Photography

Hasselblad Stellar: Sony's RX100 gets a luxury makeover

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The Hasselblad Stellar is a luxury compact camera modelled on the Sony RX100, pictured with a Padouk Wood hand-grip
The Hasselblad Stellar with a carbon fibre hand-grip
The Hasselblad Stellar shares a lot with the Sony RX100
The Hasselblad Stellar has a champagne-colored aluminium body and matching metal operation controls
The Hasselblad Stellar will come presented in a jewelry-style box and with a naturally tanned Italian leather wrist strap
The Hasselblad Stellar with a Wenge hand-grip
The Hasselblad Stellar with a Walnut hand-grip
The Hasselblad Stellar is a luxury compact camera modelled on the Sony RX100, pictured with a Padouk Wood hand-grip
The Hasselblad Stellar with a Mahogany hand-grip
The Hasselblad Stellar with a Zebra Wood hand-grip
The Hasselblad Stellar with a Olive Wood hand-grip
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The Hasselblad Lunar mirrorless camera (essentially a pimped-out Sony Nex-7) arrived back in June to a somewhat mixed reception, but that hasn't stopped the Swedish firm rolling out a second luxury version of a Sony camera. This time it's the compact Sony RX100 which is getting the extravagant makeover. The resulting Hasselblad Stellar camera comes complete with exotic wooden hand-grips and a much higher price-tag.

Although Hasselblad does not mention the RX100 (or indeed Sony) when talking about the Stellar, it's fairly clear that this is the camera it's been built around. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, in our review we said the RX100 was, "possibly the best pocketable compact digital camera ever made."

The new Hasselblad is basically the same camera. It shares the same larger than usual 20.2 megapixel 1-inch-type (13.2 × 8.8 mm) CMOS sensor which made the RX100 so impressive for a compact. This is once again paired with the Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T F1.8-4.9 lens which has a 35-mm effective focal length of 28-100-mm.

Indeed, you'd be hard pushed to spot any differences between the specifications of the two cameras. Both have the same three inch LCD screen with 1,228,800 dots, the same access to full manual setting, a control ring around the lens and a suitably wide ISO range. Both cameras shoot JPEG and RAW images along with Full HD 1080/60p video.

The Hasselblad Stellar shares a lot with the Sony RX100

What has changed is the styling. Gone is the understated black body of the RX100, replaced instead by a champagne-colored aluminum body and matching metal operation controls. There's also the little matter of a chunky new hand-grip, which is available in a number of different finishes including carbon fiber and six exotic woods such as Wenge, Padouk and Zebra.

Aimed squarely at the lifestyle/luxury sector, the new camera will come presented in a jewelry-style box and with a naturally tanned Italian leather wrist strap. The Hasselblad Stellar will be available this month with a €1,480 (US$1,960) price-tag.

However, it's worth remembering that the Sony Cybershot RX100 II has also been recently released, with significant upgrades to the original that the Stellar is based on. These include a new sensor with boosted sensitivity, built-in Wi-Fi capabilities, and a tilting LCD screen. And it retails for less than half the price of the Stellar.

Source: Hasselblad

View gallery - 10 images
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5 comments
splatman
How tragic to see a once-revered name like Hasselblad applied to a P&S happy snap camera for the idle rich. What next, a ride-on mower from Rolls Royce?
John Driggers
This is not a camera-it's jewellery. I break no new ground and is based on a dated camera. Why is it in Gizmag?
MrGadget
Why doesn't Hasselblad make its own camera? Who is going to buy this camera when they can buy the RX100 cheaper?
Siegfried Gust
For the man (or woman) who has more money than brains and would like everyone to know.
OwenFuchs
I would guess Hasselblad,has seen the writing on the wall, as a lot of people, Including myself, when traveling, are tired of carrying, large DSLR type of cameras, and this magnificent Entry from Hasselblad, truly fills the bill,as it incorporates a lot of the functions of a top notch camera, with a Stellar quality lens, in a much smaller, beautifully put together package it truly is a work of art, as well as a magnificent camera...