Hasselblad 500C
Hasselblad · Hasselblad V mount · 56×56mm nominal on 120 (12 frames); 6×4.5 with the 16-exposure magazine, 2″×2″ superslides with the 16S, 24 frames of 6×6 on 220 with the 24 magazine, and 70 frames on perforated 70mm film with the 70 magazine from 1966 · 1957
Also known as: Hasselblad 500 C · 500C · Hasselblad 500C chrome · Hasselblad 500C Planar 80mm · Hasselblad 500C Zeiss Planar · ハッセルブラッド 500C
Variants & identification
| Variant | Mount | Years | Serial ranges | Production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 500C, chrome | Hasselblad V | 1957–1970 | — | — |
| 500C, late production with user-changeable screen | Hasselblad V | 1970–1970 | — | Unknown; no source gives a count or a serial boundary |
| 500C, NASA modification (Mercury MA-8 1962, MA-9 1963, Gemini) | Hasselblad V | 1962–1966 | — | A handful — Hasselblad's history says NASA bought a few 500Cs after Schirra's flight; no count is published |
- Model years from Hasselblad Historical's tabulated history (Heymann and de Bakker), which gives 1957–1970 for the 500C and 1970–1994 for the 500C/M.
How to tell them apart
- Chrome-trimmed cube with the winding knob on the right and the 500 C nameplate on the left side panel
- Screws, not spring clips, around the focusing screen — the one visible difference from a 500C/M
- Auxiliary shutter: two hinged flaps at the rear of the body, in front of the magazine, that open only for the exposure
- Lens with silver barrel, EV-coupled shutter and aperture rings, and a self-timer lever marked V — the chrome C lens of the period
- Listing trap: a 500 C nameplate on a body with a spring-clipped, user-changeable screen is a 1970 transition body, not a fault
500C, chrome:
- Satin-chrome trim and black leatherette; no black-finish 500C is documented by any source consulted
- Side nameplate reads 500 C | MADE IN SWEDEN BY VICTOR HASSELBLAD (the late instruction book, fig. 25)
- Focusing screen fixed — held by screws rather than the two spring clips of the 500C/M, so changing it is a workshop job
- Two signal windows beside the release button — exposure (19) and film transport (20) — showing white or red, and a time catch (15) beside the release for exposures over 1s
- Interchangeable winding knob with a catch (26) and red positioning triangle (27); the knob can be swapped for the Gossen-made meter knob or a rapid-winding crank
- Early bodies: an antique-camera catalogue describes a 1959 body (date code CE) as an early model with accessory socket holes on the camera front; the late manual shows the accessory socket (39) on the side panel
- Early bodies, per one dealer: a small pin inside the lens mount on the 1957–1959 design that stops later CF lenses seating correctly, removed on the second design — a single-source claim, not confirmed elsewhere
- Tripod plate with 1/4″ and 3/8″ bushings that doubles as the quick-attachment shoe (instruction book)
500C, late production with user-changeable screen:
- Nameplate still reads 500 C, but the screen lifts out between two spring clips exactly as on a 500C/M
- Date code US (= 1970) or thereabouts; a body coded UV (1971) with a 500 C plate would be the same thing sold late
500C, NASA modification (Mercury MA-8 1962, MA-9 1963, Gemini):
- Leatherette stripped and the exposed metal painted matte black to kill reflections in the spacecraft window
- Reflex mirror, focusing hood and auxiliary shutter removed on the Hasselblad-modified examples; a side-mounted aiming device on Schirra's camera
- Enlarged film container in place of the 12-exposure magazine — 70 exposures per Hasselblad's history, 100 per the RR Auction description
- 500C, chrome: The production camera for the whole run. Prices in the American market fall out of two sources: Mike Eckman gives $480 with the 80mm Planar at launch and $24.75 for the knob-mounted exposure meter, and a Photrio thread quotes a May 1963 Popular Photography advertisement at $549.50 with the 80mm; the phys.org report on Schirra's camera says his 500C cost "over $400" in 1962. No Swedish price was found.
