Hasselblad X2D II 100C Review

The original X2D 100C made some of the most beautiful files on the market and then made you fight to get them in focus, leaning on a slow contrast based system that a 100 megapixel sensor punishes without mercy. The X2D II 100C fixes the one thing that held it back. It adds 425 phase detection points backed by AI subject recognition and a LiDAR unit that ranges the scene, and the difference between a Hasselblad you focus and a Hasselblad you hope is enormous.

Everything else is the quiet excellence the badge implies. The 100 megapixel back illuminated sensor now runs a true end to end high dynamic range pipeline, holds better than fifteen stops, and pairs with ten stops of in body stabilisation that make handheld medium format a real thing rather than a party trick. The colour, through Hasselblad's Natural Colour Solution, is the reason people forgive this system everything else.

It shoots no video worth the word, the file sizes are enormous, and the pace is deliberate by design, so this is a studio, landscape and portrait instrument and nothing else. But at 7,399 dollars, a full 800 less than the camera it replaces, with autofocus that finally deserves the sensor, it is the first Hasselblad in years you can recommend without a lengthy apology.