We love the Hasselblad X2D II 100C. In fact, we reckon it's the finest stills camera ever made. But the key word there is 'stills', as the X2D II cannot shoot video. Well, it turns out that's not completely true. A clever hacker that goes by the handle 'Cheese' has posted a short video to the Chinese site xiaohongshu.com showing an X2D II 100C capturing video.
The brief video description states that the hacker has developed a custom firmware for the camera that enables video capture, and aims to add raw, Open Gate recording in future. The video itself shows the capture and subsequent playback of a 6-second clip, as well as video record status indicators and capture controls coded into the camera's touchscreen interface. The result more closely resembles an original feature than a DIY hack.
But don't get too excited: this hack probably won't enable X2D II owners to capture video as though it was a factory-implemented feature. As Cheese points out in response to a comment, "An experimental function and a truly stable function are two different things...if you really want to do high-quality video rerecording, [the camera's] form factor will definitely need to be significantly changed" (auto translated from the original Chinese).
Though not specifically mentioned, it's highly likely that a major reason why Hasselblad never designed the X2D II 100C to record video was due to heat build-up. The camera already gets very toasty when shooting bursts of images over a prolonged period, so Open Gate raw video recording, though potentially possible, could well endanger the lifespan of key components. Even so, Cheese does say that the modded firmware will be available as open source after the code is perfected. I'd expect the firmware to include a record duration limit to help prevent destructive heat build-up.
So there you have it: the X2D II 100C can actually record video, but if I was an X2D II 100C owner, I wouldn't be risking my valuable camera by installing non-genuine firmware that has the potential to damage the camera's hardware.
