Hasselblad Quietly Announces the Stellar, an RX100 With an Expensive Makeover

Stellar Box

About a week ago, the first images of Hasselblad’s upcoming compact camera, the Stellar, leaked onto the Internet amongst rumors that it would essentially be a Sony RX100 with some very exotic housing materials and a much steeper price tag. Basically, people were thinking the RX100 would be to the Stellar what the NEX-7 was to the Lunar.

Now that the camera is official (one day earlier than expected) all of the assumptions seem to have been correct.

Released somewhat quietly — initially, PopPhoto didn’t even have a press release to go off of — the internal specs of the new camera were left unchanged. Inside you’ll find the RX100’s 20.2 megapixel sensor peeking out at the world through the same 28–100mm equivalent f/1.8-4.9 lens.

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Where the Stellar seeks to distinguish itself is in the housing materials, which include an elegantly designed aluminum body, metal operation controls and your choice of exotic wood (or carbon fiber) handgrip. For that last one, you get to pick between: Padouk Wood, Olive Wood, Zebra Wood (pictured below), Mahogany, Walnut, Wenge and Carbon Fiber.

Hasselblad CEO and Chairman, Dr. Larry Hansen, describes the new camera as “a work of art capture device that you can simply point and shoot to acquire stunning pictures.” He then goes on to tout the camera’s “full HD 1080/60p video with manual controls” and “larger than average point and shoot sensor [that] enables the user to capture extra light and reproduce every scene in truly stunning detail.” — all features available in the RX100.

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Since the camera was designed for the luxury/lifestyle sector (Hasselblad’s words, not ours) like the Lunar before it, it’s not going to come cheap. Sony’s RX100 will run you $650 retail. The Stellar, complete with its own luxury box and “naturally tanned Italian leather wrist strap,” is set to retail for approximately $1,960 (1,480 Euros) before tax — no ship date is mentioned in the press release.

To learn more, read the full specs, find out what specialty stores will carry it, and see all of the exotic options you have at your disposal grip-wise when you purchase the Stellar, head over to the camera’s product website by clicking here.

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