Forget the "nifty fifty" – meet Hasselblad's new "nifty fifty-nine"

Hasselblad has just launched its first standard lens in half a decade, the Hasselblad XCD 75P – and it's also the latest in its line of P lenses, which stands for Portable.

With an effective focal length of 59mm, in full frame terms, the XCD 75P effectively replaces the XCD 65mm from 2018 – and, living up to its Portable billing, is a far smaller, lighter, more travellable lens.

Weighing in at just 398g and measuring a mere 71mm in length, the XCD 75P is a mere slip of its predecessor – clocking in at 45% lighter and 24% shorter than the previous standard prime.

Its size is misleading, though, as this lens possesses an advanced optical formula – with ten lens elements in ten groups, which includes one aspherical and three ED (extra-low dispersion) elements, designed to suppress chromatic aberration.

While fully compatible with 50MP cameras like the Hasselblad X1D II, the high-resolution optics of the 75P have been designed to resolve every pixel of detail in the 100MP Hasselblad X2D and Hasselblad 907X & CFV 100C.

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Its f/3.4 aperture is the fastest in the Portable range (its sister optics, the XCD 28P and 45P max out at f/4), complementing the size and standard focal length to make this a capable lens for everything from still life and street photography to portraiture and travel shooting.

The linear stepping motor is smooth and silent, delivering fine and autofocus. And, if you'd rather go manual, the 75P possesses the larger "triple-deep" focus ring featured on larger V-series lenses.

As is the norm for all Hasselblad X-series optics, the lens boasts a compact and discreet leaf shutter mechanism – and with 1/2000 speeds, along with flash sync at any speed, it offers endless creative capacity.

"The XCD 75P is a fantastic standard prime that's sharp enough for the most challenging professional work, and small enough to be an everyday carry for travel and walkabout shooting," I wrote in my Hasselblad XCD 75P review.

"The 'nifty fifty' is widely considered an essential lens for every camera system, and I dare say that this 'nifty fifty-nine' is perhaps the obvious choice for anyone looking to climb aboard Hasselblad's mirrorless system with a lens that can shoot pretty much anything."

The Hasselblad XCD 75P is available now, priced at $2,229 / £2,149 (Australian pricing to follow).

Make sure to check out the best Hasselblad cameras on the market today, comprising some of the best medium format cameras ever made.