Since I invested in the Hasselblad medium format System in 2017 I’ve been quite keen for the new XCD lens lineup to grow. Currently I use the 30mm, 45mm and 90mm which in 35mm perspectives give me focal lengths of 24mm, 35mm and 71mm approximately. When I heard about the introduction of the Hasselblad XCD 21mm I was keen to add this to my system and ultimately shoot wider Landscapes.
My reasons for getting the 21mm weren’t just for the ability to capture super wide angle shots. The 21mm is about 16mm in the 35mm format. I wanted extra space around my main subject captured so I could apply perspective corrections in Lightroom and not end up with a 30-40mm shot. To explain further. I spent a good while making most of my Landscape photographs in recent years with a Canon 5DSR and a Canon 24mm TS-E Lens. This is a Tilt Shift Lens that allowed me to compose a scene with the camera and lens parallel to the floor and then shift the lens down to include more or less of the foreground without distorting perspective in the distance.
Having the ability to contain perspective in a Landscape Photograph is key for me. Nobody wants to see trees leaning unnecessarily, building, fence posts not vertical etc etc. If you use a wide angle lens yourself you’ll notice the distortion that occurs on the edges of the frame. This to me is ugly and needs fixing for the image to look real in my opinion. A wide angle Tilt Shift lens allows you to capture a true image in camera, this removing the need to correct perspective in post production and also saves you losing pixels as you distort and crop a non shifted lens that doesn’t have its lens plan parallel to the ground.
When I moved exclusively to the Hasselblad system I invested in the 30mm (24mm eqiv.) lens which is a really good lens that produces amazingly sharp images in my experience, however, I miss the shift function of my 24mm TS-E. So my theory was, invest in the 21mm (16mm equiv) and treat it like a longer focal length lens. Use the extra pixels to allow for the loss you see when fixing perspective.
So when Hasselblad announced the 21mm I placed an order on their website that same day and looked forward to my Digital Medium format system growing and covering more of my photography needs. The lens I’m really waiting for is the 135mm with 2 x extender which will give me telephoto capability I’m currently missing. As I was waiting for my order to be processed I started to have second thoughts. Do I really need to spend £3,299 on a lens I’m going to rarely use and then cut out 20% of the pixels it captures? Can I be bothered with the workflow? Besides, I haven’t shot ultra wide angle since I was starting out years ago. My focus is more 50-70mm these days. I decided to cancel the order with Hasselblad and felt I’d made the right decision. I forgot about it.
A few days later DHL turned up with a box containing a Hasselblad XCD21mm lens. I’d had my refund by this point, so clearly I was sent the lens in error. I considered tweeting Hasselblad and letting them know but decided that was probably not fair to publicly highlight an issue with their system so I sent an email to customer services to let them know. In the meantime I took a look at the lens. Initially I thought the lens was second hand as it was covered in fingerprints and dust. None of my previous purchases of Hasselblad gear arrived like this. Disappointing.
Rightly or wrongly I decided I’d take a few shots with the lens and thought to myself if I like it, I’ll pay for it and in a roundabout way it’ll all work out. A few days went by and I hadn’t hear back from Hasselblad, then finally I got a reply saying please can you post it back to us in Sweden. I thought this was a bit off as I had been honest here and ultimately didn’t expect to have to pay to return the lens myself. After a few emails back and forth Hasselblad arranged collection and I sent it back.
While the Hasselblad XCD21mm produced some beautiful images and handles flare very well in my limited time using the lens I just couldn’t justify its place in my bag. I tested out the perspective correction idea and while it worked I felt the difference it offered was minimal. I’m happy with the 30mm and a little tilting of the focal plane doesn’t result in too much distortion, either way it’s easily fixed in Lightroom and I’m £3,299 better off. Hopefully when the Hasselblad XCD 135mm comes out I’ll invest in that and hopefully that will complete my digital medium format setup.
I wish Hasselblad would produce a 24mm Tilt Shift lens for the X1D. I’ve looked into adapting a lens from the H series but the cost of the adapter alone would buy me a Nikon D850 and a 24mm Tilt Shift lens so I can’t justify it and I’m not interested in complicating my set up with even more gear.
Here are a few images I made with my limited time with the Hasselblad XCD21mm thanks to an admin error.