- 500C, late production with user-changeable screen: Hasselblad Historical's model table records that some 500C/Ms were still labelled 500 C, Jo Geier writes that the C/M was at first still marked 500 C on the accessory rail, and Emulsive calls them late-model 500Cs that were really 500CMs. A Japanese owner's 1970 body has the interchangeable screen. Whether these are the last 500C bodies fitted with the new screen frame or the first C/M bodies fitted with old nameplates is a distinction without a mechanical difference; the point for a buyer is that a 500 C plate does not prove a fixed screen.
- 500C, NASA modification (Mercury MA-8 1962, MA-9 1963, Gemini): Walter Schirra bought a 500C with the 80mm Planar at a Houston photo shop in 1962 and proposed it to NASA; the modified camera flew on Mercury-Atlas 8 in October 1962 and again with Gordon Cooper on Mercury-Atlas 9 in 1963, and 500C-derived cameras carried through the Gemini flights of 1965 and 1966, with later changes to lubricants, large tabs on the focusing and aperture rings, and an eye-level finder in place of the mirror (NASA Spinoff 2008). The MA-8/MA-9 camera sold at RR Auction on 13 November 2014 for $275,000 to a British collector (phys.org). The lunar cameras were 500EL derivatives, not 500Cs.
Serial-range notes
- Two-letter prefix, e.g. CE 38341, TE 1xxxxx, US 103648
- Body and magazine serials carry a two-letter year code read through VHPICTURES (V=1, H=2, P=3, I=4, C=5, T=6, U=7, R=8, E=9, S=0), so CE = 1959, TE = 1969, US = 1970 (Q.G. de Bakker, Hasselblad Historical; examples from earlyphotography.co.uk, Chris Wessling and Jo Geier). The third product-type letter came only in 1977–79, so no 500C has one. Serial ranges by year are not published; the two letters are the whole dating method.
- Zeiss lens date codes
- The C lenses that came with these bodies carry a red-ink code inside the rear mount: before 1980 the last two digits are the month and the leading digit(s) plus 1957 the year, so 805 = May 1965 (Hasselblad Historical). A camera and lens whose codes agree are more likely an original outfit.
Specifications
- Format
- 56×56mm nominal on 120 (12 frames); 6×4.5 with the 16-exposure magazine, 2″×2″ superslides with the 16S, 24 frames of 6×6 on 220 with the 24 magazine, and 70 frames on perforated 70mm film with the 70 magazine from 1966
- Finder
- waist-level, interchangeable (prism and meter-prism finders available)
- Shutter
- none in body — auxiliary rear flaps; exposure by the lens leaf shutter · Synchro-Compur MXV in each C lens: B, 1s–1/500; EV scale with the aperture ring coupled to the speed ring until the catch is pressed · flash sync all speeds (leaf shutter) · self-timer
- Film advance
- One full clockwise turn of the interchangeable knob lowers the mirror, tensions the lens shutter and advances the film; no instant-return mirror. A speed-up release (17) opens the auxiliary shutter and raises the mirror ahead of the exposure to shorten release lag.
- Back
- interchangeable magazines — 12, 16, 16S, 24 (220), 70mm from 1966; A12 automatic magazine from 1970
- Meter
- None built in; a Gossen-made selenium meter housed in a replacement winding knob (EV 1–20) was the factory option at $24.75
- Motor drive
- Not compatible — No winder coupling. The motorised sibling is the 500EL, a separate body with its own housing and NiCd cells — 1965 per Hasselblad Historical, 1964 per the English and German Wikipedia articles.
- Designed by
- Sason Sixten — industrial design of the body — credited by the Nasjonalmuseet object record for a 1957 500C and by Mike Eckman; English Wikipedia credits him only with the 1600F
- Country
- Sweden
- Original price
- $480 with the 80mm f/2.8 Planar in the American market at launch, 1957 (Mike Eckman); $549.50 with the 80mm in a May 1963 Popular Photography advertisement (Photrio thread). No Swedish price found. (today $5,360)
- Accessories
- Exposure-meter winding knob (Gossen selenium, EV 1–20) · Rapid-winding crank in place of the knob · HC-1 pentaprism (c.1962); 2.5× magnifying hood; sports finder and spirit level on the accessory socket · Magazines 12, 16, 16S, 24 and 70mm; A12 from 1970 · Pistol grip (c.1965); attaché case 510 (1957) · Bellows extension, extension tubes and Proxar close-up lenses
Folding hood with a fine-focusing magnifier released by the hood catch; the whole hood slides off backwards once the magazine is removed. The screen underneath is a ground glass with a Fresnel condenser and is not user-changeable on the 500C proper. Accessory finders over the run: the 2.5× magnifying hood (vertical-script version c.1958), the HC-1 pentaprism (c.1962), the sports finder on the accessory socket (1957), and a frame finder for the 150 and 250 (1964) — dates per earlyphotography.co.uk.
