When NASA needed a camera to capture Apollo 11’s landing on the moon, they trusted one brand—Hasselblad. Chances are you and I will never get to traverse the Sea of Tranquility or crawl out of a lunar crater, but that shouldn’t stop us from wanting to immortalize our own history in the making. Like the original Hasselblad cameras that went into space, the Hasselblad X2D 100C is one giant leap in the advancement of still photography.
Hasselblad launched the 100-megapixel X2D in February of 2023. The X2D’s medium-format sensor (which is 70 percent larger than a full-frame camera’s) delivers meticulous detail and stunning 16-bit color (more than 281 trillion colors), all easily accessible from its intuitive menu design. My images, right out of the camera without any retouching, were light-years better than my full-frame camera’s files, thanks in part to Hasselblad’s Natural Colour Solution. The X2D also provides 15-stop dynamic range, meaning you retain more digital information in high-contrast situations such as photographing a canyon with a bright sky and dark walls. And another out-of-this-world feature is the 7-stop image stabilization. You can shoot handheld at a shutter speed of 1/4 second, and your photos won’t be blurred. Try that with any other camera, and your photographs will look like bad Salvador Dali forgeries.
As impressive as the numbers are, the real measure of any camera is how it feels in your hand. The first time I held the X2D, it felt as solidly built as a Mercedes-AMG G63 4×4 yet handled like a Lotus Elan. Machined from a single piece of aluminum, the body is minimal and sleek. I couldn’t stop ogling its Scandinavian design. If a camera could be classified as a work of art, this approaches a Rodin.
However, the clincher for me was the 1TB internal SSD drive—4,600 100MB RAW photos or 13,800 JPG images stored in-camera. If you’re in Tanzania, a thousand miles from a camera shop, you won’t sweat running out of memory cards. There is a CFexpress Type B slot for backup or overflow storage, but memory cards are no longer required.
The X2D isn’t cheap. The body alone costs $8,199. Most Hasselblad lenses average between $3,000 and $5,000. This is not an investment to take lightly, yet if you’re investing in epic journeys to epic locations, it might be worth selling a kidney to own.
For landscape, portrait, street, or astrophotography, the X2D is the magnum opus. However, if wildlife or sports is your thing, then the X2D is too slow both in continuous shooting and autofocus tracking. The battery life isn’t stellar, either. I recommend purchasing a second battery, which is amazingly affordable compared to all other things Hasselblad.
The X2D has limited weather resistance, and its slow continuous shooting and autofocus may be an issue for some. Also, the X2D doesn’t shoot video, which could be a dealbreaker for buyers. But I’d rather savor a singular moment than have it whirl past me like a TikTok post. Call me old-fashioned. The X2D is not for everyone. But if you want photographs worthy of hanging in the Smithsonian, I recommend you shoot for the moon.
$8,199 | hasselblad.com
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in Overland Journal’s Winter 2024 Issue.
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