NSFW Hasselblad X2D 100C: Inspiration in Every Detail

[Pao Dolina]

 

[Asher Kelman]

Beautiful in every way.

But it didn’t tell us about shutter speeds for flash!

 

[Pao Dolina]

Beautiful in every way.

But it didn’t tell us about shutter speeds for flash!

 

[Jerome Marot]

As normally avoid youtube, I got my info directly on the manufacturer's web site:
https://www.hasselblad.com/x-system/x2d-100c/

https://cdn.hasselblad.com/f/77891/x/9d9016542e/x2d_100c_datasheet_en.pdf

 

[Jerome Marot]

Beautiful in every way.

But it didn’t tell us about shutter speeds for flash!

Hasselblad cameras use a central shutter, which will sync at all speeds.

 

[Jerome Marot]

There is now a second version of that camera.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Jérôme, I would love to own an X2D by Hasselblad!

It apparently is most appreciated for outstanding landscape color and the ability to synch flash at any speed of the lenses leaf shutter and have so overpower daylight in shooting outdoors! So I would be privileged to use it. However it’s more expensive and I already own the 50S and 100S Fuji GFX bodies.

With an adapter I can use my Canon EF lenses with AF and manual lenses with in camera-body stabilization.

Fuji GFX models are practical workhorses: , (using the same Sony sensor), with superior AF, body image stabilization, fast frame rate and video!

But if I get the extra cash by selling off lenses I don’t use, I would get the Hasselblad just for overpowering sunlight for model shoots in sunny California!

Asher

 

[Jerome Marot]

Jérôme, I would love to own an X2D by Hasselblad!

There are quite a few used ones for 5-6000$ on the market at present. The model II is 7400$ new.

 

[Jerome Marot]

X2D have fallen to 4k or lower in the used US market. Several of the lenses of the first series are also quite affordable.

 

[Jerome Marot]

I found this interesting video about Hasselblad lenses. Per Nordlund is the lead optical engineer at Hasselblad. The video discusses the challenges in optical design for the first series of XCD lenses.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Jérôme,

Indeed!

This is a remarkable video of an exceptional compact camera of an unusually distinguished camera company.

Even though they use Sony sensors shared by Fuji and others, their engineers refined the data to image files with dedication to our human sensitivity to colors and the evoked feelings as a consequence of that.

It’s not merely about color fidelity, there’s enough there, but it’s more like the rare slices of complementary falloff and other tricks they derive from these “sensels” others use to yet do a uniquely superior result that artists especially admire and appreciate.

I however, can’t afford the extra price those earning their living by photography find worthwhile. So I use the 100 megapixel GFX cousin to this camera and have enough magic still to satisfy my own creative capabilities.

The key to Hasselblad is being able to set their own high goals and engineer the integration of parts made by others with such refined methodologies that the sculpt the pathways of signals of photons as if they made every included part themselves.

This creative genius is not something people are born with. It requires the following:

1. A prime interest in some concept of their goal.

2. A background of many years of practicing, “play”, simply playing as children, so they possess minds capable of exploring.

3. Commitment to set goals

4. Persistent related attempts despite multiple failures

5. Fearless dogged risk-taking to achieve goals.

6. Assembling this pattern as standard dedicated daily practiced behavior like playing the violin or painting letters in a store sign, freehand.

7. More kindly coming from a rich family where everyone has permission to debate and question and follow their own path as opposed to the poor, who to eat, eat Must confirm to what others demand of them!


So in summary, anyone with relatively ample normal intelligence can be creative, but with Hasselblad, they are distinguished by advanced trained intelligence too!

Asher

 

[Jerome Marot]

I however, can’t afford the extra price those earning their living by photography find worthwhile. So I use the 100 megapixel GFX cousin to this camera and have enough magic still to satisfy my own creative capabilities.

At present the X2D and the GFX 100 are about the same price on the used market.

The key to Hasselblad is being able to set their own high goals and engineer the integration of parts made by others with such refined methodologies that the sculpt the pathways of signals of photons as if they made every included part themselves.

This creative genius is not something people are born with. It requires the following:

1. A prime interest in some concept of their goal.

2. A background of many years of practicing, “play”, simply playing as children, so they possess minds capable of exploring.

3. Commitment to set goals

4. Persistent related attempts despite multiple failures

5. Fearless dogged risk-taking to achieve goals.

6. Assembling this pattern as standard dedicated daily practiced behavior like playing the violin or painting letters in a store sign, freehand.

7. More kindly coming from a rich family where everyone has permission to debate and question and follow their own path as opposed to the poor, who to eat, eat Must confirm to what others demand of them!


So in summary, anyone with relatively ample normal intelligence can be creative, but with Hasselblad, they are distinguished by advanced trained intelligence too!

Did you use an AI tool to write this message? It is not your usual style.

 

[Asher Kelman]

At present the X2D and the GFX 100 are about the same price on the used market.




