The Hasselblad X2D II 100C – Profoundly Better Autofocus
As evidenced by my nearly 10 years of prior publishing on this blog, I shoot Phase One almost exclusively for my commercial work and I use that gear to problem solve image creation with the highest megapixel result through focus stacking or stitching. Basically if things aren’t breathing or spoiling, I’m shooting a Phase One 150mp digital back on either the Phase One XF or Technical Camera. The image above was shot with the XF body with 55mm Schneider Kreuznach Blue Ring lens. When things DO breathe or spoil, I’m typically switching away from Phase One because I need radically better autofocus than the Phase One XF provides and until now, that left the X2D entirely out of the mix of cameras I may take out of here on any given day.
I mean, I have loved interacting with the X2D 100C every time I worked with it. It arguably has the most beautiful user electronic interface of any camera, well… ever. The body is beautiful and perfectly sized, the optics are wonderful, the companion iOS app is capable & well organized but with only single shot autofocus available on version-1 of the X2D, it couldn’t be the camera I grab because I’m typically chasing children or animals who never stop long enough to allow it’s autofocus to acquire and shutter to grab before they’ve moved.
All this has changed with the introduction of the X2D-II 100C camera body. Many will see this camera without a magnitude of listable new feature items compared to the upgrades integrated from the X1D to X2D, but I think it IS the MAGNITUDE of this update that makes this new camera so desirable.
Enter AI Based – LIDAR propelled subject acquisition and tracking.
Version-1 of the X2D used PDAF (Phase-Detect Autofocus), but this new camera uses PDAF + CDAF (Contrast Detection Autofocus) + LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), which unless you’re on the civil engineering side of the world you’ll know primarily from that ticket the State Patrol gave you for applying too many foot pounds of pressure to your accelerator, and thus making you a menace to society and the worst person ever to drive on public roads.
The new AI-Driven Subject Detection modes contain algorithms for ‘Human’, ‘Cat/Dog’ and ‘Vehicle’
Definitely gets the humans,
Definitely gets the dogs,
It does not like the bunnies, however. While the camera was set to Cat/Dog, it found the body of the yard rabbit, but would not hit the eye.
I may have to take a field trip out to Petit Le Mans north of here in October to properly test out the ‘Vehicle’ algorithm.
We were initially a little miffed about the lack of detailed explanation in the UI as to what setting the camera to ‘Human’ was going to achieve, but as I’m typing this I realize that verbose is not the reason we love the interface on this camera. It’s simple and it basically just works.
In practice, the AF box will first find the human face, and then a smaller box will appear as it identifies the eye. Which eye? Well, that’s the thing, over time it tends to dance a bit. While the Fujifilm cameras allow selection of Right or Left eye, (placed by a Japanese engineer several menus deep that you’ll have to triangulate to get to) there is no refined selection here and it doesn’t seem to favor one or the other more, whether that eye is subtlety forward or to the rear of the other.
Vastly more important to me than subject detection or eye selection, however is the new AF-C Mode.
Continuous autofocus isn’t just useful for tracking obvious movement. There is a vast difference in shooting portraits of professional talent, either models or professional athletes, that are used to being in front of the lens, and photographing everyone else. Sometimes when you’re trying to get a limited depth of field portrait of a ‘regular’ it is a numbers game because they don’t sit still enough (down to literal millimeters) to have the lens wide open and so you need to stop down a bit to give yourself a broader window of success. The continuous autofocus on the X2D-II is so precise and consistent that I would rather run it in AF-C in a ‘regular’ portrait than in a single shot mode. As evidenced below, none of the following images were shot statically and all were shot with the lens wide open.
The continuous autofocus capabilities of the X2D II 100C exceeded our expectations by a good margin, we had a success rate of more than 95% of eyes in critical focus. All of these stills were captured with Bianca very much not still.
If I’m shooting action or sports, I’m still going to turn to the Fujifilm GFX 100-II, because in its high speed drive mode it can fire either 5 FPS or 8 FPS bursts, a mark that the X2D-II comes nowhere close to at 3 FPS. (think that at even 8 FPS it is 1/3rd what traditional timing is for motion picture film) In the images below, the AI was indeed tracking the bouncing head of the ‘human’ but the AF motor couldn’t keep up with the very random variation of distance, nor was the drive speed adquate to catch any more than ~.9 frames/bounce.
At the moment of this writing, AF-C is limited to most of the newer V-series lenses and was enabled by a firmware update we received late last week. Prior to updating them, the AF-C icon in the menu was greyed out as will be displayed if you attempt to select for a non-supported lens.
Current lenses supported are:
(edit August 27, 2025: We have just found out that the Hasselblad XCD 20-35mm f/3.2-4.5 E Lens will not be supported for AF-C use)
(edit August 28, 2025: At this moment, the XCD 45mm f/4 P Lens does not work at all with the camera, until the lens has been updated to firmware 1.3.6, so the easiest thing is to make sure you update the lens on your current camera before receiving your X2D II)
So all this to say that the autofocus of this camera is really fantastic to work with and this rig will likely be my weekend/travel camera from here on out because in addition to the end result of really nice images, this Hasselblad product is so pleasing to work with as a tool. Great size, 100 megapixel capture, great optics, great autofocus unless you like rabbits, LEAF SHUTTER LENSES!! which matters very much if I am syncing strobe, and it honestly is best in class user interface that is just plain enjoyable to be around.
Good Job Hasselblad, the X2D II 100C is now in the world’s best camera club with no caveats whatsoever. (except for a few that we’re not going to ruin the dinner party with by mentioning on such a lovely evening)
Check out Our Other X2D II 100C Articles!
Hasselblad X2D II 100C Camera
Hasselblad XCD 2.8-4 / 35-100 E
Discover more from Capture Integration
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
