To say that shooting with the Hasselblad 25mm f2.5 lens is a breath of relief is an understatement. I’ve always preferred prime lenses, but only when I shot this lens side by side with a giant Canon RF 24-105m f2.8 L did my wrists really feel like they were getting a break. Of course, the two lenses are meant to do different things. But when shooting an event, I arguably took better photos with the Hasselblad than I did with the Canon. Why? Well, I think the photo industry needs to get over a fetish.
I want to quote poet Rudy Francisco: Some people will try to stop you from jumping into the water only because they have always been too scared to learn how to swim. This applies to well to everyone out there who’s stated that the European manufacturers produce overpriced cameras without acknowledging what the iPhone does that their ILC can’t. You’ve long enjoyed swimming in the waters of the traditional camera makers, why not consider diving into what the Europeans are making?
But there’s a bigger problem here that I’ll state, and I know very well that it won’t be accepted well until photographers are willing to fully comprehend what I’m stating. Our culture, specifically America, fetishizes the Japanese and gives into their marketing hype like a tomato plant that remains desperate for water after a summer’s rain shower. That’s not to say that they don’t make good products, but that’s all they are — good products. These days, they’re all just wavelengths along the spectrum of being good enough.
Eventually, the products begin to lose their soul due to fanaticism — which, by definition, doubles down on its efforts to achieve a cause while losing clarity of its original goal. This is due to Japanese culture. We can’t fetishize a culture and then not care for the people. The Japanese people are often under so much social and career pressure that they cannot let their souls grow. Essentially, we fetishize the Japanese and they put so much pressure on themselves that they cannot allow their souls to shine through — and I say this as the owner of Japanese cameras, watches, knives, whiskey, etc. When is the last time you felt a Toyota Camry had soul? Of course, economists have stated this since the 1980s. Without going deeper into this, I am saddened to support a culture, especially one in a first-world nation, where the companies don’t let their employees let their souls shine through.
This is why, for years, I liked Fujifilm’s products until they became monotonous and sterile. It’s also why I love the Nikon Zf and I tip my hat to Sony’s A7c series. Ricoh’s GR series of products, for all the problems that have, surely do have a soul to them. There doesn’t seem to be a soul compared to many of the products put out by European brands. Though in the Hasselblad 25mm f2.5, there’s plenty of it.
You should keep this in mind as you read the rest of this review. I’m not calling you out; I’m begging you to wake up.
Table of Contents
The Big Picture
The Hasselblad 25mm f2.5 is an incredible lens partially because it’s so small for being a medium format lens. It’s also the widest prime lens for digital mirrorless medium format cameras. The company built in weather resistance and also made some key upgrades on the leaf shutter. This essentially means that when you’re using a flash, you don’t need to have image stabilization active.
However, we also see photographers using this lens for more landscape and cityscape-type of work. And for that, we think you’ll have a lot of fun. We surely did when we used the XPan crop format.
Note that the autofocus speed can be a bit slow, but if I were using this lens for speedy work, I’d throw it into manual focus and use zone focusing instead.
We’re giving the Hasselblad 25mm f2.5 4/5 stars. Want one? Check it out on Amazon and Ali Express.
Pros
- Weather resistance
- Leaf shutter can sync to max mechanical shutter speed
- Nice image quality
- Fairly small
- Very lightweight
- Close focusing
- Very wide
Cons
- Someone is bound to complain about the autofocus, but this is medium format. It’s like expecting a massive ship in the Suez Canal to quickly rotate around.
Gear Used with the Hasselblad 25mm f2.5
We used the Hasselblad 25mm f2.5 with a Hasselblad X2D — both of which were loaned to us by Hasselblad. We lit several images with a Profoto B10 and a Nikon transmitter since the brands share the same hot shoe. The lighting equipment is our own.
Innovation: Why is the Hasselblad 25mm f2.5 Worth Reviewing?
At the time of publishing this review, it’s the widest prime lens for a digital medium format mirrorless camera system. It’s also capable of flash sync with a leaf shutter to the maximum mechanical shutter available.
Hardware
Using the Hasselblad 25mm f2.5 is a bit of a dream. When paired with the X2D, it’s a lightweight package akin to the Mamiya 7 II or Mamiya 6 — and you want to bring it with you everywhere. In many ways, it’s the digital variant of that camera, and this lens expands on it.
True to Hasselblad, the focusing ring can be manipulated to put it into zone focus/manual focus mode. From there, you can use it for street photography, landscapes, cityscapes, etc. The lens also features a metal build and weather resistance built in. During our time using the lens, it rained and it held up just fine to the elements.
