Writing Posts for a blog that no one may be reading is like writing selfies. Random observation.
This post is not about self-pity, however. It is about a controversial camera, at least by review standards, the Hasselblad X1D-50c. The X1D-50c is a medium format, mirrorless camera. If you are not familiar with medium format cameras, a simple Google search will educate you. The main difference is the size of their sensors compared to full frame SLR or mirrorless cameras. The X1D’s sensor is 51MP. Before the X1D, medium format cameras were bulky and insanely expensive. They were almost exclusively studio cameras or very special purpose landscape cameras. Using them required intent, planning, and a capital investment of some magnitude. The X1D is Hasselblad’s attempt to change all that which the X1D does, however imperfectly.
I said medium format cameras were insanely expensive. The Hasselblad is not insanely expensive, just crazy expensive. Camera body and one 45mm dedicated lens is $13,395.00. Crazy expensive. Still, by medium format standards that price is cheap.
Why medium format? That large sensor and the large computer crashing raw files it generates are filled with details and tonal shades and colors and moods and textures not captured by a full frame camera. But, and this is a very big one, these differences are often extremely subtle. And, unless you are printing oversized prints or viewing on a high resolution monitor, often difficult to detect.
Why controversial? (If I am the only one reading this blog, I just realized my questions are purely rhetorical. A variation on, If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around, does it make a sound?) Because the X1D shipped with many firmware glitches when it was first released and is crazy expensive, it quickly was taken to task for its problems. It should have been. A camera this expensive should not operate like a prerelease beta. The X1D was more beta then 1.0. It also has some operational quirks that suggest the X1D 2.0 is the model to wait for. Still, I took the plunge only after playing with it and a Fuji GFX 50s, another medium format camera that retails for a slightly less awe inspiring $9,099.00. The Fuji is also relatively compact for a medium format camera. By all reviews, it is also much less beta and much more 1.0. But if you actually hold both and play with both, it is quickly apparent that the Hasselblad is a complete rethink of the genre while the Fuji is a “Honey I Shrunk the Kids” effort. Even so, there is much more Internet love for the Fuji than for the Hasselblad. Me, I have the X1D for thirty days to draw my own conclusions which, in this world of the Internet, is important for $13,395.00 cameras, as it should be for, um, like choosing who to vote for President. Your choices should be based on your own experiences and judgments and not by the loud screaming of others who happen to be published on the Internet.
I will have more on my trial, but here are some initial photos shot with Hasselblad’s 90mm X1D prime lens. One important point, because of the larger sensor size, you have to adjust a medium format’s lens’s focal length to get a full frame 35mm equivalent. The 90mm Hasselblad is equivalent to a 35mm full frame 71mm focal length lens. Also, please keep in mind these are test shots. I am learning the camera and its lenses. And trust me, there is a lot here to learn. (For example, I also have the 45mm prime lens, a 36mm full frame equivalent. My first series of photos with that lens were mostly fails.)
For context in terms of what this camera can do in terms of resolution, here are some distances as the crow flies for the photo looking up the Potomac towards the Washington Monument. It is 1.8 miles from where I took the photo to where the airplane is sitting at Ronald Reagan National Airport waiting to takeoff. It is 5.5 miles from where I stood to the Washington Monument. I am amazed at how well the plane and the monument hold together as you enlarge the photo.
