- Hasselblad is owned by DJI
- You will find the Hasselblad-Mark Optik in DJI drones and DJI Tech in Hasselblad cameras
- Hasselblad’s Next Medium Format Camera is set to get a benefit increase
I have been to Gothenburg Sweden, this week, where the legendary camera brand Hasselblad and Chinese telephone manufacturer Oppo announced their renewed partnership, where the couple promised that “With the expansion of our collaboration we will further push the boundaries of mobile depictions.”
As a photographer, I am really impressed with Oppo’s current flagship phone, Find X8 Ultra, which contains the Hasselblad-labeled Optik and even an X-Pan recording mode that mimics the appearance of a famous hazel-blade analogment format.
It’s an upgrade of the 2024s X8 Pro, which we tell us we said “Best Camera System on any phone” – Look for my deep dive on the Ultra model’s camera that is coming soon.
And Oppo is not the only Chinese tech company that the Swedish camera manufacturer has cozied with -you also find Hasselblad -Optik in several DJI drones, and the company was acquired by DJI years back.
During the press event, I met with Bronius Rudnickas, Hasselblad’s global marketing manager. I was eager to hear how Hasselblad has benefited from life under DJI ownership.
First, Bronius pointed out that its recent intermediate format cameras, such as the X2D 100C, are equipped with an internal 1TB SSD made of DJI. It is a feature I really appreciated when testing X2D, especially considering that the camera also contains removable memory so you are not completely dependent on the SSD.
We also know that DJI, which is a much larger fish in the global tech market than Hasselblad, is in a strong position to buy crucial components, such as sensor technology-like most of today’s cameras, Hasselblads are equipped with Sony-made sensors.
I was also eager to learn about other ways in which Hasselblad and DJI could work together to improve Hasselblad cameras. Can autofocus performance, for example, be improved in the next hazel leaf camera?
“It definitely gets better … and smarter,” Bronius told me.
It’s promising. For me, the biggest disadvantage of X2D, for example, is its poor autofocus performance. I really love its 100MP set images with a fantastic natural color-something that is outside the capabilities of my own Nikon camera with full frame-but X2D is definitely challenging to nail sharp focus with, especially for low-depth-of-field portraits.
Personally, I am excited about Hasselblad’s next camera – and if recent rumors are true, I may not have long to wait.
The next X2D could land really with new DJI -Tech
Hasselblad Tipster Mirror -free rumors leaked US regulatory information, and early images of what it says is X2D II, a few months ago with a basic list of specifications.
These specifications include a 100MP sensor (with dimensions of 44 x 33 mm -it is much larger than full frame and the same format as FUJIFILMS GFX cameras such as GFX100 II), 8EV -image stabilization and 1 TB internal SSD memory. However, it is all features that are present in the current X2D 100C model – which is one of the best mirror -free cameras for image quality – so what can be new in Hasselblad’s next camera?
Mirror -free rumors suggest that we will see a Lidar Auto -Cus system, courtesy of DJI. If this is true, this can in theory improve the autofocus tracking speed, although of course we do not know until we have our hands on such a camera.
Can we expect Sony and Canon-Riving Autofocus performance for still images next time? Probably not, but we can expect better and ‘smarter’ autofocus. Personally to be able to rely on a Hasselblad-Camera’s subject-tracking of autofocus, even if it was only for human eye lesson, my wish list over a future model-happy us hope that this turns out to be the case.
According to rumors, the next Hasselblad could be revealed as soon as August – and I’m excited about the prospect of a future hazel blade with the usual amazing image quality, paired with better and smarter autofocus.
