other intentions, also competition and price wars. But to go bankrupt just to deliver to that US market ?

Now also my Ukrainian partners have finally changed their money transfers from $ to €.
We produce and buy parts in Kiev/Ukraine and Munich/Germany. Hartblei will not support the mistakes of the american banks as well as the Bush war policy that sent the dollar down. So this means our prices are in € and due to the actual exchange rates may vary in Dollars.
I know some Americans may not like to read that, but we will not lay off staff although we have enough work, just to keep our products cheaper in the US.
I pay our Zeiss Glass and the elox work in Oberkochen with Euros.
I know that this is a difficult situation also for our potential dealers in the US.
But I think in Your and Our interest, we want to build these lenses with no compromise, as good and as valuable as we can.

Greetings from a winterly and cold Kiev

Stefan

Core work and leopards

2007-11-29T14:34:00.000-08:00

As some may have mentioned, I am also spending my time with Apples, especially running Aperture and recently Leopard 10.5. I do some presentations in Germany for Apple on certain events and in this connection I have found some interesting thoughts and I also have learned from this.

First - always take your chance with the first glance. Maybe 10-15 seconds. this is what you get if a total stranger of your portfolio looks at your products. Either you win right now or the fight is already nearly over.
Second: make your products sexy. definitely- the new 20" imac is probably the most sexy computer in a long time. Women love it ! While their men are still searching for "the rest of the computer" the women already make a plan how to arrange the rest of their desk with the gained space....;-)

Now what does this teach to hartblei ?

First I think there need to be even more pictures made with our lenses and people need to talk about it. The technical aspects are important, but we will recruit some more professionals and core customers using our lenses and showing their results.
I will invest as many efforts as I can for this.
Second: we will introduce a portfolio of things that will make our lenses even better. There will be special bags, cases and additional gadgets, especially a so called stitching clamp. Be shure to watch our website regularly.

But most of all we will refine the haptics even more, AND as we delivered a lot of lenses to dealer recently, these will give you the chance to take our lenses into your hands. Full metal - no plastic -just bare black eloxated technology and craftsmanship. Better than any words and advertisements.

Try it. Visit our dealers. Touch it. The lenses are there to be lended and tested.
No words , just results.

I am waiting for pictures. Either post them to Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/hartblei/

or send them to me, we will feature them on our website. Promised !
We also invite all users of older Hartblei lenses with russian glass.
Because creativity is not limited to technology- right ?

Greetings from Munich

Stefan

Kiev is humming on activity

2007-11-03T14:18:00.000-07:00

It´s cold outside, at least here in Kiev. But this does not keep people off from walking down the Chreschatik on saturday evening. You see the most beautiful women in the world, laughing and arguing,a lot of young people. Tomorrow I will go to a jazzkonzert, today we had some sushi and tomorrow I go shopping for some nice steaks on sunday as the shops are open, just normally. Nobody would discuss about this here. People work a lot and Kiev had a 15,3 % growth of economy last year. This year I guess it will be higher. Wages rise, the old russian cars have nearly disappeared and new korean cars dominate the streets. Apartment prices have reached NewYork city level with up to 10000$ per square meter. Kievs economy has entered the western world. The west may not know it yet, but they sell more Bentleys here as in Munich or Berlin.
I think Hartblei is just right on spot. We express something the world will understand when looking a little more closer to the former GUS countries.
Expect a lot to come from here. It may take a while until the rest of Ukraine may follow but cities like Odessa and Lvov also start up.
Not all are winners, retired and veterans have a hard time.
There is still a lot of work to do, but I´m shure this country will make it.

I´m glad I´m here, we are discussing the strategies for next year and as you all know there is another photokina...........;-)

This will be very interesting.

Greetings from Kiev

Stefan

Misunderstandings and other questions

2007-10-11T08:56:00.000-07:00

2 Days ago I received a private message in the German DSLR Forum, I answered this in German and I think it´s worth being blogged-so I beg for pardon- this is German inside an english blog:

Sehr geehrter Herr Schubert

"weshalb können sie sich Leisten keine Partnerschaften bzw. Vertragsvereinbarungen mit Fotohändlern zu machen, wie auch die anderen Kamera- & Objektivherstelller ?"

