Hasselblad H3D II: Megapixel madness

Tags: hasselblad, megapixel, sensor, price tag

If you thought 12 megapixels was impressive, or that 21 megapixels was pushing the envelope, then prepare to run away in terror from the latest megapixel monster wading from the sea -- this Godzilla will crush you and your puny 7-megapixel cameras. The Hasselblad H3D II digital SLR is a 39-megapixel behemoth. Yes, 39 million pixels per image.

In order to process that frankly ridiculous 5,412x7,212-pixel resolution, the H3D II packs a 48x36mm image sensor. To keep that leviathan of a sensor cool, Hasselblad has jammed in a physical heatsink, which dissipates the heat generated to the entire camera body.

There's also a whopping 76mm (3-inch) screen for previewing images, and Hasselblad claims that handling is better than on the original H3D, as the controls have been moved to within thumb reach. The H3D II shoots raw footage -- imagine the size of those files! -- and also boasts a GPS receiver for geotagging your pictures. This embeds location information in the image file so that Google Earth, which the camera links directly to, or sites such as Flickr, can show where the image was taken on a map.

Of course, 39 megapixels is pretty ludicrous, and so is the £18,500 price tag. Hasselblad has taken this into account by offering two lesser versions of the H3D II, available to us lesser mortals that don't need to shoot photos the size of billboards. Well, kind of: they offer 22- and 31-megapixel sensors. We may need to save up. -Rich Trenholm

Update: The H3D II's sensor is 48x36mm, and not 28x36mm as a previous version of this post reported.

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Comments (3)

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Comments

GTWSat 10 November, 2007 8:43am

And now for the errata...

1. This sensor is 48x36mm... a standard full frame SLR has a 36x24mm sensor.

2. It's not correct to call it the "latest megapixel monster" when the first H3D series has already been there with the 39MP option since 2006. Don't you people do research?

3. Typically for people who scrape bits of detail off the surface, you forgot to mention Phase One, which has been offering a 39MP digital back, the P 45, since 2005. There are also companies like Sinar, Leaf and Mamiya offering 22MP solutions... I suppose they're worthy of being mentioned, if not more than the newer Canon 1Ds Mk III.

4. It won't make a difference to your level of knowledge but Anagramm has a 718MP scanning back. You've never heard of scanning backs, now have you?

Readers of CNET, watch out for CNET's incompetence... be very careful when making CNET a source of knowledge.

don't_want_your_job_at_starbucksTue 13 November, 2007 4:17pm

And now the errata for the "look at me, i'm so clever" commenter... "latest" means "most recent", not "only", so this post is perfectly correct apart from the typo. It isn't about those other cameras, it's about this one. Readers, beware of listening to snidey comment trolls as a source of information, for they are twats. Even if they do know what a scanning back is.

AlexMckFri 4 July, 2008 5:10pm

dont_want_your_job_at_starbucks has a point. and, GTW, do Anagramm really have a 718mp scanning back? I can't find a mention of it anywhere on the internet.

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