Hasselblad Announces Groundbreaking 50mp CMOS Mirrorless Camera
The Hasselblad X1D is the worlds first mirrorless digital medium format camera. Weighing less than half of a conventional MF camera and crafted from quality durable materials, it takes design inspiration from the original V System. Weather and dust sealed to stand up to challenging conditions, delivering the revered image quality Hasselblad has pioneered since 1941.
Its mirrorless body design and central lens shutter allows shooting noise to be kept very low allowing unobtrusive image capture when required.
Designed to be the smallest and lightest mirrorless digital medium format camera possible, whilst still maintaining Hasselblad’s very high build and image quality standards, the result is barely larger than smaller format mirrorless cameras.
Now you can have the portability and convienience of a smaller format camera coupled with the medium format image quality you have dreamed of.
Dual Card Slot
The X1D has dual SD media card slots to maximise storage options and flexibility.
This type of media card is an industry standard with very good data transfer rates and wide ranging compatibility with existing card readers.
Storage options include:
Save captures to card 1, then when it is full use card 2 Save captures to both cards simultaneously as a backup Save RAW captures to card 1 and JPEG captures to card 2
USB 3.0 Type-C Connector
A USB 3.0 Type-C connector allows the user to connect to their chosen computer system without the need to use an adapter.
It also delivers very fast transfer rates of more than five times that of Firewire, ensuring tethered liveview or stills capture is an experience to be enjoyed.
Mini HDMI & Audio I/O ports
The addition of a mini HDMI port along with the associated Input/Output ports enables videographers to display the video feed on a larger external monitor for audio and video files.
Wi-Fi & GPS
Wi-Fi is included as standard supporting b,g,n and ac standards on both 2.4 and 5Ghz where permitted. This allows previews of the captured images to be viewed on an iOS device along with remote camera control and a 30fps liveview feed.
GPS is also included as a standard feature enabling geotagging of your images at capture.
High Resolution Rear Touch Display
The new 3.0” rear display boasts touch capability along with user customisation options including assigning nine favourite functions to touch buttons. The resolution is 920K dots and the image display performance delivers clear, colour accurate image reviews and high performance Liveview. The new smartphone style, icon based UI speeds access to even little used functions ensuring full use of the camera’s capabilities.
High Resolution Electronic Viewfinder
The X1D is equipped with a 2.36MP electronic viewfinder. The display has a fast refresh rate, wide conrast range (230:1) and 24-bit colour output delivering a crisp, accurate representation of the capture area. The information within the viewfinder displays a wide range of information including aperture, shutter speed, shots remaining and exposure level. The eyestart sensor built in to the eye cup automatically switches the display from the rear screen as you place your eye to the viewfinder.
After listening to the feedback from Hasselblad users we have implemented different image capture modes. These will include a square format (delivering a 39MP capture) and finally the much requested XPan panoramic format.
The viewfinder display adjusts to show the correct image area for the chosen capture ratio with unused areas blacked out.
The X1D offers 3 custom settings on the mode dial that allows the user to customise the camera settings. For example, you can set how the AF should work, which exposure mode should be used and what ISO setting should be used for a particular assignment. This way you can easily switch between certain behaviours during a shoot.
50MP CMOS SENSOR
The X1D will ship with the tried and tested 50MP CMOS sensor. The 44 x 33mm chip offers a considerable improvement in image capture quality compared with full frame and other smaller sensor formats. To allow photographers using this sensor to extract the maximum image quality available the sensor is capable of delivering up to 14 stops of dynamic range. Coupled with the extended shutter speed and ISO range, this sensor is capable of recording breathtaking detail even in poor lighting conditions.
The Hasselblad Central Lens Shutter
While the principal of a central, or leaf shutter is very simple, designing one which is fast, accurate, durable and energy efficient is a great challenge. The shutter units are built at our factory in Sweden where we can control each step of the manufacturing process and maintain the utmost quality, shot after shot.
For a leaf shutter to be effective it must accelerate to its open position as quickly as possible and also close quickly and reliably, using minimal power and without causing damage to the blades. This design has many advantages:
- Flash sync at all shutter speeds, up to 1/2000th second.
- No energy is required to hold the shutter in an open or closed state as the powerful neodymium magnets perform this function.
- The acceleration speed of the leaf blades are very high, so the time taken for the blades to fully open and close is minimal.
- Calibration of shutter speeds is not dependent on mechanics or springs and can be set extremely accurately.
- The shutter is incredibly durable. Working with test exposures of up to 1/1000th second we have seen extremely high life cycles, well beyond the existing service limit of 1,000,000 exposures.
- The shutter is in a ‘ready’ state at all times so does not need to be ‘cocked’.
- Virtually no vibration for longer exposures.
