for two weeks now.

I've taken over a thousand photos with it,

and I can confidently say, that it is a great camera

but it has one major downside

and quite honestly a niche group

of people that might actually be able to own it.

I'm Becca Farsace, welcome back to Full Frame, bud.

The $8,100 X2D 100C is utterly Hasselblad,

which means that it's incredibly well built

and it takes stunning photos,

but it does it pretty damn slowly.

And in the mirrorless camera megapixel race the X2D's 100

of them is only beaten by Fuji films GFX 100

and 100S's 102 megapixels.

The X2D's digital medium format, 43.8 by 32.9 millimeter

backside illuminated CMOS sensor,

physically makes a full frame sensor look baby,

and it provides very high quality, 16 bit photos

with 15 stops of dynamic range.

Many photographers will argue that more megapixels

doesn't usually mean that much greater image quality

and I would mostly agree, but what makes these photos stand

out is Hasselblad's true life color science met

with a robust sensor and high quality lenses

that certainly makes for an image that you feel

like you could just reach out and touch.

For my testing, I had access

to two new Hasselblad XCD lenses.

The 350 gram XCD 38V

and the 376 gram XCD 55V that both have

an F 2.5 to F 32 aperture and both cost $3,699.

Any XCD lens will be compatible with this camera.

It's just that these new lenses have a better design

and faster focusing systems.

They are certainly not cheap

but they are small and relatively lightweight

for being all metal and made for a medium format camera.

I also think these are the nicest lenses

Hasselblad a has ever released for a digital camera.

I love the Hs around the ring

and this Hasselblad logo on the side is just,

I don't know super nice not to mention

these metal lens caps.

I mean, come on, it's just so cool.

Hasselblad will also be releasing a $4,299.

XCD 90V lens that is a bit heavier at 551 grams.

I digress, this is the type

of camera that you take photos of like cracks

in the sidewalk and you show them to your friends.

And you're like, yo, bud

look at this crack in the sidewalk.

It's so crisp.

It's like crisper than what I see, you know.

Okay.

On average, a 3FR raw file, which is the raw files

from Hasselblad from the X2D are around 216 megabytes.

They are big boys and all those can be conveniently stored

on a one terabyte internal drive that has write speeds

up to 2070 megabytes per second.

And read speeds up to 2,850 megabytes per second.

I have been perfectly happy shooting right

onto the internal storage of this camera

and then downloading it

via the included braided USB C 3.1 gen two cable.

Now these raw photos, they have a great deal of latitude.

So let's pixel peep.

When shooting with this system,

I found it was better to underexposed than over.

I had a much easier time pulling

up the shadows than bringing down the highlights.

But in low light situations, you have to nail the exposure

because once you're shooting around ISO 3,200 or higher

the photos will start to show grain in the shadows

when pushing those low lights.

The good news is, is that there's in-body image

stabilization to help.

Sensors of this size,

they notoriously show every bit of shake

but I was able to comfortably shoot at around like one 30th,

even one 10th of a second sometimes,

without noticing my handshake.

All of that being said,

I still found that this camera is far more fun

to use when there is ample light and bright, bold colors.

Also, this camera now goes down to ISO 64.

Love that.

The issue with the X2D is that it's slow.

It feels like every camera manufacturer has

turned focusing speeds, frames per second,

focusing accuracy up to a hundred.

And when you use Hasselblad's latest camera

whoa, certainly does not feel that way.

This is even with an improved

phase detection auto focus system,

as opposed to their previous contrast based system.

They also have upgraded focus modules

in the updated lens series

but the camera often hunts for focus

and in low light it can be hard to get it to focus

on anything at all.

In a later firmware release,

Hasselblad is promising face detection auto focus

but at the time of my review, it's not available.

And it is 2022 and not having face detect

on auto focus is really a miss.

Another time you'll find this system

oddly slow is when using the electronic shutter.

(car horn beeps)

Shut up.

Which is a problem in this city.

Hasselblad told me that because the sensor is so big,

it takes longer for all of that information to read

out when you use the electronic shutter,

which leads to a rolling shutter problem

in still photography because of this, I almost

never used the electronic shutter while using this camera.

And another thing I didn't use was video.