Where sources disagree
- Weight (grams) (body only, no lens, magazine or hood)
- 463 g — Kamerastore product listing, with 99 × 99 × 96 mm
- 488 g — Mike Eckman, who also gives 573 g without lens or magazine but with hood, 968 g without lens, 1,430 g complete with the 80mm Planar
- About 850 g — Vintage Technology Archive, uncited
Better supported: 460–490 g
The two measured figures agree to within 25 g; the 850 g figure appears to include the magazine or the lens. No factory weight was found, so the numeric field is left empty.
- NASA magazine capacity (Mercury MA-8 camera)
- 70 exposures — Hasselblad's history page
- 100 exposures — RR Auction's description as reported by phys.org
Both describe the same camera; the 70-exposure figure matches the later 70mm magazine, which may be the source of the confusion.
- 500EL introduction year (context)
- 500EL 1965 — Hasselblad Historical model table
- 500EL 1964 — English and German Wikipedia
Recorded because the EL is the 500C's motorised twin and the two dates are repeated without attribution in most secondary sources.
What reviewers say
- Mike Eckman (blog) — Calls it one of the most influential and successful cameras ever made, then advises buying only with a four-figure budget and a recent professional service, because the camera is not impervious to time.
- Alex Luyckx (blog) — Little more than a box you customise; a joy hand-held with the waist-level finder, awkward on a tripod without a prism, marred by a stiff wind and loud mirror slap, and enjoyable as long as the pockets are deep.
- Chris Wessling (blog) — An owner's account of a matched 1969 (TE-coded) outfit with the 50mm Distagon and 150mm Sonnar, preferring the collapsible waist-level finder for its simplicity and compactness.
- Photo of the Life (ハッセルブラッド 500C — 1957年発売) (blog) — A beautiful, light medium-format camera whose finish is shoddy for the price — shrinking leather, peeling paint, fading lens engravings — carried to dominance by the Zeiss glass; the author's late-1970 body already has the interchangeable screen. via machine translation — corrections welcome
- Casual Photophile (500-series overview) (blog) — Often the cheapest V body, but recommended against for most buyers because the screen can only be changed by a technician; the 500C/M is called the sweet spot.
History
The 500C exists because the focal-plane shutter did not work well enough. Victor Hasselblad’s 1600F of 1948 and its 1000F successor of 1953 had put a 6×6 single-lens reflex with interchangeable lenses, magazines and finders into professional hands, but Hasselblad Historical’s model table records the 1600F’s shutter as the problem that the 1000F only reduced, and the English Wikipedia article adds that the company’s cameras did not turn a profit until 1960 — the business ran on Kodak imports. Hasselblad’s own history page dates the leaf-shutter prototypes from 1953, four years before the launch. The decision was to abandon the body shutter altogether: each new Carl Zeiss lens would carry its own Synchro-Compur, giving 1s to 1/500 and — the whole point, as electronic flash spread through studios — synchronisation at every speed instead of the 1/25 of the F cameras (Mike Eckman). The C in the name is the Compur; the 500 is the top speed. The lens bayonet was new, so no F-camera lens fits a 500C, though the finders and most magazines carried over (German Wikipedia; Hasselblad Historical).
What Hasselblad built around that shutter was a box with almost nothing in it. Winding the knob one full turn lowers the mirror, tensions the shutter in the lens through a coupling at the mount, and advances the film; there is no instant-return mirror, so the finder goes dark until the next wind, and a pair of hinged flaps at the rear of the body — the auxiliary shutter — keeps light off the film while the lens shutter stands open for viewing (the 500C instruction book; Eckman). The diaphragm is automatic, closing to the preset stop only at release, which camera-wiki’s 500C/M page notes preceded the Minolta SR-2 by a year. Two small windows beside the release show white or red for shutter and film state, and the instruction book spends a page on the four combinations, because a magazine put back on a cocked body with an untransported frame gives a double exposure. The exterior is credited to Sixten Sason, the Saab designer who had drawn the 1600F; the Nasjonalmuseet’s record for a 1957 500C names him, while the English Wikipedia article on Sason mentions only the 1600F, so the credit for the 500C specifically rests on the museum and on secondary writers.