A truly nice touch on this lens is the easy ability to click or declick the function ring using the switch on the side.
Protect Your Camera Gear
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Focusing
Focusing with the Hasselblad 25mm f2.5 is a slower process partially because of the X2D. It’s not the fastest camera to focus partially because it’s medium format, but also partially because it’s a Hasselblad. However, I must admit, I didn’t miss a lot of shots with this camera. And as it is, I don’t machine gun shoot like every YouTuber pretending to be a photographer does. You’re going to use this lens pretty carefully, and that means either zone focusing or centering your subject. If you’re not centering the subject, then you’re tapping them on the back of the camera screen to get them in focus.
Overall, it’s possible to take a photo with this lens. Can we expect better? Yes. But I’d expect Fujifilm to do better first.
Ease of Use
While testing the Hasselblad 25mm f2.5, I didn’t put the camera into anyone’s hands besides my own. So with that said, I’m not sure how a total novice would feel about this lens being used with the camera. However, for me, it was pretty straightforward. Using the Hasselblad 25mm f2.5 is like giving a Leica M lens autofocus capabilities. Some people find Leica M lenses difficult, but they’re not all that bad.
What’s really nice to note about this lens is how it works with flash. The leaf shutter can sync to the max shutter speed of 1/4000th on the X2D. This works in place of both high-speed sync and all. What’s even better is that the lens can also do 2nd curtain flash.
The following statement was provided to the Phoblographer. It’s from Hasselblad’s R&D Developer, Tobias Rattfelt:
What is new with the leaf shutters is they are “close-only” shutters, while previous versions were “open/close” shutters.
With film cameras and older digital cameras, it was important to be able to quickly open and close in order to control the time the film or sensor was exposed. The exposure sequence for a dslr looked something like this:
1. Shutter is closed
2. Mirror is moved away to expose the sensor
3. Shutter is opened
4. Wait (for how long depends on shutter time setting)
5. Shutter is closed
6. Readout of sensor data.
7. mirror is moved back
8. Shutter is opened
In modern image sensors the reset of the sensor is almost instantaneous, though reading out the information from the sensor still takes some time. This means that for a modern leaf shutter, to control the time the sensor is exposed, we needed to reset the sensor and then close it after enough time has passed. So now our exposure sequence can be described like this:
1. Sensor reset
2. Wait (for how long depends on shutter time setting)
3. Shutter is closed
4. Readout of sensor data
5. Shutter is openedWhat this means for the new lenses is that while we still need to be able to both open and close the sensor, only the closing needs to be done quickly to achieve that 1/4000th of a second exposure time. Which brings us back to what’s new:
Tobias Rattfelt
1. The motor that drives the shutter blades has been redesigned to be optimized for fast closing speed (This has been a big focus of the new development).
2. The outer diameter of the exposure unit has been reduced (This is also quite a significant improvement compared with previous versions).
Hasselblad 25mm f2.5 Image Quality
In my testing of the Hasselblad 25mm f2.5, the lens seemed to exhibit the same level of color that I’d expect from a Sigma lens. At this size of a sensor, I’m fine with that. The lens is sharp, and when you add flash output to it, you’re getting even sharper details. However, with natural lighting and at ISO 6400 and above, you’re getting a bit of softness. That’s what I like about this lens. A photographer can feel like they’re getting a soft image — though not quite the glow you’d get from a Leica “King of the Bokeh” style lens.
Can this lens make bokeh possible? Yes. However, it’s not very pronounced at all. I wouldn’t use this for something requiring a lot of bokeh. Instead, I’d use it for landscapes, cityscapes, and documentary work.
Where I really had the most fun with this lens is when shooting with the X2D in X Pan mode. It’s a totally different format than what we normally see anymore. And this creatively inspires me in a way that I’m not anymore. After seeing prints from Josef Koudelka at Pace Gallery, it’s a format I want to shoot more of. Photography isn’t about Instagram and Tik Tok. It’s about making images that you can’t get from a video and putting them in someone’s hand so your souls can have a conversation.
Extra Image Samples from the Hasselblad 25mm f2.5
The Phoblographer has been huge on transparency with our audience since day one. Nothing from this review is sponsored. Further, many folks will post reviews and show lots of editing in the photos. The problem then becomes that anyone and everyone can do the same thing. They’re not showing what the lens can do. So, we have a section in our Extra Image Samples area to show edited and unedited photos. From this, you can decide for yourself.
Unedited
Edited
Edited With Phoblographer’s Lightroom Presets
You can pick up our presets for yourself by purchasing them here.