PMA and confidence for the USA

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

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

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

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

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

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 !

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