Vintage digital medium format cameras are finally starting to drop below $1,000, opening up a new world of opportunities for enthusiasts who’ve always been intrigued by these massive sensors but put off by the price. But are these older systems actually worth the investment, or are they just expensive paperweights?
Coming to you from James Warner with snappiness, this detailed video explores the emerging market of vintage medium format digital cameras that can now be found for under $1,000. Specifically, Warner highlights the Hasselblad H3D, a 2006 camera that originally retailed for over $20,000 but can now be found for a fraction of that price. He shares his own experience of picking up an H3D kit, which included the camera body, digital back, viewfinder, and battery grip, all for $900. This significant drop in price makes it an intriguing option, but Warner is quick to note that it’s not a perfect system, and potential buyers should be aware of its limitations.
The Hasselblad H3D is a fully modular system, allowing you to attach various components like digital backs, film backs, and different viewfinders. The digital back Warner uses is a 39-megapixel version, but he mentions that other versions exist. While the modularity is a big plus—especially when dealing with the aging parts of older cameras—it also introduces complexity. For example, if you accidentally purchase just the body, you’ll be left with a non-functional piece of gear because the camera requires a digital back to take photos. Despite this, the ability to switch between digital and film backs or even different viewfinders adds flexibility that most modern digital cameras don’t offer.
Warner also dives into some of the quirks of using a vintage digital medium format system. Unlike modern cameras, the H3D has no built-in shutter mechanism. Instead, the shutter is located within the lenses. This means you’re limited to using Hasselblad’s lenses, which can be expensive. While this might seem restrictive, one advantage of leaf shutters is the ability to sync with flash at much higher speeds—up to 1/800th of a second. This is a big deal for those who shoot with strobes, allowing for more creative control in studio settings or bright outdoor conditions.
But it’s not all smooth sailing. Warner highlights the drawbacks too. The autofocus is slow and unreliable, making it challenging to use for portraits or fast-paced shooting. You’ll also need a solid understanding of manual focusing because the shallow depth of field can easily lead to missed shots. The camera’s size and weight are another factor to consider. Even with a relatively small lens, the setup is heavy, and it’s not the most portable option for casual shoots. Additionally, it’s slow in writing files and has limited high-ISO performance due to its age. These limitations make it more suited for deliberate shooting styles like studio portraits or landscapes. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Warner.
I think that, while this is a really cool, option being stuck on Hasselblad H mount really hurts the value proposition.
The sensor in that thing is miles behind modern tech. Its still capable of making amazing images but only because of the sensor size, it is worse at everything than the sensor on the phone in your pocket from a tech point of view.
Personally, I'd love to try playing with something like this but the leaf shutter just is the showstopper. I can't go pick up vintage budget MF lenses to use on it because I'd need first party leaf-shutter lenses which are much more expensive and also exclusive to the Hassy platform which means I can't use them on other bodies in the future as even Hassy has moved on from the H mount.
You can definitely use H lenses on other camera bodies. You can use them on virtually any camera with a focal plane shutter. There are adapters to fuji GFX, canon, Nikon etc. You won't be able to use the AF or leaf shutter but these cameras have focal plane shutters and the H lenses manually focus really well actually. With the newer orange dot / v2 H lenses you can even autofocus them on X series Hasselblads.
I find this very interesting. As someone who shot film for years before digital was around, my camera of choice was one with a leaf shutter. I have a Rollie 6006 with 3 Zeiss lens. I still have it because I can't bear to part with it. I take it out on occasion and shoot b&w film. For studio work the leaf shutter was the way to go. Yes the lens were very expensive but could do things you would have a difficult time achieving with a focal plane shutter. Leaf shutters are quiet and have almost no vibration and of course flash sync at any speed. This allowed multiple exposures while maintaining sharp focus. Great for shooting product before the days of focus stacking. I always wished someone would make a digital back for my Rollie. The Zeiss lens for Hasselblad and Rollie are the same designs just different mounts. IMO the Zeiss 80 2.8 is one of the greatest lens in photo history. I am blessed to have owned a couple.
I have acquired about 4 of these old H series cameras over the past couple years. I use them all regularly. I shoot tethered in studio which is really where these camera's shine.
The H3D-39 is by far my favorite of the 4 I have. The 60mp one with a full size sensor is also a favorite of mine. My 31mp is my least favorite - even less favored than my 22mp.
Image quality is amazing in terms color and sharpness and detail. The color from these CCD sensors is really rich with lots of separation and really nice transitions. Detail from my 22mp H looks better than my 30mp canon R with much more modern lenses.
Lenses for these are pretty damn cheap - most are under 1k with many available for 300-500. Crazy considering how much they used to cost. Most of them are chunky especially the 50-110 zoom lens.
Don't really see the point of vintage medium format digital, other than the possible fun factor. The old sensors have been far surpassed by modern digital sensors, so that even with the larger size factor, it seems that a much smaller full frame sensor would still yield superior results. If I want a vintage look of really high quality, I am going to use my Mamiya 6 medium format camera. Don't necessarily think the vintage medium format digital sensors can produce images of a quality that surpass medium format fine grain film, given that those are earlier digital sensors.