Medium Format Mirrorless

Film Scans in LR4
Film Scans in LR4 from Hasselblad 503CW 80mm f/2.8 Lens

 

The big story for me this Photokina has been mirrorless medium format.

As I posted yesterday the Fuji and Hasselblad has certainly set the medium format world alight.  I have been reading up what I can and the Hasselblad is certainly a portable king of the studio with shutter speeds of 60 minutes to 1/2000 of a second and all with full flash sync.

Hasselblad X1D-50c

What the Fuji has is weather sealing making it a great camera for landscape photographers.  Its really tough trying to pick between them and its likely down to which of those two features do you value the most, the flash capability or weather sealing.

Mirrorless is definitely the way forward as electronic viewfinders get better and better.  With medium format a optical viewfinder is less important and a larger screen to compose on especially an adjustable tillable screen like in the Fuji.  The Hasselblad does have an app for the iPad so you could use the iPad as a giant live view viewfinder.

For me as a studio photographer who also does landscape, its a very tough choice.  The Fuji is winning on weather sealing, and the adjustable rear screen, but that flash sync speed on the Hasselblad is temping, also being an existing Hasselblad user with some V lens, its likely an adapter is going to be available.  Now you can make a good argument for saying the Leica S is the best compromise, weather sealing and lens with leaf shutters available, but as its not mirrorless how long is it going to last in the market?