Did you use an AI tool to write this message? It is not your usual style.

That’s funny!


I wrote it all myself, but lately I’ve been thinking about why some folk are creative while others work hard and are not. Companies like Leica, Hasselblad, Phase One and Fuji each have their own special sauce, but all share a commitment to refinement and excellence. I’m in awe of their competence, creativity and progress.


I now believe the greatest preparation is play as a child, with parents who explain things, allow debate and treat failures as ways of mapping a path to success.


It’s a miracle that, although I grew up dirt poor, I was trained to question everything. We had orange crates instead of chairs, cardboard instead of glass in the windows, washed jam jars instead of cups, and cardboard to repair holes in our shoes. My father was dictatorial and never reasoned with his eight children. Yet from age 12, Talmudic argument taught me strict logic: “if, then, else.” Facts, opinions and decisions were all open to questioning.


With no ball to play with, I tried to make one from rubbery tree sap, clay, powdered coke from our little water-heating stove and dried grass. I kept experimenting. Paradoxically, I was developing the habits of a child raised in a forward-looking family that encouraged their potential.


So, Jérôme, all this was behind my thoughts about how Hasselblad succeeds in delivering such fine image files. You could have said it in three sentences! My writing came from years of thinking about creativity, which depends on the games we play and the leagues we play in.


For poor people to succeed, they may need to change leagues—by emigrating, marrying up or otherwise escaping an environment that teaches them to obey orders and accept borders, fences and limitations. Wealthy children are often freer to succeed. But creativity also takes rigorous, continuous, unrelenting play and training. It requires no special intelligence.


Asher

 

[Jerome Marot]

The presentation in bullet points reminded me of IA, sorry.

To answer your post: Hasselblad does not have vastly different colors than the rest, even if that was one of their marketing points. It is a bit better on some subjects under some lights if you use their Phocus software, but not days and night.

Hasselblad has better corrections for their lenses. Their software is fed with data from the lens design and thus can do much better than third party software (which is what the competition uses when they don't develop their own software). Their lenses are also very good (what the video shows), although vignetting is high (because the lenses are compact). The lens quality control is also better than what is usual on 24x36. So, basically, the promise is "sharp from corner to corner" and it is true, especially for the first series of XCD lenses. The more recent XCD28 less so, as it is sold for compactness. We will see if that is a new policy for DJI (the owner of Hasselblad).
The rendering between lenses is also very consistent, but Canon or Sony can do that as well.

Another advantage of the X2D that is often overlooked is the ergonomics. Because they designed the camera line from scratch, Hasselblad could find new solutions. For example, the X2D screen can be used as a trackpad when looking into the viewfinder. That is incredibly convenient and ignored by reviewers who complained that there is no joystick because they did not realized that there is a better solution.

You mentioned the cost of the system. While MF cameras are never cheap, DJI reduced the price of the X2Dii over the price of the X2D. As a consequence, the prices on the used market for the X2D tumbled. The lenses are still expensive compared to the lenses for the GFX, but the first series can be found used for a lot less. And let us not forget that 24x36 lenses saw their prices rise in the past years as well.

 

[Jerome Marot]

Lately I’ve been thinking about why some folk are creative while others work hard and are not.

I answer that particular question independently, maybe you want to move that particular discussion to another thread.

Some folk are creative, that is true. Probably a lot more folk than we realize are creative, because some creative activities go under the radar. I am thinking about activities like sewing (clothes design) or cooking for example.

Some folk work hard, some less so. I don't think there is a link between working hard and creativity (beyond the fact that one needs some free time to be creative). There is also probably little correlation between wealth and creativity. Some of the poorest people I know are quite creative. Mozart was poor.

The correlation I noticed is that people who put a great emphasis about social status are less creative than others. When you keep up with the Joneses, you imitate them, you don't seek new solutions. That may explain some of the effect.

 

[Asher Kelman]

I answer that particular question independently, maybe you want to move that particular discussion to another thread.

Some folk are creative, that is true. Probably a lot more folk than we realize are creative, because some creative activities go under the radar. I am thinking about activities like sewing (clothes design) or cooking for example.

Some folk work hard, some less so. I don't think there is a link between working hard and creativity (beyond the fact that one needs some free time to be creative). There is also probably little correlation between wealth and creativity. Some of the poorest people I know are quite creative. Mozart was poor.

The correlation I noticed is that people who put a great emphasis about social status are less creative than others. When you keep up with the Joneses, you imitate them, you don't seek new solutions. That may explain some of the effect.

Creativity is a behavior requiring a background in play and a commitment to training like swimming, tennis’s and playing the cello!

Poor people are more likely to have narrower freedoms to commit to practice. But getting out of that environment is often the opening of the door to freedom to innovate and not conform.

Mozart may have been poor but had a father who endowed him with training that allowed him to behave creatively as the son of a prince!