- I've had Hasselblad's long rumored X2D 100C
for two weeks now.
I've taken over a thousand photos with it,
and I can confidently say, that it is a great camera
but it has one major downside
and quite honestly a niche group
of people that might actually be able to own it.
I'm Becca Farsace, welcome back to Full Frame, bud.
The $8,100 X2D 100C is utterly Hasselblad,
which means that it's incredibly well built
and it takes stunning photos,
but it does it pretty damn slowly.
And in the mirrorless camera megapixel race the X2D's 100
of them is only beaten by Fuji films GFX 100
and 100S's 102 megapixels.
The X2D's digital medium format, 43.8 by 32.9 millimeter
backside illuminated CMOS sensor,
physically makes a full frame sensor look baby,
and it provides very high quality, 16 bit photos
with 15 stops of dynamic range.
Many photographers will argue that more megapixels
doesn't usually mean that much greater image quality
and I would mostly agree, but what makes these photos stand
out is Hasselblad's true life color science met
with a robust sensor and high quality lenses
that certainly makes for an image that you feel
like you could just reach out and touch.
For my testing, I had access
to two new Hasselblad XCD lenses.
The 350 gram XCD 38V
and the 376 gram XCD 55V that both have
an F 2.5 to F 32 aperture and both cost $3,699.
Any XCD lens will be compatible with this camera.
It's just that these new lenses have a better design
and faster focusing systems.
They are certainly not cheap
but they are small and relatively lightweight
for being all metal and made for a medium format camera.
I also think these are the nicest lenses
Hasselblad a has ever released for a digital camera.
I love the Hs around the ring
and this Hasselblad logo on the side is just,
I don't know super nice not to mention
these metal lens caps.
I mean, come on, it's just so cool.
Hasselblad will also be releasing a $4,299.
XCD 90V lens that is a bit heavier at 551 grams.
I digress, this is the type
of camera that you take photos of like cracks
in the sidewalk and you show them to your friends.
And you're like, yo, bud
look at this crack in the sidewalk.
It's so crisp.
It's like crisper than what I see, you know.
Okay.
On average, a 3FR raw file, which is the raw files
from Hasselblad from the X2D are around 216 megabytes.
They are big boys and all those can be conveniently stored
on a one terabyte internal drive that has write speeds
up to 2070 megabytes per second.
And read speeds up to 2,850 megabytes per second.
I have been perfectly happy shooting right
onto the internal storage of this camera
and then downloading it
via the included braided USB C 3.1 gen two cable.
Now these raw photos, they have a great deal of latitude.
So let's pixel peep.
When shooting with this system,
I found it was better to underexposed than over.
I had a much easier time pulling
up the shadows than bringing down the highlights.
But in low light situations, you have to nail the exposure
because once you're shooting around ISO 3,200 or higher
the photos will start to show grain in the shadows
when pushing those low lights.
The good news is, is that there's in-body image
stabilization to help.
Sensors of this size,
they notoriously show every bit of shake
but I was able to comfortably shoot at around like one 30th,
even one 10th of a second sometimes,
without noticing my handshake.
All of that being said,
I still found that this camera is far more fun
to use when there is ample light and bright, bold colors.
Also, this camera now goes down to ISO 64.
Love that.
The issue with the X2D is that it's slow.
It feels like every camera manufacturer has
turned focusing speeds, frames per second,
focusing accuracy up to a hundred.
And when you use Hasselblad's latest camera
whoa, certainly does not feel that way.
This is even with an improved
phase detection auto focus system,
as opposed to their previous contrast based system.
They also have upgraded focus modules
in the updated lens series
but the camera often hunts for focus
and in low light it can be hard to get it to focus
on anything at all.
In a later firmware release,
Hasselblad is promising face detection auto focus
but at the time of my review, it's not available.
And it is 2022 and not having face detect
on auto focus is really a miss.
Another time you'll find this system
oddly slow is when using the electronic shutter.
(car horn beeps)
Shut up.
Which is a problem in this city.
Hasselblad told me that because the sensor is so big,
it takes longer for all of that information to read
out when you use the electronic shutter,
which leads to a rolling shutter problem
in still photography because of this, I almost
never used the electronic shutter while using this camera.
And another thing I didn't use was video.
