In the quest for the perfect camera, I was lucky enough to get the chance to try out a Hasselblad 907x 100c with a 38mm f2.5 V lens.
The reason is that I'm looking for a camera system that inspires me to shoot, which I feel a connection with.
I’m a hobbyist, not a professional, although I’ve been into photography since I was eleven years old. So I'm trying a Hassy to see if it's something I can get along with, and I thought I'd make a note of my first impressions for my own records and to help anyone out there considering one.
From the Epson R-D1 to Leica Q to Hasselblad
The camera that I had the best time with so far is the Epson R-D1. "WTF!", I hear you say. It's an old digital rangefinder on a Bessa body. I just loved shooting that thing, especially with the Zeiss Planar f2.0. There was something very special about the limitations of the camera, with it's lowly 6 megapixel sensor, wind-on lever to cock the shutter, manual focusing and limited ISO.
But I got pretty good with it and it became second nature.
Then kids happened.
It's pretty hard to shoot family life with a rangefinder. So, I eventually bought a used Leica Q to have some of that good old manual feel combined with autofocus and more point-and-shoot capability.
It took a while to get used to a 28mm lens, but the Q fit the bill really well.
Recently, the image quality has dropped due to dust, so it's off with Leica for repairs.
I'm now trying a Hasselblad 907x 100c in the hope to get some of the fun and connected shooting vibe, but with autofocus and better dynamic range.
Note that I tried a Q3 43 in Leica Switzerland, and that was awesome. But the 907x has been on my mind so I needed to try one to scratch the itch.
It's very early days with the Hassy, at the time of writing I’ve not even taken it out in daylight yet, so you're getting some raw first impressions from taking it out of the box and shooting cats.
I wanted to get it down whilst it was fresh in my mind, and I will hopefully cover some ground that other reviewers haven’t covered.
Retro, cool, solid
Opening the box, it's beautifully packaged and it struck me how beautiful, solid and old-school it is. What a cool bit of kit.
Setting up, it took me a while to get the sensor cover off, who knew you could slide the top button to the side to release it. I had to actually read the manual to figure it out. After that, setting up was easy. I attached the body to the digital back and then clipped on the lens - a 38mm f2.5 V.
Also a brick!
One thing that I hadn't seen in any of the reviews I’ve read is that it's a brick! It feels really heavy compared to my Leica Q. I had actually compared weights before deciding to try it, but just didn't realise how much that weight would feel in the hand.
The body is 620g compared the lighter Leica Q at 590g. But if you add 350g for the 35m f2.5 lens, that takes the total Hassy weight up to 970g, almost 1KG!
I don’t know if this is a problem yet, just an unexpected surprise given how so many say this is the “small and portable” medium format camera. It’s probably because I’m a noob that this shocked me!
Unusal to hold
The jury is out about the handling of this. It’s very cool but also very different. I love the waist level shooting and looking down at the LCD. I don’t feel I’m missing a electronic viewfinder on this becuase it wouldn’t make sense.
What’s a bit tricky is the secondary button. Basically it works like this if you’re shooting in manual (which I’m drawn to in lower light to keep the shutter speed above 100 to avoid shake):
- Use the front shutter button to capture an image
- To set aperture, rotate the front dial. Or, use the ring on the lens.
- To set shutter speed, hold down the secondary button on the right side of the camera whilst rotating the front dial.
- To set ISO, use the menu on the LCD.
The tricky bit is using holding in the secondary button whilst using the front rotary control. You have to hold it in a way where you’re cradling the camera in your right hand so you’re thumb can always get to the secondary button, whilst your finger hovers over the shutter button and rotatary control.
This is probably only an issue in low light where you want control of the ISO, shutter speed and Aperture. I’ll deliberately under expose to get a bit more shutter speed. But I don’t want the ISO much above 800 or 1200 to retain the image quality.
Easy to navigate around the menus
On first impressions, the menu system is really slick. It’s a doddle and didn’t take any time to get use to. You can achieve most functions in just a few taps, such as switching on face detect, adding a self timer, setting focus bracketing etc.
And all these functions are really nicely thought out and work great. For example, when setting up focus bracketting you can opt for it to exist that mode after you take a shot, or stay in it for subsequent shots.
As most reviewers say, the touch screen feels as responsive as my iPhone 16 Pro. It’s also beautifully designed from a UX perspective.
Very hard to use in low light
In a world of iPhones, Sony’s and Leica Q’s, we’re used to pointing and shooting. And, these cameras are great in low light, you barely have to think. But with the 907x, it's a different story.
I received this camera in the evening, so my first hours with it have been in low light. My initial thinking is - this camera doesn’t love low light. And although I’d read this before, it’s hard to appreciate the challenges until you face them first hand.
In a nutshell, in Aperture Priority the camera will often drop your shutter speed to 1/30 or lower, which is very hard to get a sharp image with when hand-held without IBIS. When shooting cats and kids in low light, I need a minimum of 1/125 to get a rushed quick snap. In fact, 1/200 is ideal.
It's worth noting that the X2D is a different story with it's effective 8 stops through in-camera IBIS.
But moving on... Let’s just say I’m still figuring it all out and I'm hopeful I can find a way of working that gives me good low-light results. I used to take the Epson R-D1 out with me on nights out in Leeds, and always got cool low-light shots despite it's flaws. The Epson wouldn’t work above ISO 1600, had no IBIS, and manual focus only. Yet, I still got some awesome shots, often after a ton of beer too.
The 907x has fewer constraints than the Epson, so I’m pretty determined to make it work. I’ll update this post once I’ve played around more.
Oh, despite the doom and gloom on this, I was able to get a photo of my cat in low light by underexposing and setting shutter at 120 and then recover, crop and it came out amazing.
Pro’s and Con’s
Pros
- It’s the coolest looking camera in the world
- Feels totally solid
- Colours are really natural and balanced
- Raw’s are very flexible, you can polish a turd nicely
- Very easy to use through the menus
- Touch to focus on LCD
- Manual focus clutch on the V lenses
Cons
- A bit of a heavy brick compared to the Q
- Still getting used to using the secondary button with front rotary control
- Hard/impossible to make work in low-light or even mildly low-light
- No way to set minimum shutter speed in Aperture priority mode, meaning you can find yourself trying to shoot at 1/30 and getting no results.
- This is amplifed by the 100mp sensor, where the slightest movement causes a blur that wouldn’t be noticeable on, say, a 20mp sensor.
- The lack of IBIS makes this worse (although I’m used to that on the Epson).
Watch this space
I’ve not even taken this thing out in daylight yet, so I’ll post some pics and more thoughts once I’ve used it a bit more.