Photokina News: Hasselblad shows a V-style camera

Hasselblad has shown what it is calling a ‘concept’ camera that has been designed in the style of its V film camera system and which it says returns 75-million-pixel images.
Shown as part of the company’s ‘4116’ 75th year celebrations the day before the Photokina trade show opens in Cologne, the V1D camera, which may or may not ever come to market, features a modular construction that allows users to place the viewing screen either on the back or the top of the body – or both – and to switch the handles from the left to right.
Hasselblad has released pictures of the camera with a waist level finder as well as with a prism, and has shown it with both one and two LCD screens. The idea, it seems, is that photographers can customise the body to suit the requirements of particular jobs and handling preferences.

Despite looking very much like a camera from the V system, the camera is shown mounted with the company’s XCD 45mm f/3.5 lens that is designed to be used with the X1D mirrorless medium format camera launched earlier this year.

 

It is likely that the sensor used in the camera is the current Sony 100-megapixel CMOS unit as used in the H6D 100c cropped-down to suit the covering circle of the lens and to allow a square image to be retrieved from the rectangular sensor’s dimensions. While the modular characteristic of the v1D concept reflects the adaptable nature of the Hasselblad V film cameras this new model appears not to have an interchangeable back.
We will find out more about this camera during the Photokina show when we speak to the Hasselblad technical team.