The new Hasselblad H6D boasts 4K video, 100MP sensor and a touch screen

When Hasselblad founder, Victor Hasselblad was approached by the Swedish government in 1941 to see if he had the skills to produce a camera identical to one they had captured, his famous reply was “No, but I can make a better one”.

Today, rather than taking the typical route of camera releases and simply updating the model that preceded it, Hasselblad still looks even at their own products with this same mindset and philosophy in order to develop cameras like the all new H6D from the ground up.

The H6D range introduces two new cameras to Hasselblad’s lineup, the H6D-100c with a 100MP CMOS sensor, and the H6D-50c with a 50MP CMOS sensor.

A wider range of shutter speeds from as fast as 1/2000th of a second to as long as an hour helps to ensure that both fast paced studio and long exposure landscape photographers are satisfied by their new offerings.

Aimed squarely and firmly at the high end professional market, the H6D offers a dynamic range of 15 stops, with an ISO range of 64-12,800 and a metering range of EV1-19 at ISO100.

The camera can be controlled through the new high definition touchscreen LCD located on the rear of the camera, offering liveview, and with an HDMI socket for external viewing on a monitor.

The camera also boasts USB3, built in WiFi and dual card slots (CF+SD), allowing you to create your backups as you shoot without having to be connected physically or wirelessly to an external device.

What particularly intrigues me about these cameras is the addition of 4K video.  Obviously, 4K is becoming a big thing, and many photographers are fitting video into their workflow, but it’s the last thing I expected to see in a Hasselblad.

This gives the H6D a unique edge over almost every other 4K capable camera out there.  While it’s not going to be quite on the level of something like IMAX, the huge sensor will certainly give your video a look that no DSLR can achieve.

Sample images created by these cameras, from Tom Oldham and Aorta, are rather impressive.

You can see the full size sample images, and read more about the H6D on the Hasselblad H6D website.

With price tags of €22,900 and €28,900 for the 50MP and 100MP models respectively, I don’t think I could ever imagine myself buying one of these glorious monsters, but I could certainly see renting occasionally.