In the course of putting together my Hasselblad X2D II 100C review, I took a whole bunch of photographs for a whole bunch of purposes. Some were for client commissions, some were for performance tests, some were for me to figure out how all the clever new features work.
But whether I was photographing subjects floating around forests like fairytale creatures, or standing in the middle of the street shooting vehicles as they whizzed past me, I was never anything less than bowled over by the results coming out of this camera.
It helps, of course, that every image you see on the rear screen can be in HDR, thanks to its 1,400-nit brightness and a 2,000,000:1 contrast ratio. The X2D II supports true HDR photography with an expanded dynamic range of 15.3 stops – so when you shoot in HDR HEIF or Ultra HDR JPEG, you can see your images in glorious clarity.
And it makes an enormous difference. You know the way the HDR photos on your phone just "pop" off the screen? The way they're so much brighter and more vivid, with luminous skies and minute detail even in the inkiest blacks? That's exactly what you get with this camera. And the highlights, which Hassy's HDR dramatically expands, are just glorious.
More than just dynamic range, though, the 16-bit files produced by the X2D II are absolutely sumptuous. The 100MP resolution combined with Hasselblad's color science gives your images genuine dimension and texture, with eerily accurate hues and tones that make the files from other cameras look flat and lifeless.
Having taken a few thousand photos with the X2D II, something that I don't think is talked about enough is the "everydayness" of this camera and the X System in general. We're so detached now from what medium format used to be that most people don't even remember: these used to be cameras that lived on tripods and rarely left the studio.
But modern Hasselblads are genuinely about the same size as a full-frame DSLR or mirrorless camera. In fact, the X2D II and XCD 90V portrait lens is actually smaller than my EOS R5 and RF 85mm f/1.2, making it a no-brainer for portrait shoots – and other similar or equivalent lenses are comparable in size.
So why would I take out a full-frame camera, when the Hassy is the same size but so much more powerful? Especially the X2D II, with its superb autofocus performance. This really is a legitimate street photography and travel camera, if you're brave enough to carry one around with you.
Anyway, I'm getting off on a tangent… point is, I took loads of images with the Hasselblad X2D II 100C. Here's a selection of them, so you can see what the camera is capable of…
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