Hasselblad X1D

[davidthescot]

I think that is 7900 Euros excluding VAT.

[KeithL]

I think that is 7900 Euros excluding VAT.

Cheers, David.

[davidthescot]

Just been quoted around £6k exc. VAT in the UK.

Best.

[Barry Goyette]

As I get older, I'm learning to be a little more critical on days like this. Overall, I like what I see, but I have to be honest that I found the presentation remarkably shy of information. The message was obvious, This thing is tiny. That Hasselblad was able to  fit this much technology into a body of this size is actually remarkable. Laudable.

Whether it was wise is a whole other question.

And I'm not saying that it's not, but for a product launch like this to spend 45 seconds talking about the specifications, and the rest talking about history, legacy and size.....well it raises a few questions.

Size and the LCD, and the EVF. We know their resolutions, respectable, but certainly not ground breaking...the evf would appear to be the one from the Fuji x100T, The LCD is smaller and has fewer pixels than both the 5dsr and the D810. There are certainly larger, power efficient screens available these days, with superior resolution. Using one would have been an innovation on this camera. There isn't much detail on the optics of the EVF. That would certainly have been something I'd want to be talking about. When comparing their H bodies to Canon's 5dsr, many of the faithful spend a lot of time talking about the large viewfinder image. Again...I appreciate the small size of this camera. Would I have appreciated a 4 inch hd lcd screen and a larger "hasselblad magnification" EVF on a slightly larger body? Maybe.

Size and AF. Apparently this tiny body couldn't support Hasselblad's current autofocus system. Something tells me that even the last manual focus diehards (I'm not one of them) will find that shooting with a 2.36mp viewfinder will  cause them to change their tune. Users of this camera will rely on autofocus more than any other Hasselblad, yet the autofocus system seems to be limited to a single contrast AF sensor. It's hard to imagine how this is going to play out in the trade press.

Size and heat management. I don't own a CMOS Hasselblad, but certainly my H5d-40 regularly has issues on warm days. It's got venting up the ying-yang, a fan, and a rather large cavity behind the sensor. When you look at the X1d it would appear that the only venting would come by way of removing the lens. We know that sensors and processors like this generate a fair amount of heat, and when they get warm, they produce more noise. It would have been nice today for the product manager talk about how they performed the magic trick relative to heat management on this camera. (The omission of a meaningful, current set of video features is probably related to this very issue).

Size and the lens Adapter. Certainly this system was designed around new, smaller (and slightly slower) optics. The mount looks frighteningly shallow. I'm really interested to see how this works when you attach the gravity bomb 55-110mm zoom or even the 120macro HC lens via an adapter. I've always been impressed by the sturdiness of Hasselblad's mounts, but occasionally the contacts have been finicky. Is this diminutive camera up to the task of supporting 3.6 pound lenses? Inquiring minds want to know.

Size and SD over CFast -- To me the announcement of twin SD slots was a real surprise. While apparently the camera takes no hit in performance from the use of twin SD cards (although I don't see mention of buffer size, so we'll save this for later), it seems like choosing an older, consumer storage format is particularly telling. It's as if the well heeled amateur wouldn't buy the 13k system if they also had to shell out for a $350 memory card or two. Certainly pro's have no problem with c-fast ( I love it for the offload speeds, which are several orders faster than CF or SD) and also for the form factor which doesn't blow off my desk when the door opens.

Size and Compromise. One poster here has talked a lot about this camera finally reviving the mamiya 7 form factor. This camera certainly isn't that. It's compactness is actually startling from what I can tell. I'm certain based on the presentation today that in the process of prototyping the X1D, the guiding principal was size more than anything. Not one new technology was discussed. It's impressive that Victor's progeny managed to scale this product with very few hits to the H6D's functionality. Over the next few months (or maybe even today), I'm sure we'll all find out what compromises were involved in meeting that goal.

A few questions for Nick --

Focusing aids? What types and how functional/intuitive are they.

Battery Life -- Is this a travel cam that needs 3 batteries to make it through the day, or have they improved power management relative to the H bodies.

Electronic Viewfinder -- what's it like in terms of magnification and distortion.

