Camera sensor ranking company DxOMark has crowned a new top performer — on Thursday, October 26, the company gave the medium-format mirrorless Hasselblad X1D-50c a score of 102, the highest score out of all the dedicated cameras currently in the database.
DxOMark says the X1D-50c’s medium format sensor, which is slightly smaller than traditional medium format, captures the highest low-light rating yet. The sensor, which is about 70 percent larger than a full frame sensor, creates a greater pixel pitch than a smaller sensor with the same number of megapixels. That allows the X1D-50c to shoot at high ISOs with less noise.
While the camera took the highest low-light score the company has given out yet, the medium format mirrorless scored excellent color depth and portrait scores as well. DxO Mark says the camera’s color score is slightly behind the Nikon D850 (which held the top spot for only a few weeks with a score of 100), but in real-world results will have about the same color performance. The camera’s landscape score, which measures dynamic range, is also identical to the D850 as well as the older Nikon D810.
DxOMark’s Paul Carroll says that the camera’s image quality is “outstanding,” and that it is mixed with a compact design and “realistic” price tag, though the medium format camera is also only a few points ahead of the full frame cameras with smaller sensors. “That said, while its image quality is up there with the best, it’s not significantly better than other super high-resolution full-frame sensors, such as the Nikon D850 DSLR or the Sony A7R II, except in low light,” he wrote. “So whether the X1D-50c is right for you may depend on your preference for shooting medium format, the flexibility of leaf shutter lenses for high-speed flash sync, or other factors such as the range of available lenses and accessories.”
The Hasselblad X1D-50c is the first medium format camera that DxOMark has tested in a few years, so while the camera is the current top performer, there also aren’t other recent cameras to compare that score to, like the Fujifilm GFX 50S. The company stepped back from medium format testing, saying it wasn’t able to keep up with the volume of testing. That temporary hold on medium format is likely a contributing factor to why the company is just now publishing the score, when the X1D-50c first launched over a year ago.