Today we visited Hasselblad and were able to see how the company has transformed through the years. While here we met with Ove Bengtsson who has been working for Hasselblad since 1982 and is currently a product manager.Here is some background info on Hasselblad and how it all started. In 1841, Fritz Victor Hasselblad found F W Hasselblad & Co.. His son Arvid went on a honeymoon in London and was into photography and met George Eastman, which led to the company becoming a Swedish distributor for Kodak. In 1937, Victor opened “Victor Foto” and in 1940 Victor was contacted by the Swedish Airforce, which resulted in the first camera: the HK-7. In 1943, Victor took over the family company, F W Hassleblad & Co. and in 1957 the 500c, or what is known as the “V-System” today, was made, which is one of the most iconic cameras ever made.Currently there are 12 cameras still on the moon. In 1962, the 500c was modified for space. Some people and places that were shot with a Hasselblad camera was Steve Jobs, James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, and the first footstep on the moon.Some fun facts about Hasselblad is that they stayed in the original building until 2003 and the one thing that the company believes in so strongly is carrying on the passion that Victor had for photography. The cheapest camera that Hasselblad sells is $5,000, and that is without the lens, and the cheapest lens that they sell is $1,000.A quote that Bert from ABB gave us was, “if robots can do it, then it is not the right job for humans.” At ABB we talked about AI, AR, and VR and how it is changing the world each and every day, which is terrifying. That fact that almost anything can and will be robotic in the future is incredibly scary!Tonight we went to a Swedish hockey game where Frölunda was playing against Brynäs IF. The final score was 8 to 4 with Frölunda taking the win! I have never even been to an American hockey game so I did not really know what to expect and everyone kept telling us that it is much less aggressive here in Sweden versus back at home. Now I am scared to even go to an American hockey game because the Swedish game was aggressive enough for me! While we were at the game a couple of us were wearing Blackhawks jerseys, which caught the attention from a couple Swedes. One man came up to us and asked how many of us were from Chicago and we told him 21 and he said that was too much because he had a surprise for us that he could only give to about 6 people. So once he said he had a surprise for us he then left and came back with 6 Frölunda hockey scarves because that is a huge thing in Swedish hockey; quite a few people had them! I can gladly say that I do love Swedish hockey and I cannot wait to go to another game!
Daily Reflections:
– Robots are going to take over our world
– Swedish hockey is incredibly fun
– For Hasselblad, the H Series takes 7 hours for them to make, and the X Series takes 3 hours
Off to Sweden We Go