Image buffer /shot rate -- Now that we are bringing this thing to the land of the unwashed masses. 1.7 frames is going to be really upsetting especially if the buffer slows things down at the 7th or 8th frame. How many shots can you shoot in raw, holding the shutter button down before it starts to lag.

Do we have tethering or not?

Thanks for all your work on this Nick.

Barry

[DBF]

Congratulations to Hasselblad - fine Piece of Work.
When will it be availible?

[NickT]

I'm wondering about:

SD cards? CFAST? XQD (please)

Dual SD

Video?

Yes 2K compressed, no RAW

tethering - I expect it will tether to Phocus via USB3. (said he, hopefully)

Yes USB3 tethering

Definitely lenses, too. the 45 and the 90 look great, how easy will it be for me to use HC lenses and, God forbid, my CF lenses?

The MTF charts for the 90 are absolutely amazing!

Yes HC lenses with an adaptor but they'll be manual focus. I imagine you'll be able to use the HC adaptor, then the CF adaptor to use CF

Focus peaking?

Don't think so

Tell me about the EVF- dots, refresh rate?

Have to look that up

AF Points? Can you scatter them all over the sensor?

Nope

ISO?

From memory 100 to 25K!

wi-fi to send a decent jpeg to my iphone for Instagram? Because we all know we need 50MP for that...

Yes Wifi

Finally, shipping and delivery expectations.

Well they are making them as fast as they can I know that, but expect them to be in very tight demand.

This camera is beyond my reach right now, but I could see myself using it a lot. I think it will be a real winner.

[NickT]

Are the two lenses announce focal plane type lenses or do they have leaf shutters?

Leaf shutters up to 1/2000

What's with the rumors about removing the ability to tether? I think most people interested in this camera would like the ability to do so even if it's not a regular thing for them.

It will tether just fine

[NickT]

Question for Nick, how do we focus with H lenses.

It will be manual focus with HC lenses

what is the quality of the viewfinder
Leica SL has some kind of focussing aid using M lenses, The same with Hasselblad X1D?

Didn't have much time to play so can't say on the viewfinder... focussing aid would be great, I'll ask.

[NickT]

Well done Hassie,

? @ Nick
Possible adaptor for Leica S leaf (Central) shutter lenses?

Alex

Don't know Alex but it ought to be possible.

[NickT]

As I get older, I'm learning to be a little more critical on days like this. Overall, I like what I see, but I have to be honest that I found the presentation remarkably shy of information. The message was obvious, This thing is tiny. That Hasselblad was able to  fit this much technology into a body of this size is actually remarkable. Laudable.

Yes good point, but it's marketing right?

Whether it was wise is a whole other question.

And I'm not saying that it's not, but for a product launch like this to spend 45 seconds talking about the specifications, and the rest talking about history, legacy and size.....well it raises a few questions.

Size and the LCD, and the EVF. We know their resolutions, respectable, but certainly not ground breaking...the evf would appear to be the one from the Fuji x100T, The LCD is smaller and has fewer pixels than both the 5dsr and the D810. There are certainly larger, power efficient screens available these days, with superior resolution. Using one would have been an innovation on this camera. There isn't much detail on the optics of the EVF. That would certainly have been something I'd want to be talking about. When comparing their H bodies to Canon's 5dsr, many of the faithful spend a lot of time talking about the large viewfinder image. Again...I appreciate the small size of this camera. Would I have appreciated a 4 inch hd lcd screen and a larger "hasselblad magnification" EVF on a slightly larger body? Maybe.

Size and AF. Apparently this tiny body couldn't support Hasselblad's current autofocus system. Something tells me that even the last manual focus diehards (I'm not one of them) will find that shooting with a 2.36mp viewfinder will  cause them to change their tune. Users of this camera will rely on autofocus more than any other Hasselblad, yet the autofocus system seems to be limited to a single contrast AF sensor. It's hard to imagine how this is going to play out in the trade press.

The AF will never be as good as with an H (no true focus either), but then it's medium format, not an 810 (which I own) so different process...

Size and heat management. I don't own a CMOS Hasselblad, but certainly my H5d-40 regularly has issues on warm days. It's got venting up the ying-yang, a fan, and a rather large cavity behind the sensor. When you look at the X1d it would appear that the only venting would come by way of removing the lens. We know that sensors and processors like this generate a fair amount of heat, and when they get warm, they produce more noise. It would have been nice today for the product manager talk about how they performed the magic trick relative to heat management on this camera. (The omission of a meaningful, current set of video features is probably related to this very issue).

