Took a short break recently and spent some days in Thailand with my girlfriend. This was a trip to relax and recharge our batteries. There were no outings to visit monuments or museums in our plans.

It was a “do nothing” kind of break. Time was spent in the retreat of a resort with all necessary amenities, including a nice pool adjacent to a beautiful beach.

My newly acquired Hasselblad 907x 100c + XCD 4/28 lens joined us in this trip. I’m sharing some photos here, together with my experience using this camera in the real world.

First things first, this is a camera you want to shoot in RAW to get the most from the 100 MP sensor. Then you process your RAW files with Hasselblad’s dedicated Phocus app. It is super-intuitive, easy to use whether on Mac OS or iPhone / iPad version.

Not even trying Adobe Camera RAW for comparison. Phocus works perfect and if you believe in Hasselblad, it is the app to use to achieve the best results.

With Phocus, you get lens distortion and vignette corrected easily. I don’t know about you, but distortion is something that annoys me, so that is a must. Vignette though, it depends on what I’m shooting.

I actually find the XCD 4/28 lens vignette quite attractive – it adds character to the image. So with Phocus, I may or may not get the vignette corrected. I decide case by case.

One thing I was definitely not expecting is that this camera tends to underexpose in most occasions, especially when shooting outdoors. It’s surprising, because cameras nowadays have the tendency to perform otherwise: they overexpose, especially when under bright sunlight.

I was never a workflow kind of guy. I dislike time spent in front of a computer editing images. Normally I shoot and upload everything to my Mac’s Photos app. Then occasionally I edit my keepers in Photos – simple stuff, like straightening and cropping. That’s all I do.

Not with this camera though. Its tendency to underexpose, together with the light fall-off and lens distortion (at least using this XCD 4/28 lens) means I have to edit my RAW files carefully.

Luckily, Phocus is easy to use and not over-complicated like Photoshop or Lightroom. The interface is super simple in my iPad. Take lens Distortion as an example: there are no % numbers to fill-in nor sliders for X, Y axis or whatever… Just a button to toggle between applying correction, or not.

And for other fundamentals like Exposure, White Balance, Saturation, etc… You adjust with sliders.

In short, Phocus makes processing RAW files a super simple task that you can execute on the go, using your iPad or even iPhone. Just connect your camera through Wi-Fi and start editing. The connection is reliable and never failed me so far.

To this point, I want to highlight the simplicity of every Hasselblad digital interface that I experienced till now. Phocus is simple and intuitive, just like the 901x‘s own camera interface that I highlight positively.

In this camera there are no hidden menus and sub-menus, no useless options and functions. Other camera brands have a lot to learn with Hasselblad in this regard.

In case you feel the beach photos above look dark and somewhat muted, lacking punch. Well, that’s a mix of my personal preference editing the RAW files combined with the weather conditions.

These shots took place right before a heavy rainstorm hit us, so there was not much sunlight indeed.

My first impressions analyzing these files… In a nutshell, I would say the light/shadow transitions and rich colour tones look really amazing.

The colours look dense, but not an oversaturated kind of dense. They look natural. And pleasant.

And whenever there is some light in-between dark and shadowy areas, like in this photo above. There is this glow that makes it look so real.

Before signing off, a quick note on the LED screen. Unsurprisingly, it’s not the best experience using it outdoors. I set the brightness to its higher level, and still struggled in most occasions.

There is not much you can do about it. If you want an EVF, then you get the X2D. Not this one.

This is all I have to share for the time being. There are more trips planned for this year and definitely the Hasselblad 901x 100c will come with me.