Hacked Hasselblad X2D II 100C Now Records Video, Runs ChatGPT and Linux

The Hasselblad X2D II 100C, a medium format mirrorless camera with no video function and no official plans for one, has been made to record video by a Chinese creator writing experimental firmware. The creator, 奶酪, demoed the result on Xiaohongshu, and the clip surfaced via Reddit's r/hasselblad community. It's the most striking output so far from a fast-moving unofficial firmware scene that has grown around Hasselblad's newest flagship.

The foundation sits on GitHub. A creator known as Radium Wang, who a few weeks ago got Doom running on the X2D II 100C and promised more open-source projects, has published a set of repositories covering individual camera features — LiDAR, autofocus, AF-C and IBIS among them, as reported by Mirrorless Rumors. Others have taken that work and run with it. Reddit user u/Unable_Ad_1804 loaded a Linux kernel onto the camera. Wang himself has installed ChatGPT on it and, for reasons that escape easy explanation, Apple CarPlay.

What does this change for photographers?

In the short term, very little — and quite a lot later. The immediate gains are experimental. Video recording on a 100-megapixel medium format body is a genuinely unusual capability that Hasselblad has signalled no intention of adding itself. Beyond that headline trick, Wang's feature-specific repositories mean a developer could enhance autofocus behaviour, tap the LiDAR hardware or build custom software for niche photographic applications that a small manufacturer would never prioritise.

The obvious precedent is Magic Lantern. That open-source firmware project let Canon users add video features, improve performance and unlock advanced time-lapse tools that Canon hadn't shipped. Magic Lantern enabled HDR video recording on select Canon bodies years before Canon built it in. The Hasselblad scene is far younger, but the pattern is familiar: a locked-down platform, curious engineers, and capabilities the manufacturer declined to deliver.

What are the risks?

They're real, and PetaPixel — which reported the original Doom demo and the follow-on work — explicitly frames its coverage as interest, not endorsement. Loading open-source software onto a camera can break things. It can violate terms of service. There may be legal implications to tinkering with source-level camera code. And if the camera bricks, expect headaches getting a warranty claim honoured.

For a body in the X2D II 100C's price bracket, that's not a small consideration. A medium format flagship is an investment, and unofficial firmware offers no safety net. Anyone experimenting is doing so at their own risk.

Where does this go next?

The pace matters here. Wang moved from a novelty Doom port to feature-level repositories in weeks, and third parties have already shipped the first genuinely useful outcome — video — on top of his code. If that cadence holds, the X2D II 100C becomes less a fixed product and more a platform, with an open-source community testing ideas Hasselblad itself hasn't committed to. Whether the company responds by embracing, ignoring or policing the scene will shape what these cameras can do next.