WELCOME TO THE FUTURE WITH HASSELBLAD

The world’s first medium format mirrorless camera has arrived, the Hasselblad X1D-50c. It is smaller and lighter than either the Canon 5Ds or Leica SL and features a 50-megapixel CMOS sensor from the H6D. With an ISO range of 100 to 25600 and a dynamic range of up to 14 stops, it’ll shoot full 1080 HD video, but not 4K.

There will be two autofocus lenses offered at launch: a 45mm f3.5 and a 90mm f3.2. Leaf shutters in both will allow much higher flash sync speeds, up to 1/2000ths of a second. However, at just under 2.5fps, the X1D is not aimed at sports photographers, and without image stabilization it’s not designed for hand holding in low light.

The Hasselblad X1D-50c will cost $9K, and the lenses will run $2295 and $2695 respectively. Product is expected in late August. Will be interesting to see how the files stack up against a Canon 5DSR.