???: Wie sie vielleicht sehen wenn sie auf unsere Händlerseite gehen, haben wir inzwischen einige namhafte Fachhändler gewonnen, darunter die jeweiligen Zeiss Vertragshändler in Holland, Belgien Luxemburg, sowie der Schweiz, in Deutschland über die Fa.Ravenstein/Chimera, Frankreich über Artetec, weitere in Vorbereitung. Hartblei ist nun mal kein Massenprodukt wir werden im ersten Jahr maximal 60-80 Stk pro Monat bauen.

"Weshalb gibt es keine Vereinbarungen mit den deutschen Reperaturwerkstätte wie die anderen Kamera- und Objektivhersteller es machen."

???: Woher wollen Sie das denn wissen ? Wir haben eine Ersatzteilversorgung mit Zeiss vereinbart, dies ist Teil unseres Vertrages, Größere Reparaturen werden im Werk durchgeführt (wegen der Justage der Optischen Einheiten im Barrel, das machen Canon oder Nikon auch nicht anders).

"Weshalb kann man ein Ukrainische/deutsches Produkt nicht in Deutschland kaufen, statt dessen muss man diese Artikel in Atlanta (USA) bestellen?"

???: also da bringen Sie jetzt endgültig etwas durcheinander. Die Fa. Hartblei Optica ist Hersteller und Vertrieb der Zeiss /Hartblei Produkte. Diese Artikel werden exclusiv über unsere Hartblei.de und.eu Webseiten und unsere Händler vertrieben. Die "alten" ukrainischen Produkte sind exclusiv über den Vertriebskanal zu haben über den sie auch schon die letzten 8 Jahre zu kaufen waren, nämlich Kievcamera oder direkt aus der Ukraine.

"Weshalb heißen die Objektive immer noch Prototyp?; denn wir benutzen den Begriff in normalerweise für erste Produkte zum vorführen, aber sie kommen in dieser Form meisten und, unter so einem Namen nicht auf dem Markt"

???: Dies ist Teil unserer Vereinbarung mit Carl Zeiss für die ersten 300 Stk (genau 297=3x99) und wurde von Carl Zeiss so verlangt, damit wir den Namen "Optics bei Carl Zeiss" benutzen dürfen. Ich gehe immer noch davon aus dass wir nach den jetzigen Vertriebserfolgen (wir haben jetzt 3 Monate bestellzeit bis zur Lieferung) nächstes Jahr den Vertrieb über Carl Zeiss direkt abwickeln werden, dann unter einer anderen Objektivbezeichnung.
Qualitativ sind diese Objektive inzwischen 100% fertig und ausentwickelt, wir werden aber zusätzliche features definieren und in neuen Modellen vorstellen.

mfg

Stefan Steib
CEO Hartblei Optica

Blue skies - Kiev in September

2007-09-11T01:19:00.000-07:00

Sdrasdwutje

As I write this I´m sitting here with my MBP connected to the Hotels Lan, it´s highspeed like in Munich, I just edited all my emails, actually making my stay even more like being at home (which is sometimes NOT an advantage ;-).
Kiev is a construction area, there are numerous new houses built, the whole city is humming of energy. Hartblei gets a lot of that with all pros and cons, prices raising but also new technologies being available here in Kiev making it more and more easy for us to produce our new lenses. And then there is the human resource !
I´m always amazed of how tough and professional the new young ukrainians work. Especially many young women who learn hard and work even harder. They are intelligent, speaking a bunch of languages and are willing to make it to the top. This is a country with a big future, remember my words.
And I feel very comfortable being here, no more as a guest but being part of this.
On the 30th of september there will be parliament elections here in Ukraine.
But no matter who will win, the process of opening to the west in the Ukraine is irreversible and also no party wants to go retro. So this will be the biggest advantage for this gorgeous country, to be able to show the world what its capable to achieve.

Too pathetic ? NO - I feel already a little bit blue and yellow.

Ochin priadna Ukraina

Stefan

The full format Week !

2007-09-01T06:14:00.000-07:00

Hello again - and wow, what a week we had. Nikon has announced the full format D3 finally calling it FX, well but a poodle still stays a poodle right ? ;-)
Canon has finally launched/announced the D1sIII which had been expected last photokina.
And then there are already pictures of the new Sony Professional DSLRs which nearly everybody expects to be fullformat also.
Does anybody remember my prediction of about a year ago in my marketanalysys (powerpoint see on our website)? It seems I was quite right.
Now what does this mean for Hartblei ?
Well People will need quality lenses to use the capacity of their Canon, Nikon and maybe soon Sony bodies fully. Lenses which do not resolve the neccessary information will simply spoil all the additional pixels and render them useless.
The demanding task of the next years for the camera industry will be to supply high end quality lenses to their already very good bodies.
In former times the glass was known to be the most important and expensive part of your camera. In the age of plastic mounted consumer superzooms this knowledge has a little dwindled away.
But demanding pros all over the world who will use these 35mm cameras as their everyday tools now, will very easily aknowledge that an investment of a good lens pays back.

