About Halde
Fourteen people, one camera
We started Halde in 2023 because we wanted a small full-frame camera with real dials and no menus, and nobody made one.
How it started
Jonas Halde and Rania Khoury met in 2022 at a film camera repair course run by Yousef Haddad in Deira. A year later the three of them had a working prototype, and in 2025 we moved into the warehouse in Alserkal Avenue, Al Quoz, that is now our workshop.
- Founded in Dubai
- 2023
- People
- 14
- Camera
- 1
Who you’ll talk to
Four of the fourteen. Everyone else is at a workbench, and you’re welcome to come and meet them.
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Jonas Halde
Co-founder, design
Spent fifteen years designing household appliances before moving to Dubai in 2019. Drew the first Field One on the metro to Expo City.
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Rania Khoury
Co-founder, engineering
Electronics engineer who grew up in Sharjah and led sensor work on industrial inspection cameras. Owns the battery figure and refuses to round it up.
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Yousef Haddad
Workshop lead
Thirty years repairing film cameras in a back-room shop in Deira. Trains every technician who assembles a Field One, and checks the last ten of each day himself.
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Leila Navabi
Support and repairs
Answers the support inbox and runs the repair bench. Replies in English, Arabic and Persian, usually the same day.
From prototype to your pocket
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2023: the first prototype
A borrowed rangefinder body, an industrial sensor board and a lot of tape. It took photos, slowly.
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2024: backed by 2,800 photographers
Our crowdfunding campaign paid for tooling and the first 1,500 cameras.
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2025: the workshop
We moved into a warehouse in Alserkal Avenue, Al Quoz, and trained six technicians with Yousef.
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2026: field test
Forty photographers across the UAE and Saudi Arabia carried pre-production cameras for six weeks each.
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February 2027: batch one ships
Batch two follows from March, in the order reservations were made.
Work with us
We’re hiring for the workshop and the support team, all in Dubai.
What you get
- A Field One of your own
- Team lunch at the workshop every Thursday
- 30 days’ annual leave plus your birthday
- Visa, health insurance and a yearly flight home
Come and see us
The workshop and showroom in Alserkal Avenue are open Monday to Saturday. Ring the bell and we’ll show you round.