Hasselblad XCD 55mm f/2.5 V Lens

This is the perfect compliment to the X2D 100C as it serves as a terrific normal lens. Sharpness is off the charts as is contrast and color rendition. Of course it is very pricey but using Hasselblad products is not for everyone's budget. I just received the lens a few days ago and have been under the weather but so far I am impressed. The focusing and shutter are extremely quiet but all that is secondary to lens acuity and the sharpness of this lens is remarkable. I am posting two images here and the one of my doggie should be examined. Even though it is a low resolution image, you can distinguish every single hair around the eyes of my doggie. The two images were taken hand held. This lens and my 45 mm lens are ideal for street photography. Both are very versatile lenses.

I am fussy about image. It is what I am searching for, good image. I have some nice and some unique lenses for my Leicas. I feared the XCD 55V would not be as good as my Cooke Amotal 2 f/2.0 with the famous Cooke Look, This lens is streets ahead, Color, definition and superb use of the Hasselblad color science makes this my go-to lens on my go-to camera. I have been delighted with this lens t since I got it.

I love that this lens is well under half the weight of the older 2.8/65 while being a little faster, also that it has a much quieter focus motor and a quieter shutter. The manual focus ring is a great design and joy to use. The lens has incredibly high contrast and micro-contrast offering a modern look of extreme sharpness, especially in the center third of the frame, while retaining much of the depth and 3D look of really exceptional lenses like the 3.2/90. It also seems to have better corrected chromic aberrations than the similarly sharp 4/45P when facing harshly back-lit subjects, or subjects silhouette in front of a deep blue sky. (I am using these lenses with the new X2D body and all other lenses I refer to here are XCD series). However, while literature for the original 3.5/45 and 3.2/90 brag about how you could fearlessly use them in the harshest of outdoor weather conditions (with the X1D bodies), one of the first paragraphs in this unit's owners manual cautions protect the lens when in wet conditions, and do not use in dusty environments. To me, limiting this to being a studio and fair-weather only lens is a huge take-away. Will it also get fungus infections the way Leica M and old medium format film lenses can when moisture and mold or yeast spores get inside through its sub-modern day weather sealing? Hasselblad could have made a perfect everyday, anywhere, only one lens that you need product given the quality of this optical design, but they chose not to, and to me, that imposes serious practical limitations in how I can use it.

I received a XCD 55mm f2.5 V lens and used it on a X1DII Camera for a couple of weeks before receiving my XD2. The lens are quick and quiet on both cameras and the images are comparable to the older XCD lens. The MF/A focus ring is useful but I still have more to learn about how they interact with X2D and X1DII cameras controls. The function ring also requires more investigation. I bought the 55 mm V lens to supplement the XCD 2.8 65 mm for a normal lens as it is much lighter weight. I do not plan to get the 38 and 90 mm v lens.

I got this lens and the X2D...for me it's a perfect combination for my being creative. The 55V is a precision crafted metal lens which gives me fast, flexible and highly accurate focusing, stellar images and gives me an excellent smaller combination of camera and lens.