It did in the past, it does today and it will in the future.
We want to put back an investment into lenses to a level of security.
Expect hartblei lenses to be very stable in Prices, usable for many years and not loosing their value for a long time.

Tha´s what we are working for and partnering with a company like Carl Zeiss who´s intentions are the same as ours.
Quality pays off - believe it !

Greetings from Munich

Stefan Steib

Summertime - not so quiet as it seems !

2007-08-25T17:04:00.000-07:00

Hi anybody who still believes in me and returns to this blog. I have been quite lazy the last few weeks (months?) but only with this blog, not with Hartblei.

In the meantime we have now placed demosets to all our dealers,you can go there and check the lenses out. And- quite nice also the SwissGerman "PHOTOGRAPHIE" has written a Market overview on Shift and Tilt lenses in their 09/2007 magazine, although this was not a complete test we got a nice compliment from the journalist:
"Hartblei is the new Reference for shift and tilt lenses !"
- Wow ! -

In the background we have now set up the orders for lenses with Zeiss to inshure we also can deliver enough lenses for all the people who want a Hartblei/Zeiss lens.

In this connection we also apologize to all the people who want to buy the russian lens versions. As Hartblei is a small company and our resources are limited, we do have severe problems to build both lens lines in numbers. At the moment our decision is to push the new Zeiss line and concentrate on thsi. We can take your orders (please contact Mike Fourman/Kievcamera in Atlanta) but there are delays.

We hope that this autumn the situation will be better and we will be able to fulfill all the orders we have received for the russian versions.

Hartblei Optica is only selling the Zeiss versions but as we caused the delays on the russian versions I feel somewhat responsible for that.

So here my apologies to all these customers !

Thanks for your patience.

greetings from Munich

Stefan Steib - CEO Hartblei Optica

Prices,Dealers and some other thoughts

2007-06-03T10:34:00.000-07:00

Well after some weeks of inactivity, here I am back, some spare time to blog what happened. We have changed the prices, to react to the fact that many people requested to have a full guarantee, an inside the EU delivery and as the customs would have been added anyway we also combine that with the comfort of having the lens shipped to you - ALL included now.
That should give buyers in countries where we do not have dealers yet the same amount of comfort getting their hartblei lens as if they pick it up at their dealers places. Of course a good dealer is not to be replaced. He is the one who will help you out if you need some advice for your equipment,order a spare part or get the lens for testing in case of interest or just stop in to look for new stuff. The word service is very important to us. We hope that we have found some fine partners to supply photographers in the respective countries with our lenses and the best available service.
In the benelux this will be transcontinenta, ask for Aad Out, he is a great guy, and boy did we have a nice indonesian rice table in Amsterdam....cheers Aad !!!
In Switzerland we have 2 partners, one is the Sinar distribution company Tekno in Zurich, with Matthias Wagner, they know their stuff very well.
Then there is ARTE-TEC S.A. Stephan Weber in Delemont, he will be serving France and "Swiss Romande", he will also supply a french translation for the Hartblei website soon. As it happens to be, he also runs a company in Ukraine/Sewastopol and we can probably join some forces to build even better Hartblei products together.
Then there are our new bags(to be seen on the website very soon) made by munich Designer Ute Linck- www.linckx.de -to present and protect our lenses in a very unusual way.

It´s a lot of work, people support our project and this is the place to say thank you for this.
Not to forget about Carl Zeiss and all the friendly people in Oberkochen who helped me when I needed them. Balschoi spassiba !!!

Greetings from munich

Stefan

Kiev in Snow- the cold east !

