A couple of weeks ago, one of the editors at DPReview contacted me with a cryptic message: Would I be able to shoot a sample gallery on short notice using an unannounced new camera? Of course! Announced a few days later, the camera turned out to be Hasselblad’s new CFV 100C camera back, coupled with a 907x camera frame, and a pair of prime lenses. If you’re not familiar with Hasselblad’s systems, the 907x is a piece that holds the lens, essentially, and the CFV 100C contains a 100 megapixel sensor that connects to the back of the 907x. It’s a compact and unusual (compared to most cameras) setup.
You can find the sample gallery here: Hasselblad 907X / CFV 100C sample gallery.
If you own an earlier Hasselblad film camera system, you can pop the film back off and connect the CFV 100C to record 100 MP images using your existing body and lenses. In this case, I mostly shot with the 907x/CFV 100C, a 90mm lens, and a 22mm lens.
Making photos is a different experience with this setup, and I found myself fighting muscle memory at first. The shutter button is located at the bottom-front of the body, near the lens. A metal dial around the button controls the aperture value, or shutter speed if you simultaneously press another button just around the corner on the right side. The large LCD on the back pivots up so you can shoot from waist level (like the old cameras with a top-down viewfinder). There’s also an optional grip that lets you access more shooting controls.
The 907x/CFV 100C does include phase-detect autofocus and the ability to recognize and lock focus on faces, although focusing is not speedy. There’s also no body or lens stabilization, so on many occasions I made sure I had a tripod with me.
Oh, and the body costs $8,200.
However, the resolution is just impressive as hell. In the sample gallery, be sure to click through to larger previews of the photos that include a Loupe and 100% size option. Here’s a quick demonstration I made in Photoshop to show the capabilities:
You can also download the JPEGs to look at them in your own software. Normally DPReview also includes raw files for download, but they ran into a technical issue making the 210 MB files work. Yes, that’s 210 MB for each raw file; in all I ended up capturing about 126 gigabytes of images over the course of one week.
We had the camera just for that time period before it had to go back to Hasselblad, so there’s no full review at DPReview yet. Hopefully that will come later if they can get another camera loan.
Jeff Carlson | Never Enough Coffee Creations 