Up and Running

The medium format project is finally off the ground with the arrival of the remaining missing piece of gear. The body is the Hasselblad X1D 2, the lens is an H system 28mm, and the funny looking bit is the 1.5 tilt/shift converter attached to a H to X converter. I’ve also got a 50-110mm zoom for more general work. The combo above has the heft of a small elephant despite the mirrorless body being relatively lightweight.

I’ve only tested the combo without the TS converter doing a few exterior shots on a holiday let job, and first impressions are very impressive. The colour rendition from the processed raw files is absolutely superb - a different, subtle gradation of tones and muted saturation which comes with the larger sensor.

I’m going to continue testing it until the end of the month when I have a job that I can let loose on - a huge stables conversion in Northumberland that i’ve actually shot before, but has been completely remodelled by a client whose designs appears frequently in my portfolio shots.

The remote control app on the iPad seems to function perfectly, and I’ll be looking at testing my Godox lights and triggers to iron out anything that needs looking at. Because of the size of the raw files, i’ve had to order a couple of the highest-spec SD memory cards to keep up. Given time I’ll probably look to acquire some native X-system lenses in order to bring the weight down. My trusty Laowa 15mm shift lens is actually available with the Hasselblad mount so that might be a future purchase as well. Money is tight, and the future uncertain at the moment so it’s not the ideal time to splash any cash.

Test results will be forthcoming.