That's because this camera is never

going to be able to take a video.

Hello, this is edit Becca.

The embargo is tomorrow.

And a few days ago, I learned that the X2D

is never gonna get video capabilities.

That is despite their likely being mics in this camera

based on the holes for mics on this camera.

I did sense the video might be a problem here based

on how the electronic shutter was performing.

But I didn't think that Hasselblad

was gonna give up on it entirely.

And now I know for sure.

I've thought a lot about if this changes

how I feel about this camera entirely

and it doesn't because I've always viewed this camera

as a photo first camera.

I've been using it for weeks only with photo,

and I do love using it,

but ah, that's a huge feature to be missing in 2022.

Regardless, the next section of this video talks all

about his hardware and how great it is to hold.

So let's get to that.

The tops and the bottoms are milled

from single pieces of aluminum alloy,

and the front just has this massive Hasselblad

logo that literally is screaming Hasselblad.

I love it, I'd have it no other way.

The side grip is curved to match the curve of your palm.

And it honestly makes holding the 790 gram body super easy.

Up on top, you have a one inch LCD screen that will show

the battery percentage when you click the power button once

and a hold will turn the camera on.

A mode dial for switching modes.

You have your ISO, you have your white balance.

And of course your shutter button,

which is much softer than most

of its competitors shutter buttons.

It's kind of mushy, and I do wish

that when it was fully pressed it had more

of a clunk feeling rather than it's click.

(button clicks)

In the front of the camera under the lens,

you have a customizable button along with a dial.

Along back, you have a dial as well that clicks in.

This touch screen is super responsive LCD screen.

And of course it can come out 40 or 70 degrees.

The EVF really gets in the way of your screen

when the screen is out at 70 degrees.

And when looking through the EVF, there is definitely

red and green splitting happening on the outer edges.

Even when using the diopter, I couldn't get that to go away.

Much like it's predecessor, there are only

two ports on the side that both open with ease,

like really nice springy doors.

Woo, that just never gets old.

Anyway, one is a CFexpress Type B slot

and the other is just a single USB C port.

And of course, on the bottom, is the battery compartment.

Pop that, click down once, and out she comes.

I have been pleasantly surprised

with this camera's battery life.

CIPA rates it at 420 photos

from an a hundred percent charge,

which is on the low end for high resolution mirrorless

cameras but easily got me through

a full day of casual shooting.

You have to keep in mind

that this camera will not shoot 420 photos quickly.

In a day of casual shooting,

I was shooting around, I don't know, around 150 photos.

So of course one battery was perfectly fine.

A new feature to the X2D though

is PD 3.0 fast charging up to 30 Watts,

which can take a dead battery to full in two hours.

And when it's plugged in,

it has just a really nice pictorial element

on top that shows you how charged it is.

The X2D 100 C really has improved

upon so many of its predecessors pitfalls.

And while there is still so much work to do

in the focusing department,

like there is so much work to do there.

I really enjoyed this camera and that slow speed,

it didn't ruin my experience.

Taking photos with fast cameras, like the Nikon Z9.

the Sony A1, Canon's R5, it truly is a rush

and their technology is absolutely impressive,

but there will always be a place

for a camera that makes you feel like you're on vacation

rather than a racetrack.

Sadly though, that $8,100 price tag will keep most

of us from being able to enjoy it.

I mean, okay, the empty nesting orthodontist,

the lifelong Hasselblad shooters,

or maybe the commercial photographers

they won't blink an eye at that price.

For most enthusiasts looking to shoot digital medium format,

the cheaper Fuji Film GFX 100S will likely

be the system that they choose.

But I soon think the medium format space

is going to get more crowded.

Camera companies are having to compete more so

than ever with the cameras in our pockets.

Case in point, point and shoots are dead,

iPhones are everywhere.

So the next way to beat phones is to make

a large high quality sensor that would never fit no phone.

And that offers a superior experience

that will entice people to actually drag

a whole entire device around with them.

I really hope I'm right, 'cause it's about

to get so fun if that is true.

Let's go 200 megapixel Sony maybe.

I've heard about curve sensors.

I don't know, it's gonna get crazy.

All right, buds.

I'm Becca Farsace.

Thanks for joining me on another Full Frame.