That's because this camera is never
going to be able to take a video.
Hello, this is edit Becca.
The embargo is tomorrow.
And a few days ago, I learned that the X2D
is never gonna get video capabilities.
That is despite their likely being mics in this camera
based on the holes for mics on this camera.
I did sense the video might be a problem here based
on how the electronic shutter was performing.
But I didn't think that Hasselblad
was gonna give up on it entirely.
And now I know for sure.
I've thought a lot about if this changes
how I feel about this camera entirely
and it doesn't because I've always viewed this camera
as a photo first camera.
I've been using it for weeks only with photo,
and I do love using it,
but ah, that's a huge feature to be missing in 2022.
Regardless, the next section of this video talks all
about his hardware and how great it is to hold.
So let's get to that.
The tops and the bottoms are milled
from single pieces of aluminum alloy,
and the front just has this massive Hasselblad
logo that literally is screaming Hasselblad.
I love it, I'd have it no other way.
The side grip is curved to match the curve of your palm.
And it honestly makes holding the 790 gram body super easy.
Up on top, you have a one inch LCD screen that will show
the battery percentage when you click the power button once
and a hold will turn the camera on.
A mode dial for switching modes.
You have your ISO, you have your white balance.
And of course your shutter button,
which is much softer than most
of its competitors shutter buttons.
It's kind of mushy, and I do wish
that when it was fully pressed it had more
of a clunk feeling rather than it's click.
(button clicks)
In the front of the camera under the lens,
you have a customizable button along with a dial.
Along back, you have a dial as well that clicks in.
This touch screen is super responsive LCD screen.
And of course it can come out 40 or 70 degrees.
The EVF really gets in the way of your screen
when the screen is out at 70 degrees.
And when looking through the EVF, there is definitely
red and green splitting happening on the outer edges.
Even when using the diopter, I couldn't get that to go away.
Much like it's predecessor, there are only
two ports on the side that both open with ease,
like really nice springy doors.
Woo, that just never gets old.
Anyway, one is a CFexpress Type B slot
and the other is just a single USB C port.
And of course, on the bottom, is the battery compartment.
Pop that, click down once, and out she comes.
I have been pleasantly surprised
with this camera's battery life.
CIPA rates it at 420 photos
from an a hundred percent charge,
which is on the low end for high resolution mirrorless
cameras but easily got me through
a full day of casual shooting.
You have to keep in mind
that this camera will not shoot 420 photos quickly.
In a day of casual shooting,
I was shooting around, I don't know, around 150 photos.
So of course one battery was perfectly fine.
A new feature to the X2D though
is PD 3.0 fast charging up to 30 Watts,
which can take a dead battery to full in two hours.
And when it's plugged in,
it has just a really nice pictorial element
on top that shows you how charged it is.
The X2D 100 C really has improved
upon so many of its predecessors pitfalls.
And while there is still so much work to do
in the focusing department,
like there is so much work to do there.
I really enjoyed this camera and that slow speed,
it didn't ruin my experience.
Taking photos with fast cameras, like the Nikon Z9.
the Sony A1, Canon's R5, it truly is a rush
and their technology is absolutely impressive,
but there will always be a place
for a camera that makes you feel like you're on vacation
rather than a racetrack.
Sadly though, that $8,100 price tag will keep most
of us from being able to enjoy it.
I mean, okay, the empty nesting orthodontist,
the lifelong Hasselblad shooters,
or maybe the commercial photographers
they won't blink an eye at that price.
For most enthusiasts looking to shoot digital medium format,
the cheaper Fuji Film GFX 100S will likely
be the system that they choose.
But I soon think the medium format space
is going to get more crowded.
Camera companies are having to compete more so
than ever with the cameras in our pockets.
Case in point, point and shoots are dead,
iPhones are everywhere.
So the next way to beat phones is to make
a large high quality sensor that would never fit no phone.
And that offers a superior experience
that will entice people to actually drag
a whole entire device around with them.
I really hope I'm right, 'cause it's about
to get so fun if that is true.
Let's go 200 megapixel Sony maybe.
I've heard about curve sensors.
I don't know, it's gonna get crazy.
All right, buds.
I'm Becca Farsace.
Thanks for joining me on another Full Frame.