X1D – A Compact 50-Megapixel Medium Format Camera
Hasselblad, in the midst of mobile cameras together with selfie-infatuated unprofessional, has been making a proposition to customers with a new type of camera. However it is not meant for self-portraits and would be quite expensive. The Swedish-based luxury camera manufacturer, had recently introduced the X1D, a compact 50-megapixel medium format camera to the world which advertised as a `game changer’ in photography.
Latest addition is the wireless enabled lighter than the company’s standard issue to the Hasselblad’s fleet is provided with GPS and high-definition video capabilities. It also comes at a price of $9,000, a price that Hasselblad states are acceptable by the mirrorless technology of XID, something without the model in a digital medium format device.
Comparing with Hasselblad’s other luxe models, the H5D type is priced at $45,000, a surprising sum for consumers accustomed to spending out only hundreds of dollars on a Nikon or Canon, the price tag of X1D is fairly reasonable, according to Hasselblad America’s president, Michael Hejtmanek, as informed to CNBC in New York, this week. On the side-line of an event, Hasselblad had portrayed to the reporters, a pre-production model of the X1D, which Hejtmanek had called it as an `amazing camera’ whose functionality conceals the relative convenience and ease of the universal smartphone camera.
An Act of Boldness Against Bleak Financial Side
The expensive X1D could be considered as an act of boldness against the bleak financial side of the camera business. It was an impudent attempt to generate interest in high end cameras by the 75-year old company, during which, the market seemed to be under severe burden from smartphone cameras. Main camera manufacturers like Canon, Nikon and Sony, reported decline in camera sales, reflecting a multiyear fall in worldwide shipments which began moderating only last year, according to the Camera & Imaging Products Association.
CIPA data portrayed that camera sales had leapt by nearly 20%, in 2015 from the year prior to 35.4 million sales, down from 2010 peak of 121.5 million and corresponding with the boom in smartphones. In the meanwhile, global smartphones sales had climbed over 14% last year to over 1.4 billion units, as per figures from research firm Gartner.
Real Camera for Photography Enthusiasts
Hejtmanek had accepted that smartphone had been turning the overall population into unprofessional shutterbugs but had restrained the effect on high-end manufacturers like Hasselblad. He informed CNBC in New York this week that `this is a real camera for photography enthusiasts, so while you can with a camera phone shoot some great pictures, there are a lot of limitation to that. You have a sensor in the X1D that is many times larger than a camera phone. The difference is staggering’.
Most of the digital single lens camera possibly the most affordable as well as popular ones in the market, tend to cost only several hundred dollars, but they seem to pale in price comparison to the X1D.Hejtmanek commented that for someone who would have purchased a high-end DSLR, this camera is a big step up in technology though only a small step in price. It’s much more a camera for the dollar. The X1D is said to be available in stores in August.
