Hasselblad’s new 907X CFV 100C digital camera is extraordinarily costly. It is sluggish and typically irritating to function and lacks options like in-body stabilization or any form of video taking pictures mode. But someway I discover it to be essentially the most creatively inspiring digital camera to make use of and it is the digital camera I might most need to purchase if I might justify its price ticket.
The digital camera physique itself is available in at $8,199 and I examined it with three major lenses: The XCD 55mm f/2.5 V Lens ($3,699), the XCD 90mm f/2.5 V Lens ($4,299) and the brand-new, wide-angle XCD 25mm f/2.5 V Lens ($3,699). The price of my check equipment got here to the princely sum of $19,896.
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That is a variety of money for a digital camera that I discovered to have a lot of quality-of-life drawbacks. There’s the sluggish and typically unpredictable autofocus and the awkward shutter button. The management ring is small and tough to function, requiring you to additionally maintain down a shift button if you wish to alter publicity compensation.
Taken with the 55mm lens. Edited in Lightroom.
Then there’s the truth that there is no mechanical curtain to guard the big picture sensor, which means it is uncovered to all the weather each time you alter a lens. Do not even take into consideration switching lenses on a windy day on a sandy seashore, except you need to spend an hour eradicating grime spots in Photoshop after which have your sensor correctly cleaned.
There isn’t any viewfinder, so you may be composing photos solely utilizing the LCD show, which underneath vivid circumstances might be tough to see. You find yourself feeling like your compositions are extra “greatest guesses” than correctly thought of photos.
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Then there’s the dearth of in-body stabilization, one thing you will discover on Hasselblad’s X2D digital camera and which might enable for a lot sharper photos when hand-holding at slower shutter speeds. With 100 megapixels of decision, there is no hiding even the slightest of blurriness.
The XPan mode provides a large panoramic view, which I beloved enjoying with. Taken with the 90mm lens, edited in Lightroom.
I might usually anticipate all these points to place me off, particularly contemplating the worth. But someway this digital camera managed to solid such a spell over me that any negatives merely appeared meaningless in opposition to how I felt when taking pictures with this factor.
I’ve sprinkled quite a lot of instance photos all through this text, however you may head right here if you wish to see much more.
It helps that it is beautiful to have a look at, with a boxy design that harks again to Hasselblad’s earlier medium-format movie cameras just like the 500CM. The LCD show tilts up, encouraging you to carry the digital camera extra at waist peak, trying down on it as you’ll these older cameras. It is made with chrome and leatherette supplies, which really feel unimaginable to carry, and its surprisingly compact dimension means it is a medium-format digital camera I have been in a position to have hanging spherical my neck all day with out feeling like I’ve strapped a ship’s anchor to myself.
With 100 megapixels of decision, particulars on this digital camera are excellent. Taken with the 55mm lens, edited in Lightroom.
Then in fact there’s the picture high quality. That enormous medium-format sensor not solely provides an enormous variety of megapixels for pin-sharp particulars, however it additionally permits for excellent dynamic vary, which means highlights might be saved underneath management and shadow particulars might be lifted with none loss to picture high quality. I’ve put the digital camera by its paces on distant Scottish islands, in picturesque fishing villages and within the coronary heart of Scotland’s capital metropolis of Edinburgh and I have been impressed with the photographs I’ve captured at each step.
I significantly love taking pictures utilizing the XPan crop mode, which produces broad panoramas with the identical 2.70:1 facet ratio as Hasselblad’s outdated XPan movie digital camera. It is a distinctive approach of taking pictures, and I discovered many events when this panoramic format actually lent a recent view to a scene and allowed me to compose in a completely new approach. Positive, you may simply apply a panoramic crop to any digital camera’s picture in Lightroom and get ostensibly the identical outcome. However there’s one thing about visualizing it on the again of a digital camera and capturing it within the second that feels infinitely extra satisfying, particularly when utilizing the brand new 25mm lens, which provides a wide-angle view thereby giving extra room for these slender crops.
Considered one of my favourite photos taken utilizing the XPan format. I like how the broad view emphasises the detrimental house across the topic. Taken with the 55mm lens, edited in Lightroom.
I believe too that I like this digital camera not in spite of the aforementioned points however presumably as a result of of them. The sluggish autofocus and considerably clunky bodily management forces a slower, extra methodical strategy to my images, which means every of my photos needs to be extra thought of. I return from a location having shot far fewer photos than I’d’ve performed utilizing my typical Canon R5, however every of these photos is extra more likely to be a “keeper” somewhat than merely being culled within the import course of.
Do not get me unsuitable, I’ve taken about 2,000 photos with the Hasselblad in my few weeks of testing. However I’ve nonetheless discovered I have been firing up the digital camera solely once I really feel the scene positively warrants the {photograph}. I discover I have been extra selective of my photos and extra important of the potential scene in entrance of me earlier than deciding whether or not to arrange the shot, which in flip has resulted in better-quality photos.
A sunbather on a harbor wall. Taken with the 55mm lens, edited in Lightroom.
The argument is, in fact, that the Hasselblad has no actual half to play on this — it is merely a psychological state that might be achieved with any digital camera. I might merely decelerate my course of with my R5 (possibly use solely guide focus, to drive a extra methodical model with an in any other case lightning-fast digital camera) and doubtless I might see an enchancment in my general high quality.
However whether or not it is the slower approach of working, the top-down retro field design, the shiny Hasselblad emblem, the corporate’s deep images heritage or the quite a few, “Oh wow, is that the brand new Hasselblad?” feedback I’ve had from passing photographers, I’ve discovered there’s one thing actually inspirational in working with this digital camera.
An individual pictures the northern lights over Edinburgh. Taken with the 25mm lens, edited in Lightroom and Photoshop.
I see it on my desk and I need to take it again out to seize extra. I have been imagining the places I need to take it to, the picture initiatives I need to produce with it and the galleries I might wish to create of photos I’ve shot with it. It is a digital camera that appears to need to take stunning photos each bit as a lot as I do.
Two individuals take pleasure in a seaside lunch. Taken with the 55mm lens, edited in Lightroom.
I purchased the Canon R5 for purely sensible causes; excessive sufficient decision, picture stabilization, video abilities. It was a box-ticking train that resulted in me having a really succesful however in any other case uninspiring digital camera. I really feel it is like a plumber shopping for a Ford Transit van for work. It needs to be large enough, dependable, economical. And although it is an ideal work device that will get them from A to B, it is most likely not the car they dream of driving down the Italian coast. A basic open-top Ferrari? Now we’re speaking.
An individual appears to be like out at a shocking view on Canna, Scotland. Taken with the 90mm lens, edited in Lightroom.
The R5 is my van: sensible, superb for my skilled images, however it’s not the digital camera I dream of.
The Hasselblad 907X is my Ferrari. A dream merchandise constructed for one factor solely: The love of images.
