First Look At The Hasselblad X1D-50c Mirrorless Medium Format Camera

Earlier today Hasselblad introduced the first ever medium format mirrorless camera. Although it weighs just half of what a conventional medium format does the sensor is identical to many of the new generation medium format cameras in size and resolution.

Sony introduced over a year ago the 50MP CMOS medium format sensor that almost all of the medium format manufacturers adopted for their lines, however despite this advancement (previously we only had CCD sensors in the medium format world with slow or missing live view, no video and very slow shooting speed and ISO), the cameras stayed exactly the same in size. Now Hasselblad became the first manufacturer to dramatically shrink the medium format to a size of a (still large but much more compact) mirrorless camera but with the same image quality as it uses the exact same 50MP CMOS sensor which is about twice the size of a 35mm Full Frame sensor that you find on a 5D/D810 or Sony A7 series camera.

Although Canon already has the 5DS R with 50MP resolution sensor (and there are talks of a Sony A9 with over 70MP), having a larger sensor does give you advantages in dynamic range (and possibly other aspects related to image quality (depending on the sensor technology of course).

The new Hasselblad X1D requires a new lens mount (called XCD) and currently there are only 2 lenses for it – a 45mm and a 90mm (with a 30mm coming later on), later on we shall also see an adaptor for Hasselblad H series lenses as well.

Here is a list of some of the features of the Hasselblad X1D (also mentioned in the above B&H video):

Sensor: 50MP CMOS 43.8 x 32.9mm (Sony made).
Dynamic Range: 16-Bit color, 14-Stops.
Video: Full HD 1080p H.264 @25 fps.
Sensitivity: ISO 100-25600.
Shooting speed: up to 2.3 fps.
Shutter speed: Central Shutter 60 min to 1/2000 sec (with a 1/2000 falsh sync).
Viewfinder: 2.36MP XGA EVF.
Display: 3.0″ 920k-Dot Touchscreen.
Storage: Dual SD Card slots.
Connectivity: Wi-Fi & GPS, USB 3.0 Type C
Weight: 725g.

The Hasselblad X1D-50c might be smaller than a normal medium format but the price isn’t small by any means – the camera itself which will be available in about a month will set you back almost $9000 (body only) with about $2200 for the Hasselblad XCD 45mm f/3.5 lens and almost $2700 for the XCD 90mm F4.5 lens.

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Iddo Genuth

Iddo Genuth is the founder and chief editor of LensVid.com. He has been a technology reporter working for international publications since the late 1990's and covering photography since 2009. Iddo is also a co-founder of a production company specializing in commercial food and product visual content.