Hasselblad X2D 100C review: the Koenigsegg of cameras

The Hasselblad X2D 100C is the legendary Swedish manufacturer’s flagship and best mirrorless camera. Packing a 100MP medium format sensor, the X2D is supposed to be the company’s most usable, functional camera to date.

That’s not to say it’s an ‘everyday’ sort of camera. That would be like referring to a Koenigsegg (continuing the Swedish theme) as an average daily driver. No, this is an $8,000 medium format behemoth. It’s about as far from ‘everyday’ as it’s possible to get.

What Hasselblad means when it calls the X2D 100C “functional” is that this camera is shaped like a conventional mirrorless camera, and brings some of the associated mod-cons you’d expect from one: typical handling, IBIS, a viewfinder, etc.

This is in stark contrast to Hasselblad’s other (even more niche) models, like the Hasselblad 907X + CFV 100C — I know, it’s starting to feel like we’re naming children with Elon.

So, is the X2D any good? Good grief, yes. Should you buy it? Eh, it’s complicated. Find out more in my full Hasselblad X2D 100C review.

Hasselblad X2D 100C review: Specs

Hasselblad X2D 100C review: Price & availability

The X2D 100C costs $8,199 or £7,369 in the U.K., so y’know, it isn’t exactly one for the average Joe. This camera is intended for use in professional studio photography — primarily portraiture. Or, of course, for use by deep-pocketed enthusiasts who want to show off (and get mugged) when shooting street.

Naturally, eight grand is a phenomenal sum of money for a camera, but by medium format standards, t’isn’t really. Hasselblad’s equally indulgent 907X + CFV 100C will also set you back $8,199; the Fujifilm GFX100 II costs $7,499; and the Fujifilm GFX100S II demands a comparatively breezy $4,999 — technically making it the working man’s medium format (yeah right).

Basically, you need a few thousand smackers spare to get into (new) medium format. But that’s only for the body! Glass of sufficient quality to resolve 100 million pixels needs to be superior. So you’ll want to budget another couple of thousand big ones per lens for those. It’s a rich man’s world we’re wading into here, people.

Hasselblad X2D 100C review: Design & controls

As I mentioned in my preliminary musings, the X2D 100C is about combining imaging excellence with functionality. At least, versus Hasselblad’s own lineup. Fujifilm’s GFX100 II and GFX100S II offer far more functionality than the X2D, as we’ll get into throughout this section.

“Functionality” here means possessing the form and mod-cons of a conventional mirrorless camera.

The X2D is shaped like pretty much any other mirrorless camera. A rectangular profile, with a viewfinder prism up top and a deep sculpted hand grip out front. A far cry from the awkward handling of the boxy 907X + CFV100C, this makes the X2D just as easy to hold as, well, any other conventional mirrorless camera.

Or at least, as easy any other medium format camera. Like the Fuji GFX lineup, the X2D is huge and heavy, although I carried it around my neck for hours at a time in testing with no issue. Just ensure you have a comfortable neoprene strap. Part of this weight is, of course, the metal construction and exquisite Hasselblad build quality, befitting of the $8K price tag.

Displays

There are three displays. A small settings display on the top plate, a 2.36-million dot rear display and a beautiful 7.76-million dot hi-res EVF. All are bright and I had no issues using them on a sunny day to shoot architectural photos of Llandaff Cathedral here in Wales, U.K.

The hi-res EVF is very welcome. At 100MP, and with such shallow depths of field as you’ll achieve using medium format sensors, it’s pivotal to have an EVF that does the megapixel count justice, thereby allowing you to focus check accurately.

Image 1 of 2

Now, I say “does the megapixel count justice” and not “full justice.” The Fujifilm GFX100 II features an even-higher-res 9.44-million dot EVF, for yet more detailed views of those 100MP images.

The rear display is upwards tilt only, which may pose issues if you’re trying to shoot at odd angles, particularly if you have the camera raised.

Connectivity

Along the side of the X2D are two sprung metal hatches which slot firmly into their closed position. The first covers the USB-C port for charging and data transfer, the second covers a single CFExpress Type-B port.

No need for dual slots on this camera, or even SD cards, as there’s 1TB of internal SSD storage. There’s also a CFExpress Type-B port if you need to expand storage.

When shooting at 100MP medium format, the faster read/write speeds of CFExpress and SSD can be very important. With +200MB RAW files and 70MB JPEGs, sustained quicker drive rates would be impossible with SD.

