Hasselblad introducing mirrorless medium format. now. live from Sweden!

[Frank Fremerey]

Hasselblad introducing mirrorless medium format. now. live from Sweden!


50 MP
9000 US$
www.hasselblad.com

[Frank Fremerey]

I've watched the presentation istead of continuing my work on
law of the seas and how to protect and revive sea life by reducing
the human footoprint on land and water....

... so what have I learned?

It is lighter and smaller than the D810
It has the same sensor as the H6D
It will cost 7900 Euros plus VAT
It is the first really portable medium format digital
Seems to have inherited a lot of genes and genius from the
famous Fuji G series landscape cameras

Very affordable

3 native lenses available for Photokina. 90mm 30mm 67mm

plus an adapter to the 12 H type lenses.

very interesting. Much more interesting for my line of work than
the D5. Perfect as a digiback for my Sinar P2 or Cambo Actus.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

A digital back for all the large-format cameras still floating around in my storage bins - now, that would be a great idea.

Price is - well, what should I say - elevated. Yet not astronomically out of reach, though.

Will be interesting to follow future development, that's for sure.

[Michael Erlewine]

It is still expensive, like three times the A7rII, which is an equivalent camera and a known workhorse. And lenses, the A7rII takes all comers...almost. Unless I already had a bunch of related lenses, not sure why I would want this. Why would I? There should be a Nikon mirrorless that takes all my lenses, with an equivalent sensor, but Nikon is lagging.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Sensor size is the interesting point as the existing large-format lenses reclaim more of their designated field coverage. One can only expect image quality of such a new camera to be impressive.

Had the Sonys been designed by engineers knowing anything about photography, I would have stuck to that existing line, though.

[Frank Fremerey]

Frankly. For my table top business I do not need any Hasselblad lenses.

As this nifty little beast is very portable I would choose to have one wide angle like the 30mm announced
for Photokina 2016 to shoot architecture while travelling.

On the road the Cambo Actus comes to mind connecting APO Digitars and Digarons to this back.

I guess this will outshoot any competition and win some high paying customers in the event business too.

Portraits of horses ... another high paying job type ...

[Bjørn Rørslett]

It is intriguing that Hasselblad/Fuji choose to use SD cards on this system. There must be an awful lot of data to shuffle around. I had expected at least one slot to be XQD.

[Eddie Draaisma]

Only 38% more data compared to a D810 that can do 5fps?? Hasselblad claims 1.7 - 2.3 fps for the X1D.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

The 'new' lenses for the X1D,45 mm f/3.5 and 90 mm f/3.5, eerily reminds of the Xpan lens kit. The XPan lenses were a third stop slower, f/4, probably because they had to cover a slightly wider area, and could be very small in size because they lacked the built-in leaf shutter of the new lenses.

[Frank Fremerey]

In the interview on the launch event (you can watch it on youtube) the CEO of Hasselblad said that no Fuji technology is in the package. All is developed and build in Sweden. He claims to have very tight and friendly relatiuons with Fuji but not on this project. Also the Lenses he claims are designed by Hasselblad only manufactured in Japan by "Nirotu" if I did hear that right. I did not see a transcriptiion yet.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

"Hand-made in Sweden" and "Built in Germany" are business slogans. Reality tends to be different.

I think it very unlikely, at the asking price, that these cameras really are "hand-made in Sweden". Perhaps the final assembly from a delivered kit?

[bjornthun]

The lenses are made by Nittoh in Japan, and are designed by Hasselblad in Sweden.

The two first focal lengths are 45mm and 90mm, and Hasselblad has promised a 30mm for Photokina in the autumn. It was remarked in the presentation from Göteborg, Sweden, that these are exactly the same focal lengths that were available for the Xpan, for those who knew their Hasselblad history.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Apparently the newcomer shares a lot of thoughts with the previous XPan project.

I have still an XPan sitting in a cupboard somewhere with the dedicated lenses. It was a nice camera, capable of quality output, but with some idiosyncratic flaws.

[bjornthun]

"Hand-made in Sweden" and "Built in Germany" are business slogans. Reality tends to be different.

I think it very unlikely, at the asking price, that these cameras really are "hand-made in Sweden". Perhaps the final assembly from a delivered kit?

It was said on the presentation that journalists could see the production line in Göteborg on appointment, and that some had done so this morning. Perhaps it will be possible to know more specifics in the course of time.

Anyway this camera is far easier to assemble than a DSLR, since there are fewer moving parts, no mirrors etc., so less adjustments needed. This was also commented on during the presentation, regarding the price point.

[Eddie Draaisma]

The "Country of origin" product labelling is a legal requirement for export to many countries (import duties may depend on it). Even if only the final assembly of the X1D is done in Sweden, "made in Sweden" is the proper labelling. However the "handmade in Sweden" prominently engraved on the top plate seems a little more than just legally required.