2007-05-08T05:26:00.000-07:00

last week I stayed in Kiev for 5 days. While in western Europe the summer was already ruling, in Kiev the temperatures dropped to nearly zero. On Thursday the 3rd there was even snow falling in the morning. But this City has so much to warm you up - you can visit the opera, the cheapest seats go for 30 Uah-thats about 4,50€ . Culture for the people, a leftover from old communist times, very appreciated. You can see the Ukrainian state ballet and fabulous artists singers, maybe not wellknown in Germany but real first class in their kind.
On the 1st of may Kiev was on the move, flags where waving everywhere, but not in a way of revolts that some may have the impression when hearing about Ukraine today. Instead it was more like a celebration of old times, red flags showing the pride on things that happened long ago. if you want to see some pics of this I´d want you to point to my flickr site http://www.flickr.com/photos/hartblei/ . there is also a hartblei group on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/groups/hartblei/ everybody with a hartblei lens is invited to post your pics there.

Greetings from Munich
Stefan

Pressrelease is out and spreading

2007-04-24T08:11:00.000-07:00

Yesterday afternoon we kicked off the german Pressrelease. It has already spread to several other sites and was obviously taken very well by journalists. Of course I´m curious how it will work in the long run, means printed matter and other contacts for us.
We have now a dealer/s in Switzerland and France and I hope in Austria and Italy soon.
There is a nice request on lenses and sets to go directly, dealers have ordered sets.
I think we will make quite a nice start. Now I still have to translate the whole website into english which is a lot of work, as well as the pressrelease which will be launched in english in a week or so.
I´ll be in Kiev from the 30th until the 4th of May, so if anybody wants to contact me then, please use my ukrainian Mobile number.

Still tired - but the show must go on

Stefan

We are online !

2007-04-20T08:50:00.000-07:00

Ladies and Gentlemen -

I hereby proudly announce the availability of our new hartblei.eu site.
After blood,sweat and tears, after endless talks with Zeiss, my business partners, with our reference customers and whoever else was involved into this launch - it´s done !

www.hartblei.de or www.hartblei.eu

Special Thanks to Mark , my Friend who has done the webdesign. I will now fall into my bed and sleep for 2 days, so if anybody wants to contact me, do it next monday..........;-)

Stefan

It´s wednesday night and time for lunch......

2007-04-18T14:36:00.000-07:00

am de dum de dum..........

Well, yesterday was Apple day, as a consultant I did what is most important: I listened to my customers, showcased Aperture for Apple and found out what Photographers would like to do. Namely do Photography more easily and get better tools to be creative and productive.
I guess this is also the reason I´m here, why Hartblei did this and why we work so much for this idea. From my career as a producing "imager", I know that quality is something our customers expect automatically. But creativity is the song that makes you smile and shoots young photographic newcomers into the olymp of stardom. But now many companies tell you, you have to invest around 35 grands and up to be able to take professional looking shots with medium format or viewcameras and backs. Not to speak of all the lights, your studio setup and all the other costs. And suddenly creativity shrinks to the numbers on your bank account. I say this is not fate. Take a look at the sample pics I have just placed on our website. The Lamborghini motor you find there, was shot by our customer Marc Stantien with a Nikon D2X and our Hartblei Prototype 4/40 TS. Shure you will still need a lot of light, a lot of work and plenty of knowledge and talent to do this, but at least there are about 25 thousend $ which do not have to be financed
for a camera, a back and lenses. There IS an alternative. Save the money for yourself and for the other 10k$ buy a decent 35 mm Digital Body and the set of 3
of the new Hartblei lenses. This should do a lot for your mental health,
your bank account and will make you sleep much better.
Because somehow, most people preferre not to have these talks at banks,
you know what I mean ?

With kindest regards to all Bankers worldwide

Stefan

To blog or not to blog......no not a question

2007-04-16T07:08:00.000-07:00

well-here I am. I´m blogging. Actually I have not much time for this as we prepare the launch of our new Hartblei website. A lot of pictures need to be sorted, cropped, placed, marked with text and uploaded. My Webdesigner goes mad with my 5 minutes text changes (my specialty!). The site grows like the internet Hype of 2000. Originally we wanted to do a small and fast Site, just to inform our customer about the most necessaryy things. Now.....the site is still fast. But we are digging into all the things that we have left aside for some time. How to launch an old Pricelist, ok lets write a new one. Wouldn´t it be nice to have a customer testimonial page, well if we have one, why shouldn´t we invite several ?.............
As you may guess if you have done this by yourself, this is the Black hole of work, the riddle of the lost nights, sleepless in Munich, just without Meg Ryan.
But as I write this there is light on the horizon. We have finished the structure now, the german part is nearly ready, there needs to be a translation to english, we still have to implement........ Launch should be wednesday or thursday..........ahhhhhh

Close to Madness
Stefan