Prices and numbers are thin. Eckman gives $480 for the camera with the 80mm Planar in the American market at launch and $24.75 for the Gossen meter knob; a Photrio thread quotes a May 1963 Popular Photography advertisement at $549.50 with the 80mm; no Swedish price was found in any source. Hasselblad’s history page puts production at about 76,700 bodies between 1957 and 1970, a figure no other source consulted confirms or contradicts. The body was chrome throughout — Jo Geier’s model summary says chrome only, and no black 500C surfaces anywhere. The standard lens was the silver 80mm f/2.8 Planar, with the 60mm Distagon, 150mm and 250mm Sonnars at launch and the 500mm Tele-Tessar, 120mm S-Planar, 50mm and 40mm Distagons, 100mm Planar and 105mm UV-Sonnar arriving over the run (Hasselblad Historical’s lens list); black barrels and T* coating came after the 500C had ended.
Changes during the thirteen years are documented mostly by dealers and collectors rather than by Hasselblad. An antique-camera catalogue describes a 1959 body, date code CE, as an early model with accessory socket holes on the camera front, where the late instruction book shows the socket on the side panel. Kamerastore’s listing says the first design of 1957–1959 had a small pin inside the lens mount that stops later CF lenses seating and that the second design removed it — a single dealer’s statement, not found elsewhere and worth checking against Nordin. Magazines evolved around the body: the 70mm magazine came in 1966, and the automatic A12 with the 500C/M in 1970, though the late 500C manual already describes it (earlyphotography.co.uk; the instruction book). Dating a body needs none of this: the two letters before the serial read through VHPICTURES, so CE is 1959, TE is 1969 and U-S is 1970 (Q.G. de Bakker).
The space cameras were 500Cs before they were anything else. Walter Schirra bought one with the 80mm Planar at a Houston photo shop in 1962, and Hasselblad’s history describes what NASA then did to a few more — leather, auxiliary shutter, mirror and finder removed, a large-capacity film container fitted, the metal painted matte black; that camera flew on Mercury-Atlas 8 in October 1962 and again with Gordon Cooper on MA-9 in 1963, and the type carried on through Gemini in 1965–66 (NASA Spinoff 2008). Hasselblad says the container held 70 exposures; the RR Auction description, when the MA-8/MA-9 camera sold for $275,000 on 13 November 2014, said 100 (phys.org). The Apollo cameras were 500EL derivatives, which is a different entry.
The 500C ended in 1970 when the 500C/M added a user-changeable screen and, per camera-wiki, little else — and the ending was untidy. Hasselblad Historical notes that some C/Ms were still labelled 500 C; Jo Geier says the early C/Ms were marked 500 C on the accessory rail; a Japanese owner’s late-1970 body carries the clip-in screen. What remains open: whether the early lens-mount pin is real and where the change falls; when the accessory socket moved from front to side; whether the 76,700 figure counts bodies shipped or bodies built; the Swedish list price; and anything at all about production by year, which only Nordin’s tables are likely to hold.
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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More sample photos elsewhere
- Flickr group — Hasselblad 500C
- Flickr group — Hasselblad 500C or CM with the 80mm Planar
- Flickr group — Hasselblad 500 Series, film only
These photographers keep all rights to their work — enjoy it at the source.
Live listings
Asking price, USD: a median of $1,900 across 17 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $1,200–$2,000). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 2 days: unchanged from $1,900.
By day
| Date | Median | Middle half | Listings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-09-11 | $1,900 | $1,200–$2,000 | 17 |
| 2026-09-06 | $1,900 | $1,100–$2,000 | 19 |
Asking prices from the listings scanned, not sales; junk-flagged rows and auction lots excluded; other currencies are not converted.
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Listings updated 2026-09-11. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.