Hasselblad, the Rolls-Royce of the photography world, is scheduled to shake things up tomorrow, June 22nd by announcing a new “game changer in the world of photography” camera. Various rumour sites such as PhotoRumors, reported on the new upcoming announcement recently, which has caused quite a bit of stir in on various photography forums and communities (such as PetaPixel) with some predicting it will be a mirrorless medium format camera with a possibly Sony made 50 megapixel sensor and also feature a built-in viewfinder and other ground-breaking features.
Here’s what the invite for the Live Stream from Gothenburg, Sweden looks like courtesy of photographer Ming Thein:
Medium format is sort of a holy grail for most photographers, as the canvas is larger than 35mm full-frame and the sharpness, detail and image perspective has a much more epic and different feel not easily achievable with alternative methods.
In terms of video, it’s all a guessing game at this stage, however as Hasselblad already announced their monstrous H6D-100c Medium Format DSLR with a 100 Megapixel Sensor and the ability to record 4K raw video, I won’t hold my breath for seeing 4K video on the new camera tomorrow. It’s a slim possibility IMHO.
As much as I dislike terms like “game-changer”, which we have to thank Apple and their iPhone for making it probably the most over-used and meaningless term in the world of tech/photo/video, 2016 is a Photokina year. We’ve already seen big-boy flagship DSLR’s like the Canon 1DX Mark II announced and shipping, and we’re eagerly awaiting the upcoming GH4 successor, the possible high megapixel Sony A something camera and of course the highly awaited Canon 5D Mark IV, so this typeof “hype” marketing campaign may be justified here.
Sony, Panasonic and Fuji have been crushing it with their mirrorless offerings such as the Sony A7RII and Fuji X-Pro2 quickly eating away market share from Canon/Nikon DSLR’s, and it only seems as a natural and logical progression that we would also see a mirrorless medium-format camera very soon, and possibly tomorrow.
Tune in tomorrow, June 22nd at 13:00 GMT (14:00 CET) time for the live stream of the announcement below.
One thing is for sure though – it won’t be cheap (that’s guaranteed); it also may not even shoot 4K video (or any video at all), but this wouldn’t be the end of the world for those using medium format anyway, as there are plenty of mirrorless (and a few DSLR) 4K video options for those photographers dabbling in video as well.
Nonetheless, technological disruption is a good thing, and as always we’ll keep you updated as to what this new photographic marvel ends up being.
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