The X1D was returned to the dealer earlier today. I took some notes for a blog post, but I shall just share the notes with you guys straight away.
To summarise I was really pleased with my time with the X1D and I am confident that for my portrait it will perform well. At the moment it does not really have the lens I need for my still life work, but hopefully that will come later this year. The X1D was a pleasure to use as well, with well thought out ergonomics for the most part. Did not have a chance to try any architecture or landscape, but since portraits are 90% of what I do I'm happy. During the two shots, which lasted for a total of 4 hours, there were no serious problems which I can remember. At the end of the second shoot I noticed the camera was warm, but in no way anywhere near what the it was during the initial demos. Although I have not delivered the final images yet I am confident my 'clients' will be more than pleased. Their Instagram feeds will never have looked so good before and
Below is a collection of observations from my time with the X1D. Some are very nitpicky, but nothing was close to making me cancel my pre-order. There are certainly a few things left for Hasselblad to iron out in the firmware, but I think we all already knew that.
AF good in ideal conditions and OK in poor, not yet analysed the result but from an inital look the keep rate seemed good
Lens changing - takes some effort and didnt immediately see the markings and the lens release button is in a dumb place which makes it very difficult to get a good grip on the camera body and the lens at the same time.
screen - poor, I wish it had a higher resolution and a tiny bit more oomph as it does not do the photos justice. Whilst looking at the photos during the shoot on the screen I was underwhelmed at first until I got home and put them on my iMac. Possibly, I am spoilt with the amazing Fuji JPGs, or I was just super hyped and expected bird song and rainbows
EVF better, but possibly a little bit choppy still
focus selection point - a let down - awkward to reach the button in the first place and instead of let me select point it just switches between af/mf even thought I pressed it for long enough and sometimes seemed to bring up the menu????
battery life - 250 photos in 2 hours resulted in 40% left then 20% after faffing around in cafe this is good enough for me
some settings seemed to reset/change after turn the camera on/off (shutter speed for instance)
turning camera on 7 seconds for display to turn and show settings screen and another 2 seconds for the camera to detect the SD card and count the number of images
worked with my Elinchrom Sky Port flash trigger
black out time after each shot is disruptive, but I have to wait for my flash to recharge anyway so no shots missed
live view seems to turn off at the most inconvenient moments
no jpg simulations, not even a black and white one
the af/mf and wb/iso buttons are quite tiny and just a tiny bit awkward to reach and use while the camera is against eye
phocus app did not let me save images to phone, but maybe that only works with JPGs
phocus app was not even keen on SHOWING me the photos on the phone, it only worked for a few photos
phocus app worked fine as a remote trigger, but I would much prefer a cabled option as it seemed to lose connection once in a while