It’s the Lens, Stupid!
The real advantage of Hasselblad’s X-system
It was a cold and cloudy day in March of 2023 when I was scrolling through my Facebook feed and noticed that a photography store in Koper was hosting a test day for Hasselblad’s X2D 100MP camera. Obviously, this was something I had wanted to get my hands on for quite a while, so I immediately booked my session and hopped into my car. To be quite honest, I was a bit unprepared. I didn’t even consider taking a tripod or making a checklist of tests that would be smart to perform. It was all very impromptu. Nevertheless, I managed to wander around the city for almost an hour and snap some nice shots with it. Alongside, I took my Sony A7R3 with a Sigma 35mm 1.4 Art lens for comparison. It was a blast!
That very evening, when I got home, I was disappointed. The files were simply too large for my 2017 iMac to handle. With great effort, I edited one or two and left the rest for my future self with a better computer. Now that I have a Mac Mini M2 Pro, I can finally give those files a proper look.
The main advantage of this system is the lenses, not the sensor. As much as I want to believe that there are some amazing colors that can be pulled out of these files, the differences are subtle at best. I just couldn’t find enough to justify the price disparity. The real quality comes from the…
