Hasselblad X2D II 100C: the first true end-to-end HDR camera
There may be no camera brand no more legendary than Hasselblad. They have been making incredible cameras for 184 years! That isn’t a typo. That’s 7 years before Florida was a state, 47 years before Kodak, and 121 years before NASA starting using Hasselblad in outer space. This isn’t a company that just knows how to make great cameras, this is a company that knows how to adapt and innovate at the highest levels. And now, they’ve adapted again for the future of photography.
Today, they just launched the Hasselblad X2D II 100C with numerous advancements over its predecessor, including the first end-to-end HDR camera. They call it “HNCS HDR” (Hasselblad Natural Colour Solution with High Dynamic Range).
Hasselblad HDR support includes:
- The first HDR OLED touchscreen (1400-nit peak brightness) to actually view images in HDR on the camera
- Capture images natively in HDR formats including JPG with ISO gain map or HEIF.
- 15.3 stops of dynamic range with 16-bit depth
I haven’t had a chance to use one of these cameras, but I wonder if native HDR capture might also mean a more accurate in-camera histogram. Nearly all cameras show a histogram of the in-camera’s JPG rather than the RAW data. Perhaps this camera will show the histogram for the HEIF, which should include the full dynamic range (likely encoded as HLG). If so, that could increase the real world dynamic range even further as most photographers are prone to exposure error given the very limited quality of a JPG histogram and blinkies.
The X2D II 100C also features:
- 102 megapixels with the low noise characteristics you’d expect from medium format.
- 5-Axis, 10-Stop stabilisation.
- LiDAR and a new new AF illuminator for fast, accurate focusing in a wide range of light.
- 1TB of built-in SSD storage, with a CFexpress Type B slot for additional storage via memory cards.
- Continuous autofocus (a first for Hasselblad) and other new autofocus modes.
- A refined look and controls for better appearance and ergonomics.
I haven’t had the opportunity to see one of these cameras in person, but I’ve spent gone through their press release, marketing material, and sample images in depth to get a good sense of Hasselblad’s approach to HDR. Below are my first impressions of this very interesting new camera.
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What are the benefits of Hasselblad HDR?
The star of the show here may be the new 1400-nits HDR OLED touchscreen. That puts it in a range very similar to the iPhone, which offers excellent HDR in nearly all conditions other than outdoors in bright light. Depending on how they’ve designed the in-camera firmware and how the display is adapted for ambient light, I imagine this may offer as much as 3 stops of HDR display.
That would be incredible to properly see the real image and visualize highlights without clipping or rolloff. This should be very useful in a wide range of conditions (though you should expect 0 headroom in bright outdoor conditions, as you would with an iPhone – as you’d probably need 3-10,000 nits for bright outdoor HDR). I’ll be very curious to get my hands on one of these to try. And if you purchase one, please comment below on your experience.
The next most significant benefit is image quality. With 15.3 stops dynamic range, 16-bit color, and the inherently low noise characteristics of medium format, there is probably no camera more capable of supporting both the best HDR displays and prints from a single RAW file. The key benefit here is likely in shadows, where you can expect much cleaner results in an image properly exposed to retain highlight detail.
The support to capture images natively in HDR formats is very welcome. This should help further demonstrate how quickly HDR is moving towards being a mainstream format and the optimal choice for highest image quality. This adds to a wide range of brands offering native HDR capture as JPG gain maps or HEIF (including Nikon, Canon, Sony, Fuji, Olympus, Sigma, iPhone, Android, and likely others).
Native HDR capture is great for those who wish to go directly from camera to display. Realistically, the best HDR results will always come from shooting RAW, as JPG and HEIF are meant for final display and not ideal formats for further editing. Additionally, native HDR capture is limited to certain camera modes (including exposure / focus bracketing, continuous shooting, manual exposure, or if using a Nikon flash).
How is the HDR image quality?
Hasselblad has not shared RAW versions of images corresponding to their HDR samples, so it is impossible to compare directly. They have a long history of outstanding RAW images and I have little doubt that these are probably the best RAW files you can possible capture to create HDR images. However, one of their customers did send me a few RAW images from this new camera. The files were roughly 210MB, as you’d expect for a camera with such high resolution. The detail was outstanding and noise levels in shadows looked very good (shot at ISO 100, a little above the base ISO of 50). Overall, I would say the RAW images I saw looked extremely promising, as you’d expect from Hasselblad.
Hasselblad has shared several sample HDR JPG images (no HEIF samples). While their website refers to “UltraHDR” (which is typically associated with the legacy Android encoding), these images are actually encoding using the ISO 21496-1 gain map standard (without redundant Android XMP). This is ideal and exactly what they should do, it may just be a bit confusing to those who understand the technical difference between UltraHDR and ISO HDR.
Even though they include all 102 megapixels, these HDR JPGs are only 7-21 MB in size (with most of the samples 10 or less). I expect you should be able to choose from a range of sizes if you prefer to capture smaller files or lower resolution.
The HDR JPGs show up to 3 stops of encoded HDR headroom (you could easily edit to higher values). Highlight rolloff looks very good in areas where extreme highlights will inevitably clip. Sunsets show great color and detail. Skin tones show restoration of normal color in the range where light skin tones will turn grey in SDR. Color and detail appear well managed across a variety of subjects, and of course you can assert even more control by processing the RAW as HDR.
Most importantly, I think they have done a much better job creating a natural HDR result than I typically see with a camera phone such as an iPhone. This has nothing to do with sensor characteristics, its the artistic intention. An HDR image should show shadows and midtones which are very close to the values in the SDR image, as SDR is a severe compromise of the highlights and that’s what HDR resolves. With a smart phone, you typically see midtones processed far too bright, which is one of the reasons some viewers on Instagram complain that the HDR images they see are “too bright”. A properly edited HDR image should not appear too bright, the extra brightness should primarily just be used to enhance highlight color and detail, not make the image brighter overall. Kudos to Hasselblad for their excellent default HDR processing.
The gain maps are encoded with full color, which is ideal. However, the map also uses 420 color sub-sampling, which is technically incorrect (as a gain map is just a bunch of math and the assumptions underlying color sub-sampling do not apply to these pseudo images). I have seen some examples where this can produce notable artifact (such as noise in blue skies). I don’t see evidence of that in these limited samples and if Hasselblad has designed the encoding with awareness of this issue, they may have taken steps to mitigate the risks that can cause issues (and therefore avoiding the increased file size of a 444 map). It’s not a concern for me. This won’t affect you at all if you shoot RAW (which you should) and Hasselblad could issue a firmware update if real world issues are later found with this encoding.
Overall, this appears to be a very promising leap forward for a premium camera from a legendary brand. It’s incredible to see their adoption and innovation around HDR, and look forward to trying one in person in the future.
The X2D II 100C is available from B&H with body-only or with a 75m lens bundle (which is similar to a 59mm on a 35mm camera).
See Hasselblad’s product page and sample images for more info.
