Hasselblad X1D Hands-On

As the Hasselblad X1D World Tour made its southernmost stop in the USA (Boca Raton, FL), I drove up the 50+ miles from Miami to finally get to see the Wunderkind from Sweden first hand. It did not disappoint, so far.
First off, a big thanks to Peter Lorber for hosting the event at his store Custom Photo Images and Hasselblad, of course, for having the tour in the first place.

First Impressions

The X1D up close looks like someone took the Hasselblad V, modernized it, and then cut themselves a nice thick slice and stuck a grip on the side. While this sounds a bit slapdash, the X1D most definitely is not.
I was surprised as to how light the X1D was given the incredibly solid feel of it. There were two pre-production cameras at the demo: an early prototype that sported a leatherette cover and a late pre-production model that used a grippier rubber-like grip covering (pictured above). The later prototype also sported a more gray-ish color scheme than the earlier version.
Speaking of the grip, I have to say that this is one of the most comfortable that I have ever had the pleasure of holding. No aftermarket grips for this camera!
Other professional touches include:

• Dual SDXC card slots
• Weather and dust sealing
• USB 3.0 Type-C connector
• WiFi and GPS
• Mini-HDMI and Audio In/Out ports
• Compatibility with the Nikon Flash System (not yet implemented)

Size

The X1D is indeed small. It is no mean feat that Hasselblad managed to cram all of the electronics of the H6D-50c into such a tiny package. Here is a shot of the siblings so you get a better idea:


Granted, the X1D lacks a top display but this does not make it any less capable. The weight comparison is that of a large brick vs. a pack of playing cards. At least it feels that way. This may explain why some younger medium-format shooters look like body builders.

Lenses

Both XCD lenses were on hand and the shots we took with the camera confirmed what the MTF charts indicated: ludicrous levels of sharpness. Also, because of the large sensor, the camera's depth-of-field was amazingly thin. I took a test shot of my trusty Olympus Pen-F and I focused on the body logo. Even at f/8, the front of the lens hood was blurry. I checked by focusing on the lens hood and the body logo was indeed blurry. Stooping down to f/11 solved that little "problem".
These are quite possibly the largest mirrorless lenses I have ever seen. Not surprising since the X1D is the first mirrorless camera to sport a medium format digital sensor. My Pen-F primes could easily stand vertically in the lens hood of either lens. Despite that, they balance incredibly well on the X1D body.
The shutter is located in the lens and is extremely quiet. I suspect that the final version will use an electronic shutter to start the exposure and the leaf shutter to end it. This will also aid greatly in reducing EVF black out.

EVF and Rear Display

The EVF is a 2.36 million dot affair which is comparable to the display in the Sony A7 II but a far cry from the 4.4 million dot EVF of the Leica SL. Still, the images are crisp and manual focusing was still possible even though focus peaking was not implemented yet. One interesting quirk: the EVF needs to be activated after the camera is turned on. Bringing the EVF up to you eye turns it on, but you still have to half-press the shutter button in order to display an image. I don't know if that is a pre-production thing or by design. The 920k dot rear display is based on the H6D's interface and it is a very smartphone like experience. Typical smartphone gestures like swiping, pinching, and tap/double tap make the camera pretty easy to learn.
These pre-production units suffered a bit from display blackout and the autofocus was limited to the center point. Hasselblad assures me that more points will be available in the production version along with touch point selection using the rear display and that blackout times will be minimized.

Images

We were allowed to take photos with the two demo units but the cards belonged to Hasselblad. Peter had his Phocus workflow all set up and we could look at a few images. Most of the time we just zoomed in on the rear display.

Verdict

Of what I have seen and handled with the pre-production cameras during this tour, I can say that Hasselblad truly seeks to upset the apple cart. Because I could not keep any images captured by the X1Ds at the event, I could not subject them to my usual workflow and check the results. Peter informs me that he should have his production demo units by the beginning of August, so I will have to plan another little trip up to Boca.