Hasselblad X2D: Does its 2-Second Startup Time Preclude it for Your Usage Scenarios?
Related: golden age of photography, Hasselblad, Hasselblad medium format, Hasselblad mirrorless, Hasselblad X2D 100C, medium format, Other World Computing
re: Hasselblad X2D
I plan on a thorough review of the Hasselblad X2D 100C and at least the Hasselblad XCD 38mm f/2.5 V and Hasselblad XCD 55mm f/2.5 V. Many thanks to B&H Photo for the loaner camera and lenses. B&H did not receive the stock it expected, and so I have no X2D yet as of Sept 18. The X2D is my highest priority, but I have to have one first in order to review it.
You are hiking up a trail with your a friend/companion/wife/child/etc, you turn backwards and the perfect shot with them is shaping up to happen in just a moment*.
* Like “Street shooting”, spontaneous fleeting images at unpredictable times.
You flick the switch (Sony A1 or siblings) and instantly snap the picture with its lightning-fast autofocus. Wait—it’s a Fujifilm GFX100S and while it is ready barely in time, the autofocus doesn’t settle down in time and the image is lost this time. Maybe next time? Most of the time the GFX100S is (just barely) fast enough.
But maybe it’s the Hasselblad X2D. With its 2-second startup time, a 4X or so improvement over the X1D, the image is frequently gone by the time it is ready. Worse, you have to press and hold the button a moment instead of just flicking a switch. By the time the camera boots up, the image is gone—a lot of the time. Almost every time in my experience with the X1D. Is the X2D fast enough to satisfy such scenarios, repeated 50 times on a long hike? Likely not, based on my experience.
The foregoing might be the #1 reason to bypass the Hasselblad X2D vs other cameras. Take that very seriously. A “dumb blonde” (pick your gender) camera that makes you miss shots matters more than anything else.
Compare that to landscape shooting, or situations where you can just leave the camera on all the time—then it’s no issue. But out in the field, I cannot burn-up batteries leaving the camera on all the time, or even for 5 minutes at a time, at least not very often.
Thank you for ordering your Hasselblad X2D 100C and new lenses through the links on this site.
