User Report: Brand New Hasselblad 907x Shows Major Connection Issues

Photographer Juno Zhang recently picked up a brand new Hasselblad 907x 50c and XCD 45mm f/4 P lens (Total MSRP: $7,500), but after waiting for a month to receive her camera, she was dismayed by what she found once she set it up. The connection between the 907x body and the digital back is so bad that the slightest pressure leads to a misalignment and errors.

It’s important to note that this is one user’s experience, but the troubles that Zhang has had with both her camera and Hasselblad customer service are worth sharing as a cautionary tale. Real world reports from actual users often show what reviewers cannot; if we have an issue with a camera under review, you can bet a new one will arrive at our door in a matter of days.

Zhang tells PetaPixel that she received her camera (bought from B&H) and lens (bought from Hasselblad directly) on the 11th, and immediately discovered “crazy connection issues.”

“When the power is on, it constantly disconnects. It either displays only LV mode, or the message ‘lens issue, please reconnect the lens.’ It wouldn’t even let me to restart, the system either got stuck, or an error message popped up saying ‘failed to finish exposure, please restart,” says Zhang. “It seems to be a connection issue with the 907x – it’s super sensitive to even slight force (by camera strap or by hand). But I’m not sure if there’s also problem with the x45p lens, because I also got error message of ‘lens issue.'”

You can see all of this demonstrated in the three videos below:

“It’s really disappointing and frustrating after spending 6.8k+ and waiting for a month, but if this is not terrible already, it’s eye opening to experience the Hasselblad customer relations,” says Zhang.

After sending a detailed description of the problem, with photos and videos attached, she was told that she would have to ship Hasselblad the camera and lens on her own dime in order to be evaluated. After they were evaluated they might be replaced… or they might just be repaired and sent back to her.

As Juno puts it, “Why do I want to pay 6.8k for a brand new Hasselblad camera and a brand new Hasselblad lens that have to be repaired before I’ve even used them?”

“When product(s) has/have such poor and unreliable quality, I can’t believe the mechanism Hasselblad adopted is to ask consumers to take the risk AND cost,” says Zhang. “If I choose to keep the lens, I bear the risk of this being a potentially defective product; if I choose to have it evaluated, I bear the financial cost of the shipping as well as the time cost of not having/using the lens.”

Again, this is one person’s experience, but it’s worth bearing in mind given the cost of the camera and the perception that one has when purchasing a high-end camera like this. It’s definitely not the experience you’d hope for when you just dropped 7 grand on a brand new, top-of-the-line medium format system.