Glass Bodies a variant-level encyclopedia of vintage lenses and cameras by iwillpat

Hasselblad 201F

Hasselblad · Hasselblad V mount · Max. film size 6×6 cm per the instruction manual; 6×4.5 via the A16 magazine, 220 via the A24, 70mm via the Magazine 70 · 1994

Also known as: Hasselblad 201F · Hasselblad 201 F · Hasselblad 201-F · 201F · 201 F · ハッセルブラッド 201F

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
201F Hasselblad V 1994–1998 Numeric product prefix + two-letter year code + digits, the scheme in force from 1990 (Hasselblad Historical): II = 1994, IC = 95, IT = 96, IU = 97, IR = 98 are the codes a 201F should carry. No serial block for the model has been published in any source consulted No figure published in any source consulted
  1. Years are Hasselblad Historical's 1994–1998; camera-wiki's 1994–1997 is recorded in `disputed`.
  2. Chrome and black are catalogue finishes documented by the 1994 manual, not separate variants; no source says which was the commoner.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Shutter-speed ring on the body around the bayonet — 1 s to 1/1000, B, C and a battery-check position — where a 500-series body has none, and 1/1000 as the top figure where a 203FE or 205 reads 1/2000
  • Left-hand control panel with ISO dial, 6-pin TTL connector, PC socket and speed-ring lock but no metering display, mode dial or LCD
  • Combined pre-release/self-timer button on the right side; a flashing red lamp left of the lens mount during the 10 s (or 2 s) delay
  • Battery cassette for one 6 V PX28 at the lower front left of the body
  • Textile curtains visible with the magazine off; one curtain always covers the gate
  • Model plate reads 201F; the 202FA, 203FE, 205TCC and 205FCC are each labelled as such and all carry a mode selector the 201F lacks

201F:

  • '201F' on the plate above the control panel on the left-hand side
  • Control panel on the left side with an ISO dial marked 16–800 (range 16–1000 in the specification), a 6-pin TTL flash connector under a cover, a PC socket, the shutter-speed ring lock and a self-timer lamp — but no metering display, mode selector or LCD, which every other 200-series body has
  • Shutter-speed ring around the bayonet marked 1 s to 1/1000, B, C and a battery-check symbol beyond C; the flash symbol at 1/90 marks the fastest focal-plane sync
  • Chrome (Cat. No. 10529) or black (Cat. No. 10532) finish — both listed in the 1994 instruction manual
  • Textile curtains, one of which is always across the gate when the magazine is off; a titanium-foil curtain means a 2000-series body

Serial-range notes

Two letters before the digits, after a numeric prefix
Body and magazine serials carry the year in the two letters via VHPICTURES (V=1 H=2 P=3 I=4 C=5 T=6 U=7 R=8 E=9 S=0), so IC = 1995 and IR = 1998; from 1990 a numeric product-type prefix precedes the letters and, in Hasselblad Historical's words, provides no useful information to someone holding the item. No source consulted gives the 201F's prefix.
Zeiss lens date codes
F and FE lenses carry the same red-ink Zeiss date stamp inside the rear mount as C and CF lenses: pre-1980 digits YY(Y)MM with year = code + 1957; from 1980 two reversed year digits and a month letter (A = January). A 201F sold with an F lens dated well before 1994 is not evidence of a mismatch — the F lenses were discontinued stock the body was expressly built to take.
Body and magazine dates rarely match
Outfits were assembled from stock, so a 1995 body with a 1998 A12 is normal and not evidence of a swap.

