Thanks for your review and posts about Hasselblad X1D II 50C.
I’ve heard talks about the system got overheating easily, but some people also say the all metal camera body is designed as a “heat sink” to dissipate heat.
I use Canon 5DM4 and I’ve never experienced any overheating before. I can understand that as a mirrorless system with a large sensor the power assumption is much larger than a normal full frame small format DSLR, thus possible overheating, but this still concerns me.
What’s your in-field observation and opinion on this overheating thing? Do you think the heat will affect image quality and eventually wear down electronic parts? If so, what do you suggest to do to minimize this side-effect.
DIGLLOYD: my understanding is that the Hasselblad X1D II body is designed as one large heat sink (according to Hasselblad is my recollection)—it had better, since it has tightly-packed components in its compact form factor. But note that much of the X1D II camera body is not bare metal and thus is not effective as a heat sink. Add on an L-bracket and there is another layer over it, and if there is sun exposure that heats everything up—keep it out of the sun.
For the manner in which I have been shooting the Hasselblad X1D II, heat has not been an issue so far. But most of my shooting so far has been in the 50°F to 70°F range so that an adequate temperature differential exists for the camera to shed heat to the environment.
Hasselblad X1D II
However, the weather is now hitting 80°F at 8400 feet elevation and 100°F at 4400' elevation. And if the camera is in the sun, the camera body temperature will skyrocket from the sun beating on it, which is why I try to keep it out of the sun. Along with a high ambient temperature, heat dissipation from critical camera internals to the environment is greatly reduced by this much-narrowed temperature differential, so that the sensor and internals will be operating at far higher temperatures—at a minimum no less than ambient temperature.
My recollection is that baseline noise roughly doubles about every 10°F (fact-check me on that please) which has major implications for noise, even at base ISO. In other words, operating at 50°F vs 90°F will result in far more noise and perhaps in a non-linear fashion, because the less the temperature differential, the more difficult it is for the camera to dissipate internal heat.
So yes, I do think that the Hasselblad X1D II could “overheat”, by which I don’t necessarily mean that it would stop functioning. But it would definitely produce images of lower quality due to increased noise. How much the Fujifilm GFX100 is affected in similar conditions is hard to say, but it is a much larger camera body and uses less power from what I see, so the issue should be less.
Power consumption ===> heat
A key point is that the X1D II (and X1D) chew up battery power far faster than other cameras, and all that battery usage ends up as heat inside the camera. So power usage relates directly to the ability of a camera to keep its operating temperature reasonable.
With my shooting style I would say that it eats batteries at 3X the rate of the Fujifilm GFX100, at least (while the GFX100 has two batteries, I rarely drained more than one battery). If so, the X1D II needs to dissipate considerably more heat from a smaller camera body with more tightly-packed components. How that interacts with its natural heat sink capabilities, I don't know, but much of the X1D II camera body is not bare metal and won
With the Fujifilm GFX100, I could shoot most days on one battery. With the Hasselblad X1D II, I shut the camera off frequently in order to cut power usage—a bit of a nuisance since its startup time is much longer than the Fujifilm medium format cameras. Even so, from 1/3 to 1/2 the battery is drained after 80 shots or so because I spend a lot of time with the EVF for careful composition and focusing, and doing so consumes a lot of battery power.
CLICK TO VIEW: Hasselblad X Medium Format
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This is my procedure when working in the field.
The step that counts is #4 which I can do in under 5 seconds (faster on some cameras), which greatly minimizes the chances for the ingress of dust.
- Barring other conveniences, squat or sit low on the ground just in case of a fumble/drop error—even a mild impact can ruin a lens optically even if it shows no physical damage. Hard experience has taught me this and it has been years since I have had that unfortunate experience.
- Find a wind shadow if available and/or wait for a lull in the wind and always turn your back to the wind and shield the camera with your body.
- Release and partially loosen the lens on the camera so that you can quickly swap on the new lens. Some cameras designs place the release button on the wrong side, making this even more important for a right-hander like me.
- All in one quick operation: remove the lens cap from the lens, remove the pre-loosened lens from the camera, attach the new lens, cap the removed lens.
If it is extremely dusty and windy, carrying a changing bag might be warranted, or stick to a zoom lens and avoid changing at all. But if it’s that bad, you’ve got other problems and I won’t subject my equipment to it because fine dust can get into lens motors and other places (Burning Man is the kiss of death for gear). Some types of dust can get in and cause steady damage until gear fails.
View dust blowers at B&H Photo.
Avoidance and mitigation
Changing lenses without contaminating the sensor is one concern, but the key one is that high-res digital is extremely difficult to work within in wind (for sharp pictures) unless very high shutter speeds are used, which is usually not viable for landscape work because of the need to stop down.
Even a modest wind poses very high risk for blurred images, so I avoid such conditions, or wait for lulls on blustery days where it can puff to 25 mph then to almost nothing. Or find wind shadows and I always shield the camera and tripod with my body as close as possible, including hunching very close and around the rig when the wind is a significant issue.
Earth Shadow Rising... with a big chunk of dust on the sensor
f9 @ 0.3 sec lens shutter, ISO 100; 2020-05-19 20:01:20
Hasselblad X1D II 50C + Hasselblad XCD 80mm f/1.9 @ 65.5mm equiv (80mm)
ENV: Mt Whitney foothills, altitude 6400 ft / 1951 m, 55°F / 12°C
RAW: Enhance Details, vignetting corrected, pull 0.4 stops, +76 Shadows, +40 Whites, +20 Dehaze, +20 Clarity
[low-res image for bot]
2020-05-28 - SEND FEEDBACK
Related:
Breakthrough Photography, Chris L, digital sensor, electronic shutter, filters, Hasselblad medium format, Hasselblad X1D II 50C, leaf shutter, medium format, polarizer, sensor cleanliness, shutter, shutter shock, technique
Thank you for your ongoing reviews of the Hasselblad X1D II system.
