Hasselblad X1D: is the original medium format mirrorless camera still worth a look?

When the Hasselblad X1D (or the Hasselblad X1D 50C, to give its full name) arrived in 2016, it was a genuine game changer.

I know, I know, that's an incredibly overused phrase – but here it was actually true. You have to remember that the Hasselblad X1D was the first ever mirrorless medium format camera, launching the year before the Fujifilm GFX 50S.

In fact, not only did the Hasselblad X1D beat Fujifilm to the punch, it also beat both Canon and Nikon's mirrorless efforts – launching two years before the "big two" gave us their full frame mirrorless cameras in 2018.

So, this 50MP monster changed the landscape – but does it hold up almost 10 years later?

Hasselblad X1D in 2025

It's important to remember that, in 2016, medium format cameras were a very different proposition. The idea of a medium format "compact camera" like the Fujifilm GFX 100RF was inconceivable; these were still big, bulky, slow studio cameras.

And while the Hasselblad X1D, with its footprint barely bigger than a DSLR, gave us a glimpse at the kind of freeform, handheld shooting we enjoy today… it still had that sedate, studio-style shooting speed.

This was especially the case with the autofocus. I loved that the X1D was a camera as portable as a DSLR with resolution that blew away the Pentax 645Z, but everything from the startup time to the autofocus was truly glacial.

Combine the Zen-like startup, the contrast-based AF system (with no face or eye detection) and the huge, slow-readout sensor, and you had a shooting experience that was about as urgent as a Buddhist meditation.

It was slow even then – I vividly remember a photoshoot with two professional models that ground to an absolute halt, due to how slow the Hasselblad X1D's performance was. Revisiting that in 2025, with modern expectations of autofocus and shooting speed, is guaranteed to be twice as painful.

Of course, you still can't argue with the jaw-dropping 50MP images, – which remain stunning in their color fidelity and dynamic range – but the camera's video may disappoint you. Despite its enormous resolution, this was still 2016, so the Hasselblad X1D can only muster FullHD video.

It's worth noting that in 2019 the manufacturer launched an upgraded model, the Hasselblad X1D II, which addressed both the operational speed and the video resolution… with two pretty big caveats.

Firstly, while the camera startup and operations were faster, the autofocus was still slower than a scooter going up a steep hill. And although the video resolution was bumped up to 2.7K, it wasn't ready in time for launch; it took six months before turning the mode dial to video actually made anything happen.

Between that, and the fact that Hasselblad has since dropped video from its cameras altogether, should tell you everything you need to know about its filmmaking prowess.

In all, then, while I will always have a soft spot in my heart for the Hasselblad X1D, it's a camera that has been superseded in every way and is best left in the past. Personally I'm a Hasselblad X2D user, and I've never looked back.

If you're a landscape or still life shooter who doesn't rely on speed or autofocus, the Hasselblad X1D may still have merit. But for anyone else, unless it really is available at a ridiculously low price, the best medium format cameras have left it way behind.

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