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the Hasselblad X1D is a 50 megapixel medium format workhorse with a form
factor smaller than a DSLR I have spent a few weeks now shooting with this
camera and I want to share with you what this machine will do just as a quick
note this is not a sponsored review Hasselblad did loan me the X1D and three
lenses to shoot with but the results and opinions in this video are mine so who
exactly is this camera for well it's for photographers who need high-resolution
this camera is built around a 50 megapixel medium format sensor which
performs beautifully but the most unique feature of the camera is its size it's
extremely portable and surprisingly lightweight for a medium format digital
camera which opens up what photographers are able to do without the weight and
size of other medium format options last week I was in Arizona working with a
photo lab doing darkroom prints and this week for a complete change of pace I'm
in New York City today and I'm going to be talking about digital medium format
and I have this camera which is the Hasselblad X1D that I'll be working
with and I'm really excited about this because for me personally in the last
couple years medium format is kind of starting to develop into a place where
it's accessible and it's getting really good and there are only handful of
cameras that are available right now medium format has been around for a long
time back in the old film days the studio cameras that were modular would
have a removable film back and it made sense to design a digital back that you
could put on there and at least tether to shoot and that developed to a degree
but it was also prohibitively expensive for most people and so what we're
starting to see now is medium format that is coming down to the consumer
level and honestly the older technology with the digital backs has been somewhat
stuck a little bit dated and we're starting to see some really cool things
what excites me about the Hasselblad X1D is this size this is this is a tiny
medium format camera and so this makes it very versatile in a number of
applications I did shoot on this a little bit when I was at the Grand
Canyon last week and so I used it for landscapes with that and we'll talk
about all this in a minute I was really excited about that I mean that's slow
photography you're mounted to a tripod but the fact that you generally have to
do a lot of walking when you're doing landscapes this was just a dream to have
less stuff with me and so that was one thing was really cool but because it's so
portable it makes sense that you would be able to do candid and street as well
and since we're in New York I can't think of a better place to do some of
that so come along with me let's go out and check out the Hasselblad X1D
I also want to mention that this video is sponsored by the awesome folks over
at squarespace.com who actually are like a few blocks that way you need a website
you need a place to put your stuff whether you're building a portfolio at
gallery an online store you name it Squarespace have you covered and if you
decide to make your next move with Squarespace I can save you 10% off your
order by using offer code AOP on checkout - that offer code is AOP thanks again
to Squarespace for sponsoring the Art of Photography
the X1D was announced in June of 2016 and his release has provided some
interesting challenges for Hasselblad while they are known for making digital
format cameras going all the way back to the 1940s building a system with this
small a size has been a major undertaking but I do want to note that
Hasselblad have been extremely committed to firmware updates and the latest was
released literally this morning as I'm editing this video in addition to the 11
new features to this camera in this firmware update I have noticed a
substantial performance boost and noticeably faster boot up time when you
turn on the camera the X1D is probably one of the most beautifully designed
cameras that I have ever used Hasselblad have always been known for
their high-end Scandinavian design aesthetic and this camera falls right
into that succession the camera is built beautifully from milled aluminum so it
has a rugged feel while at the same time being very light the design to me kind
of feels like the body of the old SWC super wide film cameras just the body
part without the back but with an extremely comfortable grip that sticks
off to the side and the grip actually extends to both the front and the back
and it's extremely comfortable to hold in use the ergonomics are so good in
fact that I was able to handhold some pretty slow shutter speeds in low-light
with excellent results as smaller format cameras often feature image
stabilization to help with this I was actually pleasantly surprised to see
what I was able to do with the X1D the controls and layout of the camera are
simple and straightforward the camera features a recessed mode dial and quick
access buttons for basic camera features the specific settings for the camera are
controlled from the rear touch display the interface is clean and easy to read
it's extremely intuitive as most of the options can be dialed in with the touch
selection so what's really cool about this is the interactive touch screen so when
I have my eye up to the viewfinder you can actually use your thumb and it's
selectable what area whether you're you know which side screen you kind of touch
natively I have it set up on the lower left-hand side and it actually
responsive because it's just one focus point on this you don't have phase
detection or anything so you're able to move that around and actually look