Your medium format coverage is the most thorough and helpful available anywhere today.
One other significant difference between the D1X and GFX systems is Hasselblad’s employment of leaf shutters. One comparative reviewer reported that the X1D lens leaf shutters caused vibration which impacted image quality relative to the GFX when shooting with its electronic shutter. Could you comment on any pros and cons of leaf shutters you’ve found for (non-strobe) landscape work?
Hasselblad X1D II
DIGLLOYD: the leaf shutter on the Hasselblad XCD lenses sees loud when all else is quiet and it definitely concerns me as a source of vibration. Accordingly it is on my to-do list as part of my review of the Hasselblad X1D II system
That said, the Hasselblad X1D II is perfectly capable of using an all-electronic shutter (ES shutter). As it has no focal plane shutter, there is no EFC shutter option.
The main issue in diagnosing sharpness losses from the leaf shutter is figuring out which conditions provoke the most vibration, so I’ll start with the Hasselblad XCD 135mm f/2.8 + TC1.7 and work from there.
Controlling shutter speed
The tricky part is getting a range of shutter speeds out in the field. To do that I will use a Breakthrough Photography X4 circular polarizer.
I also have a Breakthrough Photography ND polarizer that will allow me to get the shutter speeds down to a range (in sunlight) for testing in bright daylight. See Breakthrough Photography 6-stop ND Polarizer for Motion Blur in Broad Daylight + Reader Comments.
CLICK TO VIEW: Hasselblad X Medium Format
Thank you for your ongoing reviews of the Hasselblad X1D II system.
Your medium format coverage is the most thorough and helpful available anywhere today.
The Fujifilm GFX cameras are the first mirrorless systems I’ve used (initially the Fujifilm GFX-50S and now the Fujifilm GFX100) which don’t require frequent sensor cleaning. (By comparison, the Sony A7R series cameras, which I also use regularly, are dust magnets).
One explanation I’ve read is that Fujifilm’s IBIS system is better at shaking dust off (and can be set to do so automatically); another is that the GFX sensors stacks and shutters are somehow designed to reduce dust buildup and/or visibility.
As the X1D depends mostly on primes, lens changes will inevitably expose its sensor to even more dust than the typical GFX kit, but Hasselblad doesn’t appear to have any particular mechanisms to deal with this problem.
Could you comment on the degree to which you’ve found dust an issue after shooting the X1D in windy and dusty environments?
DIGLLOYD: the Sony A7R IV/III/II/I anti-dust system is worthless—I have never seen it succeed in removing visible dust spots—see Sony A7R IV: Horrible Sensor Dust Problems and sensor cleanliness.
Hasselblad X1D II
The Hasselblad X1D II has the same exposed sensor as the Sony cameras (but much larger!). As far as I can tell it is just as bad as Sony. However, Hasselblad doesn’t pretend to have a useless dust-off feature like Sony does, so that’s a plus.
Making things worse, the X1D II has no focal plane shutter, so there is nothing to be closed to protect the sensor from the environment (not that Sony bothers to do so, which is really bad design).
I experienced my major first dust spot within 15 minutes of using the Hasselblad X1D II, roughly the 10th frame I took. I had done one lens swap, it was not windy at all and I took my usual extra care as described below. That was enough for a very large piece of dust to stick to the sensor which polluted the rest of the night’s shooting. I was able to blow it off with a bulb blower.
The Fujifilm medium format system is far better designed for anti-dust, more on that below.
Earth Shadow Rising
f9 @ 0.3 sec lens shutter, ISO 100; 2020-05-19 20:01:20
Hasselblad X1D II 50C + Hasselblad XCD 80mm f/1.9 @ 65.5mm equiv (80mm)
ENV: Mt Whitney foothills, altitude 6400 ft / 1951 m, 55°F / 12°C
RAW: Enhance Details, vignetting corrected, pull 0.4 stops, +76 Shadows, +40 Whites, +20 Dehaze, +20 Clarity
[low-res image for bot]
Dust: Hasselblad X1D II vs Fujifilm GFX100, Fujifilm GFX-50S
Fujifilm GFX100
In my extensive experience with the Fujifilm GFX100 and the Fujifilm GFX-50S, dust has never been an issue of concern. The occasional minor dust specks tend to disappear on their own using the anti-dust feature, but it is the ingenious 9mm spacing that is most important.
The discussion of the sensor cover glass on the Fujifilm GFX on the Fujifilm-X web site shows a 9mm spacing gap to the sensor, done to reduce dust issues by defocusing the dust, shown below. It is the best design in the entire camera industry in terms of eliminating dust problems.
People often forget about the cover glass of a mount. This glass is meant to protect and to shake dust off the sensor. The cover glass is placed in the furthest position possible from the sensor.
Why far away? The closer the dust is to the sensor, the worse for the image quality. The dust becomes more visible if it is closer to the sensor surface as it gets into the depth of field. The cover glass should be placed as far away as possible from the sensor. If there is a mirror box, then there is minimal room to move. But this is possible for G Mount as it is comprised of a mirrorless structure.
The cover glass is placed 9mm away from the sensor surface. If you know about mount design, then we are certain that you will be surprised with the figure.
Fujifilm GFX sensor cover glass spacing to the focal plane
