Megapixel monster....

That's not a camera, that's a camera...:-)

Impressed by your 5, 6, 7, 8, or even 10 megapixel digital camera? Clearly you're easily impressed. Have a look at this 39 megapixel monster from Hasselblad:

The Hasselblad H2D-39.

To put that resolution into perspective, a single, uncompressed, RAW image taken with this camera will occupy about 78 MB of storage space. Compressed, about 50 MB. With that sort of resolution, you can take a portrait of someone and zoom in all the way to his or her zits. No, make that the zits on his or her zits. :-)

Not only is the resolution impressive, but the image quality also stands out, with the virtual elimination of color aberration and significant reduction in picture distortion. The size and weight of this digital is also nothing to sneeze at. Weighing in at 2,175 grams (that's more than two kilos, or almost five pounds), it's heft rivals, even exceeds that of full blown video cameras (especially those of lesser pedigree). It's not really unusual for professional digital cameras at this level to be huge, considering that they are almost completely modular, with a selection of lenses, viewfinders and digital backs at your disposal.

Based in Sweden, (clearly, Sweden has a lot more to offer the world than Volvo, Saab, ABBA, and Ace of Base) Hasselblad first established itself as a trading company in 1841, before entering photography in the 1890s as a distributor for Eastman (now known as Eastman Kodak). Hasselblad cameras (specifically, modified Hasselblad 500EL cameras) are best known for being the camera of choice in the Apollo moon missions (see this page). Twelve of them are still there in fact.

Going back to the H2D-39, are you curious to know how much it costs? Well, you can have one of these puppies for about $30,000.00 (that's P1,560,000.00), and that's a bargain for having the privilege of having the biggest, baddest DSLR on the block (maybe in the city, the country even). The camera backs (the CFH-39 and CF-39 models) each cost about the same as the camera itself, with the top-of-the-line CF-39MS costing you another $38,000.00 (P1,976,000.00).

This camera is cool and all, but if I had that sort of money, I'd probably buy a BMW instead. No. Make that two. :-)