Bukit Timah Tutor Photographs Namly Place — First Impressions with the Hasselblad X2D II 100C + 28mm f/4

I took the new Hasselblad X2D II 100C out for a quick test walk at Namly Place, looping past the Baker & Cook corner café. Nothing fancy—just a handful of frames to feel out the camera and see how the 28mm f/4 renders everyday Bukit Timah textures: warm café light, tropical greenery, painted kerbs, and the quiet geometry of terrace houses.

Why Namly (and Baker & Cook)?

Namly Place has a soft, neighbourhood rhythm—clean lines, low-rise façades, and pockets of shade that switch to blazing highlights as you turn the corner. The café adds glass, chrome, timber, and people—all great surfaces for a lens to bite into. It’s a simple scene, but deceptively tough: contrasty midday light, reflective windows, and small compositional clutter testing wide-angle discipline.

The Outcome

First Feel: the Camera Is Better Than Me (for now)

The X2D II 100C is clearly ahead of my current muscle memory. I feel like a knave in front of a judge. The camera judges my abilities, and obviously, I have not stepped up to the plate. Not even close. Even with just a few frames, it’s obvious the files have headroom I’m not fully tapping yet. The 100-megapixel medium-format sensor punishes sloppy exposure but rewards care: when I got it right, micro-contrast and tonal roll-off looked beautifully natural; when I didn’t, the highlights told on me.

What surprised me most:

• Tonal depth: shadows open gracefully when exposure is nailed; foliage retains separation instead of turning into mush.
• 28mm discipline: wide on medium format feels expansive without cartoonish distortion, but it’s honest—every edge in your frame matters.
• Stabilisation helps: hand-held framing felt secure, yet the payoff still depends on clean technique and good light control.

Light Was the Boss Today

I needed to control the light a lot more. Singapore’s sun around cafés with glass and pale walls is a contrast trap. A few frames clipped sooner than expected because I treated the scene like a forgiving full-frame setup. Lesson learned. Unfortunately, I am not sure if it’s the lens at f4 or it’s the body… but the images are very, and I mean VERY… sensitive to light.

I didn’t have an exposure meter with me, and the moment the sky is slightly overcast, with the sun hiding behind clouds, the images will feel a lot darker. At least the feel from the photos feel dark.

What I’ll change next outing:

• Expose for highlights, recover shadows: ride the histogram; protect speculars on glass and chrome.
• Use the leaf-shutter advantage: the system’s high flash-sync capability is perfect for overpowering ambient and shaping faces even at faster shutter speeds—time to bring a small off-camera flash.
• Bring a CPL and a 3-stop ND: tame window reflections, knock down sky luminance, and drag shutter for cleaner motion control.
• Flag and feather: a collapsible flag (or even a black tote) to kill stray reflections near glass will buy me cleaner contrast.

The 28mm f/4 Look

This lens draws scenes with a calm, modern clarity. At café distance, perspective stays honest; step closer and the lines stretch just enough to add energy without going gimmicky. Edges are crisp, and the centre-to-corner consistency makes architectural frames feel confident. At f/4, you won’t blur the world into cream, but you get a believable, three-dimensional fall-off that suits street and environmental detail. I shot with a naked lens, no filters and I have not done any photoshop on these photos.

It comes straight out as jpeg files, as you can see, I have a lot more to learn. It does seem like the Hasselblad is a lot harder to master than the Leica Q3 43mm. (it seems like the Leica is almost a point and shoot camera as compared to the Hasselblad now….)

Early Takeaways (and Homework)

• Compose for the edges: 28mm on this sensor is unforgiving. Clean your borders before you press the shutter.
• Build a repeatable exposure routine: highlight alert + histogram + one safety bracket when the scene is mixed light.
• Create a “Namly” look profile: a neutral base in Phocus/Capture One, then a gentle S-curve for café wood tones and a touch of hue control for Singapore greens.
• Practice one constraint per walk: e.g., “only backlight and reflections” or “only leading lines into shade.” Fewer variables, faster learning.
• Leverage sync: a pocket flash with a small softbox will let me shape faces at noon outside Baker & Cook without that raccoon-eye look.

What Worked vs. What Didn’t

Worked

• Quiet façades with repeated windows and plants—great for testing micro-contrast.
• Low-angle frames across painted kerbs—28mm loves a strong foreground.
• Café interiors near the door—mix of warm practicals and soft daylight.

Didn’t (yet)

• Harsh, reflective glass without a CPL—highlights clipped fast.
• People near the windows—needed fill to balance faces against the sky.
• Fast walk-by shooting—this camera deserves half a beat more deliberation.

Next Session Plan at Namly

I’ll return at two times: early morning for soft, directional light along the shopfronts, and late blue hour for window glow with balanced sky. I’ll pack a CPL, a 3-stop ND, one small off-camera flash, and a flag. Goal: three mini-sets—

1. Reflections & layers (glass + street),
2. Edges & lines (façades, kerbs, shutters),
3. People & light (one-light portraits against ambient).

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This was only a test walk—just a few frames—but it’s already clear: the X2D II 100C + 28mm f/4 will give me more than I can currently extract. That’s the good kind of problem. With tighter light control and a bit more patience, Namly Place and the Baker & Cook corner will be a perfect little lab to grow into this camera.

Why Bukit Timah Tutor Uses the Hasselblad X2D II 100C with a 28mm f/4 Lens