pretty quick it's impressive I want to note it is slower than what
you're going to have on a mirrorless camera or DSLR but I would guess that as
medium format cameras mature over the next few years many of these features
will eventually bridge over the image quality on this camera is outstanding
auto white balance is extremely accurate and the color rendition from the images
is beautiful I found that the images are pretty much ready to go straight off the
card for people who don't want to do heavy editing and the color is spot-on
the meter is surprisingly good as well in that it is Center weighted and there
are a few instances where I wanted to protect highlights an extreme lighting
scenario and it's just a matter of using the exposure compensation it's mapped to
the rear dial resolution though is the key feature for me 50 megapixel images
are made from the 44 by 33 millimeter CMOS sensor this combined with Hasselblad's
lens lineup renders exactly what you would expect sharp images with
resolution suitable for large prints that can easily be cropped and still
hold enough information to be usable if you haven't shot on a medium format
camera this is actually a useful option that you don't have on smaller
resolution cameras I've been using three lenses with this camera the standard 45
millimeter the 30 millimeter and of the 90 millimeter all are solid and they
give a very decent range to this camera system Hasselblad only has four
dedicated lenses at the time when filming this but have released firmware
today that actually allows the H system lenses with autofocus and that extends
the range considerably and additional XCD system native lenses are planned
over the next year it's also worth noting that one of the firmware updates
enabled electronic shutter is an option and this extends the lenses that you can
actually adapt to the camera of course it also makes the camera more stealth
when you're in a sensitive situation is there's no shutter noise but I do want
to note that with electronic shutter you are likely to see rolling shutter
artifacts if anything is moving and this is something that you're gonna find
really with any CMOS sensor but in the right situations using the electronic
shutter actually extends the versatility of this camera and I found that if you
want to show depth the field in bright settings using the electronic shutter
significantly extends the range of shutter speeds that you have I've had
the opportunity so far to use the X1D when I was at the Grand Canyon last week
doing landscape as well as in New York this week doing
urban and street photography and one thing that I want to note is that it's
performed exceptionally well in really cold temperatures now cold temperatures
can kill battery life and mine actually performed it just fine for landscapes
this cameras great because of its size even with filters it's not that big of a
system to carry which makes it very desirable and for street photography
I've found that it's a little slow compared to the way I normally shoot
with moving subjects but the more I shot with it the better I learned how to play
to its strengths the X1D is an impressive system to use and because of
its size it's a really unique option in terms of medium format cameras the
unique feature that sets the X1D apart is its size and it I really cannot go on
about how convenient that is you have the image quality I've talked about the
white balance and the exposure being just absolutely incredible and this
makes it portable and that's a big deal now when I got this camera I got really
excited and I looked up some of my colleagues videos on it and I looked at
some blog posts and to be fair this camera's been out for a little while
now Hasselblad do regular firmware updates and they've constantly been
working on this and a lot of the issues that I found people were having with
this camera I actually didn't have I found it to be very responsive I found
it be very easy to use it was a lot faster than what I saw other people
talking about and I think that's important to note because Hasselblad
are clearly behind this camera and making it better
and I think that's something worth mentioning the other thing that I think
is a huge deal with this camera is in one of the more recent firmware updates
they enabled the electronic shutter is it perfect no not at this point you're
still because the nature of the CMOS sensor you're gonna get a rolling
shutter if there's any motion at all but that's an exciting thing because that
will improve and what that means is the lenses this is designed around leaf
shutters and so it eliminates the need to be dependent on that leaf shutter so
if you have an electronic shutter this means you can adapt third party lenses
assuming they have the coverage if there's a lot of vignetting and they don't
depends on how heavy it is but you could conceivably crop in a little bit on that
as well but I think there's a lot of promising things to come with this
camera and a lot of versatility and I absolutely love it one thing worth
mentioning is Hasselblad did tell me that they have a rental program right
now so if you just want to rent one and use it for a while and try it out and
see for yourself I'll put links in the show description and if you've had
experience with this camera I'd love to hear from you as well so please leave me
a comment until the next video I'll be in New York
for the next couple days and there's a lot of videos coming and a lot of cool
stuff that I'm working on up here so I will see you guys in the next video
until then later
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