The thing is, that kind of thing doesn’t really matter on medium format, especially the X2D, whose maximum drive rate is a sedate 3.3fps. This is not a high speed camera. I was able to shoot for a little under 6 seconds at 3fps in continuous drive, so 18 RAW+JPEG frames, before the buffers of the internal SSD filled and the camera ground to a halt.

Again, it’s important to note that 100MP medium format cameras aren’t particularly quick, due to the large sensor real estate and sheer file sizes. The GFX100 II (which features a CFExpress Type-B port) will achieve 55 frames at 8fps, while the GFX100S II will hit 7fps for 21 frames using its SD slots.

The X2D features wireless connectivity over Wi-Fi, although no Bluetooth.

Controls & Menu

If you’ve bought, driven or ridden in a new car over the last few years, you’ll likely be familiar with that annoying trend from car manufacturers of replacing physical buttons with touch controls. These are fiddly to use when in motion. Nobody wants them, everyone hates them. But manufacturers still use them — to feel contemporary or something.

A similar phenomenon is taking place in the camera world with the loss of focus joysticks in favour of touchscreen focusing. Tell me, camera makers: how the hell am I supposed to touch the screen when shooting through a viewfinder?

Now, this is partly excusable in video-oriented cameras, especially vlogging tools without EVFs. In an $8,199 stills camera like the X2D, though, it’s inexcusable. Both Fujifilm GFX100 models feature focus joysticks, and even the awkward 907X + CFV100C has the optional joystick add-on for proper control.

Now, there is a workaround, which is setting up the rear display’s movable touchscreen AF point to also affect the focus point visible through the EVF (weird that you have to deliberately select this). And this is mostly fine in landscape orientation, especially given the large body and display.

That is, of course, until you need to move the point to the top right of the screen, about where your nose will be when shooting through the EVF. Or when you shoot in portrait orientation, where it’s extremely difficult to control. Seriously, what is wrong with a joystick?

Otherwise, the X2D handles pretty well. Its controls are all nicely positioned, with two command dials for aperture and shutter, plus a dedicated ISO button for the third element of the exposure pyramid. Personally, I prefer a third dial for ISO, as it removes the added step of a button press, but that’s a minor gripe.

Hasselblad’s menu system is relatively pared back, both in its layout and features. It’s super clean and easy to use, but doesn’t offer the in-depth control I’d want to see from such a serious piece of kit.

Hasselblad X2D 100C review: Autofocus

The X2D 100C features a hybrid phase and contrast detection autofocusing system, combining the benefits of contrast detection for still subjects with the quicker speeds of phase detection.

In general use, I found the AF reasonably fast and accurate unless in extreme lighting conditions. Strong dynamic range environments, such as brightly backlit scenes, and lower contrast scenes did pose an issue, even at modest EV figures such as EV-0.5 (center-weighted metering).

Image 1 of 3

The camera also features face detection, which also managed to detect faces in statues, as per the second image in the gallery above.

As with the 907X + CFV100C, face detection is welcome, but I’d like to see eye detection come to future models. I shot a range of portraits with the camera, and while eyes are always in acceptable focus, they often aren’t quite as sharp as I'd like when checked up close.

Thankfully, Hasselblad’s on-screen MF assist dial is extremely useful, allowing you to easily nail focus manually when you're not shooting humans or portraits. Annoyingly, you can’t combine the focus assist dial with focus peaking or magnification. It’s one or the other. I had no issues just using the dial, though — it’s really very good.

Hasselblad X2D 100C review: Stabilization

It takes a lot to stabilize a honking great big medium format sensor. That means you can normally expect less stabilization potential than on smaller-sensored cameras.

Image 1 of 3

When testing the GFX100S II, for example, I was only able to shoot down to around 1/25sec before seeing blur, versus the 2sec speeds we’ve achieved testing full frame cameras like the Sony A7C II ($2,198) and Sony A1 II ($6,499).

The X2D 100C’s 7.5-stop IBIS system outperformed my expectations, however, allowing me to shoot down to 1/8sec comfortably, with blur creeping in at around 1/6sec, and finally becoming a serious issue at 1/4sec.

Hasselblad X2D 100C review: Image performance

Stills are what the X2D is all about (I mean that literally, too, as it doesn’t shoot video). And it doesn’t disappoint —the 100MP BSI CMOS sensor captures beautifully sharp images.

