• NEW – Hasselblad X2D: BHphoto / AmazonUS / Adorama
• GFX100S: BHphoto / AmazonUS / Adorama / Focuscamera / Moment
• GFX50S II: BHphoto / AmazonUS / Adorama / Focuscamera / Moment

Fujifilm GFX Shooters, Rejoice!

After a long wait, DJI (the owner of Hasselblad) launched the Hasselblad X2D.

Great specs, phase detection autofocus, IBIS and many more lovely features that make it a worthy and much needed competitor to the Fujifilm GFX system.

All Fujifilm GFX shooters (me included) should rejoice right now, because competition is a good thing and if the GFX system finally gets some serious pressure in the medium format realm, Fujifilm will be forced to step on the gas even more to keep dominating the market.

The Dubious Design Choice

But as much as I think the Hasselblad X2D is an awesome piece of gear, in its very same design philosophy lies a choice, that some might love, but many others might consider a dealbreaker and a flawed idea to start with: it has no mechanical shutter.

What this means is that you either rely on the electronic shutter (which is not the best choice on medium format cameras with slower sensor readout) or you use the native Hasselblad XCD lenses with build-in leaf shutter.

This choice Hasselblad made has two major downsides:

• you can’t use older legacy glass on the Hasselblad X2D (except you use only electronic shutter, which is not recommended and rather limiting due to the slower readout of MF sensors)
• you have to pay for the leaf shutter every single time with every lens purchase

And something I have noticed going through our Fujifilm GFX group, is that GFX owners LOVE to adapt vintage glass on their camera. It’s fun and it can give unique and very characteristic results.

Sadly, by not having a mechanical shutter, the Hasselblad X2D is simply the less ideal tool for this purpose than the Fujifilm GFX.

A GFX Killer? Let’s check it

Now the forums are quickly flooding with statements that the Hasselblad X2D is a GFX killer.

Really?

Well, let’s check one of the most important (if not THE most important) aspect: Price!

So let’s do just that, let’s buy the Hasselblad X2D as well as the Fujifilm GFX100S with 3 comparable GF and XCD lenses.

• Hasselblad X2D = $ 8,199
• Fujifilm GFX100S = $ 5,999

with

• XCD 35-75mm f/3,5-4,5 = $ 5,175
• GF 32-64mm f/4 = $ 2,299

with

• XCD 65mm f/2.8 = $ 2,750
• GF 63mm f/2.8 = $ 1,499

with

• XCD 21mm f/4 = $ 3,750
• GF 23mm f/4 = $ 2,599

All in all, in order to build up a similar system (1 camera with 3 similar lenses) you’d spend:

• Hasselblad X2D System: $ 19,874
• Fujifilm GFX100S System: $ 12,400

This means you save $7,474 by buying the GFX system over the Hasselblad.

With the money saved you could add to your GFX system the Fujinon GF 80mm f/1.7, the Fujinon GF 23mm f/4 and something like the Fujinon GF 45-100mm f/4. And you’d still have some money left to buy a spare battery and SD-Cards.

So, with a budget of about $20,000 you can buy:

• X2D with 3 lenses
• GFX100S with 6 lenses
  + still a couple of hundreds of dollars left to invite your better half to a romantic weekend, take lovely images with your new gear and show her/him that only 100 megapixel can make justice to her/his beauty

One might argue that the Hasselblad X2D has 1TB internal storage. Not really an argument, as I guess we all have plenty of SD-cards at home, so by buying the GFX you don’t really need to add SD-Cards to it as we can just use the ones we already have.

But even if we were to buy the equivalent storage in terms of SD Cards, let’s say we’d add four SanDisk UHS-II SD cards, you still end up saving $6,200 over the Hasselblad X2D system, hence still plenty of money to invest in lenses.

There is still no comparison. The Fujifilm GFX100S is the objectively better choice in terms of features and price.

However, buying decisions are not only made rationally. There is also a very subjective aspect to it. So if you really love the design of the Hasselblad system, then you are obviously better off getting the X2D over the GFX100S.

Dave Etchells from Imaging Resource met five Japanese Fujifilm managers: Yujiro Igarashi, Makoto Oishi, Jun Watanabe, Kuniko Åo and Shu Amano.

And when 5 managers are needed to answer the questions of 1 single person, you know it’s going to be a very in depth and technical talk.

In fact, it ends up in a 8,000 words interview that I have summed up down below in 1,470 words.

Some notes and considerations ahead of it:

• Fujifilm says they are working on updating the camera remote App, especially to make it work better with older cameras. They did NOT say they are working on an all new App. But FujiRumors has already shared a rumor that there will be an all new App!
• Fujifilm aimed to make the GFX system smaller, and the GFX50R served that purpose. Now the GFX100S is perceived as small enough, and so they see “less need for something even more compact“. But they also add “we always look at the market to see if there’s a need to introduce something“. My impression based on this interview is that they currently have no plans for a GFX100R, but they don’t entirely want to rule out this possibility. And in fact, given how well the GFX100S is selling, Fujifilm has no hurry at all to take decisions right now.

These are just two personal notes on what you’ll read below. But there is really a lot more interesting stuff… like how Fujifilm did work to train the new AF and much more.

The Interview