The BEST LENS money can buy :: Hasselblad 80mm f/1.9

The Hasselblad 80mm f/1.9 is incredible. Its a major addition to the Hasselblad X1D lens lineup in that it has an incredible personality.

The Hasselblad X1D is still a fairly young system. Hasselblad has a roadmap of coming lenses and the 80mm f/1.9 is the 6th lens in the lineup. More importantly this lens represents an unusual lens type for medium format in its aperture. There currently is no lens like this available on any native medium format system and that's what makes this special. Hasselblad have developed a new voice and if this is any indication of the future direction, its going to be incredible.

• 80.5mm f/1.9
• 14 elements in 9 groups
• Aperture range f/1.9 to f/32
• 77mm filter threading
• 2.30 lb / 1044 g

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* This lens was loaned to me from Hasselblad for review. This is not a paid review and the opinions here are my own.

Ted Forbes
The Art of Photography
2830 S. Hulen, Studio 133
Fort Worth, TX 76109
US of A

[Joe_VanCleave]

Great review, Ted.

BTW, the reason why the lens holds up to f/16 without significant loss from diffraction is that diffraction is related to the absolute physical size of the aperture, not the f/ratio alone. It's related to the ratio of the area of the aperture opening relative to the area within one wavelength of the aperture edge; smaller physical apertures have more edge area relative to the center of the opening. Hence why large format photographers commonly used f/64 without significant diffraction (Group f/64).

[nelsonclub]

5yrs on and it still is!!!! although the 90mm 2, 5 is probably a close second - in a recent NITS test it scored 3000 which is double the next best lens they tested

[enricomarconi]

pack with info and yet, straight to the point. Bravo, as always!

[durango-CODEBUILDER]

Hey Ted, hows the Artist series coming along?

[ChristopherMay]

Ted, the butterfly on hand shot at 1:05 is simply sublime. Excellent!

[lloydpictures]

The colours look so nice. Particularly love the cat photos. Something about it reminds me of the 85mm zeiss planar - it has that pop.

[PeacePham]

You can also use a Zeiss Otus 85mm f1.4. Even though it's for full frame, its image circle is large enough to well cover medium format cameras like the Hasselblad x1d

[codez]

Thank God for Father Time! You look much better now than 7 years ago. Even your voice is sounds smoother.

[parinyaek]

Could you elaborate on what exactly is the micro-contrast? Can we adjust it later in the post-processing?

[Zeoklis]

Man, I kind of stopped caring for digital, but this lens takes incredible pictures.

[KNURKonesur]

I still think the 2 best lenses money can buy are (in this order): the Kodak Aero Ektar 178/2.5 and Contax Planar 80/2.0 depending on the format you use.

[RodClark]

After years of being misguided and trodden up, it's great to see Hasselblad back on top. What a great lens. Last year I went to the WPPI convention with Phase One and everyone was asking us about the old Contax 80mm f2.0 - which is extremely popular with wedding photographers. It's great to see a modern digital equivalent to that lens. Hope to see many more like this.

[mr.lightning_onyx]

Pictures looks amazing
And the video great!! Very informative.

[bobsykes]

A note to your viewers -- I very recently acquired this lens, and my copy (purchased July 2020) is in fact made in Japan, not in China, as you stated about your review copy. "Lens made in Japan" is etched into both the lens itself, and printed on the label on the box. Only the front and rear plastic lens caps are marked "made in China". Great review, and a good recommendation to do a test shoot at all apertures in this video. Thank you.

[kalmanschnur]

The X1D sensor is NOT 6x4.5 cm. It's 43.8 x 32.9 mm.

[mahdimanesh]

Any chance you have some insights on how this lens works in the new X2D? 😅 The new V lenses seem not to be available and I need a first lens for general purpose and portraits 😊

[RyanFlynnDirector]

Hey, what camera strap is that? I love it

[AgnostosGnostos]

Hasselblad X1D camera doesn't have a mechanical shutter. That is one of the reasons of its very short flange focal distance 20mm which is incredible for a medium format digital camera.
Instead Hasselblad XCD mount lenses have internal leaf shutter. That permits very fast flash synch speeds which is highly important but it restricts the size of aperture. The f/1.9 isn't something impressive for medium format lenses but for a medium format lens with leaf shutter it is phenomenal.

[stevelink]

Very interesting review! Regarding lens manufacture for Hasselblad, please correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Fujifilm build lenses for Hasselblad nowadays? Thanks again!

[michaelanderberg]

Loved the review, thank you! Looking forward to even more X1D and XCD-content from you!