Obviously, with this much resolution, you have a supreme amount of headroom for cropping. The second image in the gallery below is an extreme crop of the first. The fine details of the masonry and stone figures are still easy to make out in the crop.

Image 1 of 2

There’s only one color profile, but it employs Hasselblad’s legendary colorimetry science, with a color bit depth of 16-bit (meaning 281.5 trillion possible shades). This means colors look as natural as they come.

In the portrait above, I added a yellow hue with a warmer fill light, and the camera has relayed everything faithfully and flatteringly. The color profile hasn’t over saturated skin tones, the pink hair in the first photo, or the vivid blue background.

The first image in the gallery below is of the ornate ceiling of Llandaff Cathedral, and once again, the X2D nailed each of the delicate reds, blues and greens just right.

Image 1 of 3

I shot the second of the gallery images above, of Llandaff Cathedral, on a sunny day, with some super light cloud cover resulting in very softly diffused light. This resulted in warm light, but moderate levels of contrast and vivid but not overly saturated color. The X2D captured all of that perfectly.

I couldn't resist converting the second image to black and white (see the third image), and loved how striking and contrast-heavy the photo is.

ISO performance

Typically, one of the key benefits of larger sensors is the ability to push ISO values higher than you typically would with a smaller-sensor camera, without suffering destructive noise.

The X2D’s sensitivity tops out at ISO25,600, unlike Fujifilm’s GFX100/S II cameras, which can shoot up to ISO51,200 and still come away with very usable images, thereby providing extra flexibility in low light (although this is matched by the X2D’s more effective stabilization).

The image above is a RAW file shot at ISO25,600 and exported as a JPEG in Adobe Lightroom Classic. Things are expectedly rather noisy, especially in the background shadows, but the image is definitely usable, and the noise would certainly be manageable in post.

Straight out of camera (SOOC) JPEGs look great. The image above is the same photo, but output from the camera as a JPEG, with the X2D’s noise reduction applied in-camera. You can see a little softness where the noise has been smoothed out, but this shot still looks super sharp. With so much resolution to play with, the camera can apply drastic noise reduction and still output sharp-looking images.

Dynamic range

Image 1 of 2

Another benefit of large sensors is wide dynamic range capture, and the X2D’s sensor doesn’t disappoint here either, with up to 15 stops of dynamic range. The two images in the gallery above are the same backlit photo of a lens, taken for an extreme dynamic range test.

The second image in the gallery is the photo with the exposure and shadows boosted, and highlights reduced in post production. Plenty of detail has been retained in the shadows, with virtually no noise at ISO64. A very good performance.

Image 1 of 2

The backlit test is obviously somewhat of an extreme and unrealistic scenario. The photo gallery above, however, demonstrates a more realistic dynamic range. Again, the second image is the same as the first, with the shadows and exposure boosted in post, and highlights reduced.

Plenty of detail has been revealed in the darker shadows towards the base of the image, albeit with some noise at ISO1600. The sunlight resulted in clipped highlights on the stone wall to the right, though, which wasn’t retrievable, and the masonry detail was lost.

Hasselblad X2D 100C review: Battery life

Perhaps unsurprisingly given this camera’s size and internals, battery life is not great. After just under 100 frames (mostly RAW only), I was left with 40% of charge remaining. So you can expect somewhere in the region of 200 frames. Not great.

The X2D is so power hungry that it even loses charge when plugged into a computer for tethering or data transfer, even through my 100W pass-through Belkin 11-in-1 Pro USB-C Dock, so get yourself a second battery.

Hasselblad X2D 100C review: Verdict

So, back to the question from the top. Should you buy the Hasselblad X2D 100C? If what you need is outstanding detail and color reproduction, yes. This camera, paired with Hasselblad’s epic glass, takes incredibly sharp photos with natural, lifelike colors, strong dynamic range performance and clean shots even at high ISO.

Mod cons like effective IBIS, decent handling and a 5.76M-dot EVF make the X2D appropriate (much more so than Hasselblad CFV models) for the modern studio professional who will likely need to shoot off tripod, on set or on location.

There are many pros who will need more versatility than the X2D offers — even slicker handling, faster shooting rates, more in-depth menu features, a goddamn focus joystick. And for those people, the medium format Fujifilm GFX100 II waits with open arms.

There’s no getting around it though: the X2D is a masterpiece. If you want or need that Hasselblad magic, there is no real substitute.