01/08/2022
There’sThere’s a class of cameras designed almost exclusively for studio use. Expensive, hulking things, they live their lives on tripods, churning out exquisite portraits and other specialist photography for truly committed professionals. Hasselblad makes such cameras, and its flagship H6D is an archetypal example, costing $33,000 without a lens, but producing epic 100-megapixel shots. It’s those grand extremes of resolution, courtesy of an extra-large medium format sensor, that attract photographers to spend five figures on a camera they can’t take everywhere with them.
The $8,000 Hasselblad X1D is another expensive medium format camera (you can’t buy a lens for it for less than $2,000), but it breaks with convention by actually being portable. It takes the 50-megapixel sensor previously inside the H6D and streamlines everything around it to produce a device that’s no larger or heavier than a regular DSLR. I’ve been testing the X1D for the past two months, and over that time, I’ve grown increasingly appreciative of what a technical achievement it is. This camera is bigger and more demanding than most, but it’s also far smaller and easier to operate than anything else with a sensor of its size.
In our review of the Hasselblad X1D medium format camera, we find out exactly how far 50 megapixels can take you
