Hasselblad's first mirrorless camera makes medium-format look absurdly small

Hasselblad X1D

Update: We've now had the chance to get up close and personal with this camera – you can read our first impressions in our hands-on: Hasselblad X1D review.

Original news story below…

Hasselblad has been making waves in the photography world recently. In April it introduced a medium format camera with an 100MP sensor, and now it's introducing the world's first mirrorless medium format system.

Compared to a traditional boxy digital medium format camera, the mirrorless Hasselblad X1D is about the size of a ruggedized tablet and comparatively tiny. Though it features a new panel-shaped design, the new camera body and its ergonomic grip takes inspiration from the company's iconic V-series.

Hasselblad X1D

It's also not lacking on the resolution front and features a 50MP (8,272 x 6,200 pixels) CMOS sensor, which produces images with 14-stops of dynamic range and 14-bit color. While the camera can shoot video with autofocus, it's disappointingly limited to 30 fps and Full HD H.264 compressed footage – but no one is really buying a medium format system to shoot video.

The Hasselblad X1D is also designed to take frames between 60 minutes to 1/2000 of a second long, and it features an ISO range of 100-25,600.

Hasselblad X1D

The X1D is thoroughly modern with touchscreen-based interface users can tap around on the 3-inch, 920K dot rear LCD. It's also equipped with dual SD cards for storage plus built in Wi-Fi and GPU. There's even a USB 3.1Type-C port, mini HDMI and audio in/out.

At launch, the X1D will work with two specially developed XCD-mount lenses including a 45mm f3.5 and 90mm f4.0. Hasselblad also plans to release more XCD lenses and an H-Mount adapter, giving it access to 12 additional lenses.

Hasselblad X1D

The Hasselblad X1D will arrive this August priced at $8,995 or £5,990 GBP (about AU$12,054) for the camera body by itself. Meanwhile, the XCD 3.5/45mm and XCD 4.5/90mm lenses ring up for $2,295 (about £1,564, AU$3,075) and $2,695 (about £1,837, AU$3,612), respectively.

Lastly, Hasselblad will bundle with X1D with the XCD 45mm lens for $11,290 (about £7,695, AU$15,129) or both pieces of glass for $13,985 (about £9,533, AU$18,742).

Kevin Lee

Kevin Lee was a former computing reporter at TechRadar. Kevin is now the SEO Updates Editor at IGN based in New York. He handles all of the best of tech buying guides while also dipping his hand in the entertainment and games evergreen content. Kevin has over eight years of experience in the tech and games publications with previous bylines at Polygon, PC World, and more. Outside of work, Kevin is major movie buff of cult and bad films. He also regularly plays flight & space sim and racing games. IRL he's a fan of archery, axe throwing, and board games.