Wednesday, June 22, 2016

IF YOU CAN’T BEAT ‘EM, JOIN ‘EM








As soon as the Leica SL was introduced, it was criticized for being a mirrorless camera, not a DSLR.  The thoughts were that mirrorless cameras were for advanced amateur photographers at best, that professionals demanded a DSLR.  Along with that came “opinions” that the camera was way too big.  That was dispelled rather quickly when size comparisons showed that the Leica SL was effectively noticeably smaller than the top model DSLRs from Canon and Nikon, especially the camera body but also when equipped with similar lenses.

Since then the Leica SL has proven itself many times over.  Leica has definitely shown with this camera that a professional caliber mirrorless camera can be made, and criticism of Canon and Nikon has come up frequently for not offering anything similar.

The fact that professional caliber mirrorless cameras likely present the future of interchangeable lens cameras was further underlined today when Hasselblad introduced a medium format mirrorless camera with interchangeable lenses, the Hasselblad X1D.  This camera had been rumored about for a while now, and many thought that it might be a derivative of a Sony or Fuji camera.  But this camera was entirely designed by Hasselblad and it is handmade in Sweden like its famous predecessors.

Hasselblad-X1D-medium-format-mirrorless-camera
Hasselblad X1D

Similar to the Leica S line of medium format cameras with their sensor size of 30 x 45mm, the Hasselblad X1D uses a sensor of 33 x44mm in size which allows both cameras to be the size of a conventional full format sensor camera rather than the common medium format digital cameras which are substantially larger. The success of this approach has been clearly shown by the Leica S cameras and the new Hasselblad might very well be on the way of being a formidable competitor.

After fiasco with the rebadged Sony cameras, Hasselblad has now rejoined the camera market with an interesting new product, one that does not rely on their previous film cameras.  The advantages are obvious.


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10 comments:

  1. That makes Leica and now Hasselblad the real innovators in photography

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The palette of Leica cameras, including the innovative Leica SL are the very reason that Leica is bucking the industry wide trend of business going down. Leica has had a 12 percent overall increase of business during their last fiscal year. If the new camera from Hasselblad will have the same effect needs to be seen.

      Delete
  2. Interesting, but disappointing EVF, 2,4 mp against Leica SLs 4,4. I think the EVF in the SL was a game changer, I can't see myself holding up an MF camera like it was an iPhone because of no/suboptimal finder.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Leica should be ahead when it comes to electronic viewfinders, after all, they have been at it ever since the introduction of the Leica Digilux 2.

      Delete
  3. Alan D Brown wrote:
    Horrid thing. Far to heavy and cumbersome and it dilutes the Leica brand.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's why Leica has other cameras to choose from. However, the success of the Leica SL shows that a lot of people do not share your opinion.

      Delete
    2. It is conservative people like you who are unable to see beyond their own shadow. By insisting that everything Leica had to be part of the M-system, Leica almost became part of history. Fortunately, more farsighted minds prevailed and put Leica on a new pass of success, by diving full tilt into digital photography and by offering innovative, new products like the Leica S line and the Leica SL.

      Delete
    3. Sir, you obviously don't know what you are talking about. If you were to allow yourself to overcome your prejudice and educate yourself further, go to: http://cameradecision.com/sizecomparison/Leica-M-Typ-240-vs-Leica-SL-size-comparison.jpg. There you can clearly see that the Leica M and the Leica SL are of similar size, especially if you were to add the electronic Visoflex to the Leica M.

      Delete
  4. I think this HB product is a bit of a "game changer". It has essentially jumped over the top of the Sony A7rii in a size v sensor sense. I fully expect though this will be only temporary as Sony release their high end 35mm A9 soon enough. Haptics is VERY important and on the surface it looks like HB have done a great job here.

    As for SL v X1D it's hard to compare given SL being a 35mm camera and the ability to accommodate a much larger range of lenses. I don't think EVF has much to do with this at all in reality. I've used the SL and it would not be the reason I'd buy it, if I was going to.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The Hasselblad is definitely somewhat of a game changer. By size alone it eclipses all of the other digital medium format cameras by size alone. This is not surprising since virtually all of the other digital medium format cameras with the exception of the Leica S line, are based on previous analog cameras.

    The Leica SL and the new Hasselblad should not really be compared simply because the Leica SL has a full frame sensor compared to the Hasselblad's medium format one. As for the lenses, it is doubtful that the Hasselblad will ever come even remotely close to the number of choices available for the Leica SL. While the electronic sensor might not be anything of importance to some, it in itself was a definite game changer because for the first time it made a professional mirrorless camera a possibility without sacrificing viewfinder resolution. At its introduction the EV in the Leica SL had double the resolution of the nearest competitor.

    ReplyDelete