Hasselblad XCD 90mm f/3.2 Review

March 31, 2017 | Mark Goldstein | Rating star Rating star Rating star Rating star

Conclusion

The Hasselblad XCD 90mm f/3.2 is a fast and tack-sharp short telephoto lens that exhibits very low chromatic aberrations and almost no distortion. Vignetting at wide-open apertures is the first real optical issue of note - stopping down to f/8 solves the problem altogether. Perhaps more concerning for a lens that will be often used wide-open for portraits is the nature of the bokeh, which appears as an octagon rather than a circle when shooting at f/3.2.

As with the XCD 45mm lens, build quality is again excellent, with the metal lens mount and sober all-black design adding to the high-quality feel, and Hasselblad have also included a very good metal lens hood and soft cloth bag. Manual focusing is a pleasure, with manual focus over-ride at any time a great feature, although auto-focusing on the X1D again proved to be both slow and rather noisy.

In summary, we like the new Hasselblad XCD 90mm f/3.2 lens, although not quite as much as the XCD 45mm, thanks mainly to those octagonal, rather than circular, bokeh effects. 

4 stars

Ratings (out of 5)
Design 4.5
Features 4.5
Ease-of-use 4.5
Image quality 4
Value for money 4