Sharpness at 45mm

For this test, the Hasselblad XCD 45mm F4 P lens was attached to a Hasselblad X1D II 50C body, which was in turn mounted to a sturdy tripod. Exposure delay mode was activated. Tonal and colour variance across the crops are due to change in natural light during the session. Raw format images have been exported using Phocus with no corrections applied.

The full frame at 45mm

These six identical images have been taken at each of the six aperture settings and detail is very sharp from centre to edges at all apertures, bar the minimum aperture of f/22.

A caveat to lens sharpness is the impact of the camera itself. Getting your desired area sharp in the first place is more of a challenge when using a larger the sensor format, given the narrower depth of field. Also, X1D cameras uses spot autofocus only and the smallest spot option is not the most precise, which does impact your chances of acquiring sharp focus, especially when using the faster apertures.

Provided the area is in focus, detail is consistently sharp even at the maximum f/4 aperture and we would not hesitate whatsoever to use f/4 when sharpness is a concern.

At f/22 overall detail is softer, that's an adverse effect of diffraction. In general, we would avoid going beyond the f/16 aperture.

Aperture	Centre Crop	Edge Crop
f/4
f/5.6
f/8
f/11
f/16
f/22