Early test JPEG and RAW shots came out remarkably crisp in both bright and low-light conditions, just as you'd expect from a sensor with pixels that big. (Friendly reminder: Fretting about megapixels is almost completely pointless these days.) That crispness persists even when you're zoomed in all the way, which is frankly incredible. Think about it: The more you zoom, the more the minute motions of your hands get magnified. Lackluster stabilization would make for a Monet-like soft image at best and a hot blurry mess at worst, but the True Zoom does an incredible job of keeping things tight and focused.

You can even reach beyond the limits of lens thanks to an additional 4X digital zoom, but really, you're better off steering clear. That's nothing against Hasselblad -- digital zoom is just by nature a lousy compromise. (Alas, a pre-release software update basically bricked our True Zoom demo unit so we'll update this story with sample photos once we get another to play with.)

Frankly, it's a little strange to see Hasselblad dabbling with smartphone accessories of all things. In case you're not familiar, the storied Swedish company specializes in expensive medium format cameras -- at time of writing, the cheapest new Hasselblad camera on the market will set you back more than $6,000. To hear company spokespeople tell the tale, Hasselblad has been exploring more consumer-friendly options for a while, and Motorola's high-speed MotoMod connector was intriguing because of how seamlessly it allows third-party hardware to meld with the host device. Speaking of seamless, the True Zoom also plays nice with third-party camera apps, though whether you need them is another story. The stock Moto Camera app has been tricked out with extra scene modes and presets for sports and night photography.

What we have here isn't Hasselblad at its most ambitious, but Hasselblad at its weirdest, its most experimental. The jury's still out on whether anyone actually wants (or needs) to carry something like this around, but hey -- there's still something to be said for ambitious, elegant weirdness. Stay tuned for more as we continue our testing.

We're live all week from Berlin, Germany, for IFA 2016. Click here to catch up on all the news from the show.