Specifications

Format
Max. film size 6×6 cm per the instruction manual; 6×4.5 via the A16 magazine, 220 via the A24, 70mm via the Magazine 70 · 12 on 120 (A12); 16 at 6×4.5 (A16); 24 on 220 (A24) exposures
Finder
waist-level, interchangeable (prism and meter-prism finders available)
Shutter
Electronically controlled mechanical focal-plane shutter with release solenoid — two horizontally running textile curtains, running time 1/90 s (instruction manual p. 20 and p. 44); 6 V PX28 / UCAR 537 / 4G-13 or lithium equivalent in a cassette at the lower front left of the body · 1 s–1/1000 s and B on the body ring, with click stops between the marked speeds; slower than 1 s only on B, timed by hand. A fully mechanical C setting turns the curtains into an auxiliary blind so that a C or CF lens's leaf shutter (B, 1 s–1/500) makes the exposure · flash sync X at all speeds from B to 1/90 s through the focal-plane shutter — the camera inhibits the flash at faster settings; all speeds to 1/500 through the leaf shutter of a C or CF lens in C mode, with the cord on the lens's PC socket, not the body's · self-timer
Film advance
Single-turn folding crank — cocks the shutter and lens, resets the mirror and advances one frame; double-exposure button in the crank hub; the crank pulls off to expose a bayonet for the Hasselblad Winder
Back
interchangeable magazines — A12, A12 TCC, A16, A24, Magazine 70 and the Polaroid magazines; the manual's system chart shows the A12 TCC, whose databus contacts the 201F has nothing to read
Meter
none in body — the only light sensor is the centre-weighted TTL/OTF flash sensor, powered by the flash unit; ambient metering by PME-series meter prism or hand-held meter, transferred to the lens's EV scale
Motor drive
Hasselblad Winder (the manual names no model number) — Replaces the winding crank on the bayonet beneath it; up to 1.3 frames per second (manual pp. 41 and 44)
Weight
750 g
Dimensions
188 × 117 × 108 (L × W × H) with focusing hood, Planar FE 80mm f/2.8 with front cover, and A12 magazine — instruction manual p. 45; the body-only drawing on p. 48 gives 91 mm wide and 108 mm high mm
Country
Sweden
Accessories
Hasselblad Winder — up to 1.3 fps, on the bayonet under the crank · Proflash 4504 — connects directly to the 6-pin TTL socket; other SCA-standard flashes via SCA 390 or SCA 590 adapter · PME51, PME5, PME3 meter prisms (calibrated for the Acute-Matte screen); PM5 and PM90 prisms; RM-2 reflex magnifier · A12, A12 TCC, A16, A24 and 70mm magazines; Polaroid magazines · Quick-coupling plate on the base with 1/4" and 3/8" tripod threads; flash bracket and rail · Front and rear protective covers — the rear cover is the manual's constant refrain, because a curtain is always exposed with the magazine off

Folding hood with a built-in 4.5× magnifier, exchangeable for correction lenses from +3 to −4 dioptres; Acute-Matte screen (the manual credits the design to Minolta) with a hairline cross at the centre, user-changeable by sliding the two catches aside. The PME3, PME5 and PME51 meter prisms are calibrated for the Acute-Matte screen; the older PME needs a one-stop correction (manual pp. 24–25). A red lamp in the finder doubles as flash-ready/confirmation signal and battery check.

Where sources disagree

Last
  • 1998 — Hasselblad Historical's model table (Heymann and de Bakker), English Wikipedia, German Wikipedia
  • 1997 — camera-wiki's Hasselblad model list

Better supported: 1998

The 202FA that Hasselblad Historical describes as the 201F's successor in spirit is dated 1998–2002 by the same table, which fits a 1998 hand-over; no source says whether the two overlapped.

F/TCC to FE renaming
  • Already 'FE (formerly F/TCC)' in the 201F instruction manual, copyright 1994
  • Renamed FE in March 1995 at the launch of the 203FE — Japanese Wikipedia product list, which nonetheless dates the 203FE itself to 1994

The manual is the earlier and primary document; the Japanese date may describe the change reaching that market.

What reviewers say

History

The 200 series began in 1991 with the 205TCC — a focal-plane body with a built-in spot meter, four exposure modes and electronic coupling to lenses and magazines, whose arrival Hasselblad Historical’s model table records as ending the 2003FCW. The 201F followed in 1994, and the same table sums it up in one clause: “TTL-OTF flash system, without exposure metering.” The Japanese Wikipedia product list says the same from the other side — a manual camera without a meter, with TTL auto flash — and the instruction manual, copyright 1994, Victor Hasselblad AB, mentions ambient metering only to explain how to correct a PME prism for the Acute-Matte screen. In effect it is a 200-series body and shutter with the metering, the modes and the databus reading taken out. Who at Hasselblad specified that subtraction, and whether the aim was a lower price or a home for the discontinued F lenses, no source consulted says.

