Our Recommendation
I have a lot of good things to say about the Hasselblad XCD 90mm f/2.5 V. It has excellent build quality and handling, and it sports Hasselblad’s most advanced leaf shutter. The image quality is at another level, and not just in terms of sharpness. Few lenses reach such impressive results in terms of distortion, chromatic aberration, and backlit performance. Not to mention that the bokeh is also great, with soft, round specular highlights even as you stop down.
My few complaints about the lens’s performance are quite mild. The metal gets cold in freezing temperatures, the leaf shutter is a little loud, the vignetting performance is pretty typical, and the focusing speed is limited by the camera. But none of those complaints rises to the level of a significant negative, which means it’s just the price that we have left to complain about. And at $4300 – coupled with very limited availability and even higher prices on the used market – that’s no small drawback.
Here’s how I’d sum up the pros and cons.
Pros:
- Excellent build quality and materials
- Seamless handling with useful controls
- Best-in-class optical performance in distortion, chromatic aberration, and flare
- Beautiful bokeh under most conditions
- Excellent sharpness across the frame
- Small and light, especially considering the performance
Cons:
- Focusing capabilities limited by Hasselblad’s current cameras
- Potential bokeh patterns at very fast shutter speeds with leaf shutter
- High MSRP of $4300
- Difficult to find, with used copies selling for $5500+
At some level, a nearly perfect lens with an expensive price tag might not be something to complain about. It really depends upon your budget – and budget might be irrelevant to many of the well-off photographers who bought into a Hasselblad medium format system in the first place.
That said, the argument against the lens’s high price is pretty simple. Using a 90mm f/2.5 lens on Hasselblad’s medium format sensor is equivalent to using a 70mm f/2 lens on a full-frame camera (apart from the different aspect ratios of the sensors). Even the best-performing 70mm f/2 full-frame lens would not warrant a $4300 price tag. Probably only Leica could get away with it, and any other lens company would be criticized pretty heavily.
The argument for the high price is that the Hasselblad 90mm f/2.5 V justifies it with its features and performance. This lens has Hasselblad’s most modern leaf shutter and all the possibilities that brings for portrait photographers. It lives up to one of the most demanding camera sensors today – 100 megapixels, 16-bit color, and base ISO 64. And it uses excellent materials that should last for decades of use, making the value proposition better than cheap lenses that go obsolete quickly.
Which argument is correct? That’s not a question for me to answer. I will say, however, that the photographers who use this system don’t seem deterred by the price. This lens is constantly out of stock even years after being announced. You’ll be lucky to find a copy, unless you overpay on eBay by about $1500.
Overall, apart from the price, I have no significant complaints about the Hasselblad XCD 90mm f/2.5 V. It ranks as one of the best lenses that I’ve ever tested at Photography Life. The handling, features, sharpness, bokeh, and other optical qualities are practically without compare. If you want a lens that lives up to one of the most demanding camera systems available today, this could be the one to get. Assuming, that is, you find a copy and don’t mind paying for it.
Conclusion
The Hasselblad XCD 90mm f/2.5 V sells for $4300 through our affiliates. At the time of this review’s publication, eBay is the only place where it can be found in stock (though Adorama says expected availability in July 2024):
- Hasselblad XCD 90mm f/2.5 V at B&H
- Hasselblad XCD 90mm f/2.5 V at Adorama
- Used/International: Check prices on eBay
Thank you for buying your equipment through the links above, whether it’s this lens or anything else! When you do, Photography Life gets a small percentage of the sale without costing you anything extra. It goes a long way to help us test more equipment.
The next page of this review has some more sample photos from the Hasselblad XCD 90mm f/2.5 V, followed by reader comments on the final page. Use the Table of Contents below the star rating to jump to the section you want.
Hasselblad 90V f/2.5
- Size and Weight
- Build Quality and Handling
- Sharpness Performance
- Other Optical Quality
- Price and Availability
Photography Life Overall Rating
Table of Contents