Well it's CMOS for a start so less heat than CCD

Size and the lens Adapter. Certainly this system was designed around new, smaller (and slightly slower) optics. The mount looks frighteningly shallow. I'm really interested to see how this works when you attach the gravity bomb 55-110mm zoom or even the 120macro HC lens via an adapter. I've always been impressed by the sturdiness of Hasselblad's mounts, but occasionally the contacts have been finicky. Is this diminutive camera up to the task of supporting 3.6 pound lenses? Inquiring minds want to know.

I think if you put the 50-110 on this it will be a case of the camera hanging off the back of the zoom. On a tripod I'd be worried...

Size and SD over CFast -- To me the announcement of twin SD slots was a real surprise. While apparently the camera takes no hit in performance from the use of twin SD cards (although I don't see mention of buffer size, so we'll save this for later), it seems like choosing an older, consumer storage format is particularly telling. It's as if the well heeled amateur wouldn't buy the 13k system if they also had to shell out for a $350 memory card or two. Certainly pro's have no problem with c-fast ( I love it for the offload speeds, which are several orders faster than CF or SD) and also for the form factor which doesn't blow off my desk when the door opens.

I suspect the choice of SD was that they are popular and cheap, I imagine CFast wouldn't fir the form..

Size and Compromise. One poster here has talked a lot about this camera finally reviving the mamiya 7 form factor. This camera certainly isn't that. It's compactness is actually startling from what I can tell. I'm certain based on the presentation today that in the process of prototyping the X1D, the guiding principal was size more than anything. Not one new technology was discussed. It's impressive that Victor's progeny managed to scale this product with very few hits to the H6D's functionality. Over the next few months (or maybe even today), I'm sure we'll all find out what compromises were involved in meeting that goal.

I'll post some images below so you can see the relative size.

A few questions for Nick --

Focusing aids? What types and how functional/intuitive are they.

Battery Life -- Is this a travel cam that needs 3 batteries to make it through the day, or have they improved power management relative to the H bodies.

Electronic Viewfinder -- what's it like in terms of magnification and distortion.

Image buffer /shot rate -- Now that we are bringing this thing to the land of the unwashed masses. 1.7 frames is going to be really upsetting especially if the buffer slows things down at the 7th or 8th frame. How many shots can you shoot in raw, holding the shutter button down before it starts to lag.

Great questions and I don't really know I'm hoping to get hold of one for long term testing.

Do we have tethering or not?

Yes!

Thanks for all your work on this Nick.

Thank you for a well thought out post.

[NickT]

Size comparison:

[NickT]

Battery Life -- Is this a travel cam that needs 3 batteries to make it through the day, or have they improved power management relative to the H bodies.[/quote

Barry just saw this on another forum:

3200mAh battery - Sweet; three times the capacity of the a7RII battery

Any one know how long A7RII batteries last?

[iiiNelson]

Battery Life -- Is this a travel cam that needs 3 batteries to make it through the day, or have they improved power management relative to the H bodies.[/quote

Barry just saw this on another forum:

3200mAh battery - Sweet; three times the capacity of the a7RII battery

Any one know how long A7RII batteries last?

I usually shoot my A7RII with a grip because I have larger hands and it'll last a whole day with plenty of juice on reserve. That being said that's with two batteries and I'm not a "machine gun" photographer that bursts 5-10 shots of everything. The most I've heard anyone getting on a single A7RII battery is ~700 shots but that's with no chimping, EVF only, turning the camera off between shots, and ideal weather conditions. Typical is about 3-400 shots per battery. I'd imagine that the X1D should net at least 7-800 on a battery due to the larger sensor to operate. That should be enough for most people to last all day.

[Buddy]

Nick please check and verify this: using HC lenses with the official adapter my official dealer told me it is full autofocus and auto exposure(e.g. aperture priority mode).

[NickT]

Hi Buddy.

I don't think your dealer is quite right. Hasselblad are saying manual focus due to older lenses not having enough space to update firmware. I assume aperture priority will work just fine however.