What remained is precisely documented. The manual’s specification (p. 44) gives an electronically controlled mechanical focal-plane shutter with a release solenoid, two horizontally running textile curtains, 1 s to 1/1000 s and B, and flash synchronisation at all speeds from B to 1/90 s — the curtain running time, so that the whole gate is open at that speed and slower (p. 20); longer than a second means B and a watch. The cloth is the point: English Wikipedia lists the 200-series bodies as the ones with rubberized cloth curtains in place of the 2000 series’ titanium foil, and Karen Nakamura’s account of the family says the change ended the chronic curtain failures. The manual still treats the rear of the camera as the danger zone — one curtain is always across the opening, the rear cover is to be fitted whenever the magazine is off, and “Do not touch the curtains!” is set in bold. Power is a 6 V PX28 in a cassette at the lower front left; the flash-control circuit draws from the flash unit, not the camera.

The lens story is the reason the camera exists. The manual (p. 27) divides every Hasselblad lens since 1957 into two groups — C and CF with leaf shutters, F and FE without — and says all of them fit the 201F, the F and FE being made for focal-plane bodies alone. FE lenses carry twin blue lines beside the aperture ring and four contact pins in the bayonet plate, which the manual says pass data to the 205TCC; the 201F has nothing to read them with, and the F lenses, described as optically, mechanically and operationally identical to their FE counterparts, behave exactly the same on it. The FE name is a small dating puzzle: the manual footnotes it as the “former designation: F/TCC”, so the change had happened by 1994, while the Japanese product list dates the renaming to March 1995 and the launch of the 203FE — a body the same list puts in 1994. Leaf-shutter lenses are handled by the C position at the end of the speed ring, which locks the curtains into service as a blind while the lens shutter exposes, with flash at all speeds to 1/500 through the lens’s own PC socket. The manual warns in bold against using a C lens below 0 °C and, for CF lenses in C mode, that a cold leaf shutter may be slow and the release must be held until it has finished.

Identifying one is easy. The left-hand control panel carries an ISO dial (16 to 1000, effective for dedicated flash only), a six-pin TTL connector, a PC socket, the speed-ring lock and a self-timer lamp — and nothing else, where every other 200-series body has a mode selector and a display; the speed ring tops out at 1/1000 against 1/2000 on the 203FE and both 205s. Chrome (Cat. No. 10529) and black (10532) are both in the manual; body weight is 750 g, 1,650 g with hood, Planar FE 80mm f/2.8, A12 and battery. Serials follow the post-1990 scheme Q.G. de Bakker describes on Hasselblad Historical — a numeric product prefix, then two letters giving the year by VHPICTURES, so that IC is 1995 and IR is 1998.

When it stopped is the one contested figure: Hasselblad Historical and both Wikipedias give 1994–1998, camera-wiki 1994–1997. The 202FA of 1998 is, in the Japanese product list’s phrase, an intermediate between the 203FE and the 201F, sharing the 1/1000 top speed but, per Hasselblad Historical, dropping the C position and with it the C-Planar and CB lenses. Production numbers, a launch price in any currency, the 201F’s own product-code prefix and the split between chrome and black have not been found in any source consulted; the Nordin compendia, which Hasselblad Historical recommends for exactly these questions, were not available for this entry.

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This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap — but no human wrote these sentences.

Photographs

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Live listings

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Related: Hasselblad 2000FCW · Hasselblad 2003FCW · Hasselblad 202FA · Hasselblad 203FE · Hasselblad 205FCC · Hasselblad 205TCC

Lenses for this body: Distagon 50mm f/2.8 · Hasselblad FE Zoom 60-120mm f/4.8 · Makro-Planar 120mm f/4 · Mirotar 1000mm f/5.6 · Planar 100mm f/3.5 · Planar 110mm f/2 · Planar 80mm f/2.8 · Sonnar 150mm f/2.8 · Sonnar 150mm f/4 · Sonnar 180mm f/4 · Sonnar 250mm f/5.6 · Sonnar Superachromat 250mm f/5.6 · Tele-Apotessar 500mm f/8 · Tele-Superachromat 350mm f/5.6 IF · Tele-Tessar 250mm f/4 · Tele-Tessar 350mm f/4 IF · Tele-Tessar 350mm f/5.6 · Tessar 160mm f/4.8

Sources (10)

Every page here is assembled from public sources, and the gaps are real ones. If you own this camera, know a serial number I'm missing, or can see where I have it wrong, tell me — corrections, serials and sample photos are all worth having.