MEDIUM-FORMAT CAMERA TEST
HASSELBLAD 907X & CFV 100C
EXPERT OPINION ON THE LATEST KIT
A camera system that’s not just beautiful but versatile, too
www.hasselblad.com
£6,729/$8,199
The Hasselblad 907X and
CFV 100C is quite simply the most beautiful camera system I’ve seen. I’m a sucker for vintage cameras and SLR-styled modern mirrorless models, but I’ve never been quite as smitten with the design of a camera as with this one.
This beauty is also a beast, however. A truly unique modular system, the Hasselblad 907X & CFV 100C comprises a ‘camera’ – the 907X – and the all-new 100MP medium-format back – the CFV 100C. Combined, they become a modern mirrorless camera, but the CFV 100C can also be attached to a vintage Hasselblad body, such as the iconic 500C, adding 100MP horsepower to these similar systems.
The camera is a huge step up in performance over the previous Hasselblad 907X and CFV 50C (the older 50MP digital back). That’s because, inside, it has a lot in common with the Hasselblad X2D 100C, namely the 100MP sensor and phase-detect autofocus system with face detection.
However, the X2D is a conventional SLR-style camera, so the 907X & CFV 100C have as many differences as similarities. So who is this combo for, and does an old-fashioned boxstyle camera still have a place in the modern world?
Features
The most obvious feature of the camera is its jaw-dropping design – a palm-sized, perfectly sculpted square body that eschews a viewfinder and ergonomics in favour of a tilting screen and touch-oriented inputs. However, this is more than just an aesthetic affectation. This is a modular
camera system that consists of two parts: the wafer-thin 907X ‘camera’ (a mount adaptor to attach XCD lenses to the camera back) and the CFV 100C digital back, which contains the 100MP image sensor, processor, rear screen, controls, battery and memory.