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

Hasselblad 500EL/M

Hasselblad · Hasselblad V mount · 56×56mm nominal on 120; 6×4.5 via the A16/A16S magazines, 220 via the A24, 70mm perforated film via the Magazine 70 (70 exposures) and 70/500 · 1970

Also known as: Hasselblad 500EL/M · Hasselblad 500ELM · Hasselblad 500 EL/M · Hasselblad 500 ELM · 500EL/M · 500ELM · 500 EL/M · 500 EL M · Hasselblad 500elm · Hasselblad EL/M · Hasselblad 500EL/M 10 Years on the Moon · Hasselblad 500EL/M 20 Years in Space

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
500EL/M, chrome Hasselblad V 1970–1984 Two-letter year code + digits, with a third letter E appended on EL and EL/M bodies up to 1978 (Hasselblad Historical): e.g. UCE26949 (1975, Leitz Auction). Later bodies carry seven digits, e.g. UR1312642 (1978), RV1319175 (1981), RH1322552 (1982)
A Japanese source (ハッセルブラッドのカメラ製品一覧, citing クラシックカメラ専科 No.4) starts EL/M numbering at 15075, continuing the 500EL's 8000–15074 block 		—
500EL/M, black Hasselblad V 1970–1984 Same code as chrome; no separate block is published. UE1313959 (1979) and UR1312642 (1978) are black edition bodies offered by Leitz Auction No split between finishes is published
500EL/M 10 Years on the Moon Hasselblad V 1978–1979 UR- and UE-prefixed bodies (1978–79): UR1312642 = no. 1167 (black), UR1313296 = no. 0719, UE1313728 = no. 0551, UE1313959 = no. 1256 (black) — Leitz Auction; no. 0880 chrome — RR Auction 1,500 numbered cameras — 1,000 chrome and 500 black (RR Auction; consistent with the Leitz Auction numbering). A Japanese source instead describes grey artificial leather — see `disputed`
500EL/M 20 Years in Space (1962–1982) Hasselblad V 1982–1982 RH-prefixed bodies (1982): RH1322552 = no. 0704, RH1323084; edition no. 503 also recorded — Leitz Auction, several sales 1,500 numbered cameras (Leitz Auction, lot AI-25-29777)
500EL/M NASA-modified (post-Apollo) Hasselblad V 1975 — —
  1. Family and chrome-variant years follow Hasselblad Historical's model table (1970–1984); Hasselblad's own history page, camera-wiki and English Wikipedia begin the model in 1971 — see `disputed`.
  2. Black-variant years begin with the Japanese products list's statement that black was offered from the start; the earliest document consulted that prices a black body is the April 1973 U.S. list.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Motor housing under the body, the whole assembly about a third taller than a 500C/M; selector dial AS·A·O·S·SR on the right side, battery cover and L/O/T time lever on the left
  • '500EL/M' on the side nameplate and the front of the housing; a plate reading 500EL means the fixed-screen predecessor even if the screen has been retrofitted
  • Removable focusing screen with two retainers — the 500EL's is fixed under a frame
  • No TTL flash contacts, SCA socket or 'gliding' mirror — that is the 500ELX (1984); no AA battery holder — that is the 553ELX (1988)
  • Moon emblem on the housing front = 1979 edition; grey leather and silver plaque = 1982 edition

500EL/M, chrome:

  • Motor housing beneath the body with ventilation-style ribbing; nameplate '500EL/M · MADE IN SWEDEN BY VICTOR HASSELBLAD' on the left side panel and '500EL/M' on the front of the motor housing (instruction book)
  • Selector dial on the right side marked AS · A · O · S · SR; time lever L/O/T and 5-pin DIN side socket on the left of the housing; two release sockets on the front for the detachable button or FK cords
  • Focusing screen lifts out once hood and magazine are off — the one change from the 500EL, whose screen is fixed
  • No TTL flash sensor or SCA socket in the body: that is the 500ELX of 1984

500EL/M, black:

  • Black-anodised trim, black hood and black motor housing; product number 10219 (body only) on the box and in dealer lists — chrome is 10065

500EL/M 10 Years on the Moon:

  • Small moon emblem on the front of the motor housing and an individual edition number (RR Auction; Leitz Auction)
  • Numbers 0001–1000 chrome, 1001–1500 black, per the RR Auction description ('the first 1000 in chrome and the last 500 in black'); Leitz's black examples are nos. 1167 and 1256 'of only 500'
  • Sold with a '10 Years On the Moon' booklet; otherwise a stock 500EL/M of 1978–79 with the C-lens-era body

500EL/M 20 Years in Space (1962–1982):

  • Grey leather covering instead of black leatherette; sterling-silver plaque carrying the edition number (Leitz Auction)
  • Sold as a set with a Planar T* 2.8/80 (C lens of 1982, e.g. 6306158, 6388771) and an A12 (RH32xxxxx) in a maker's box; English Wikipedia pictures one with a 70mm magazine

500EL/M NASA-modified (post-Apollo):

  • Not a catalogue model. NASA cameras were modified stock bodies: internal plastic parts replaced by metal, Réseau plate, oversized magazine locks and levers, matte finishes (Hasselblad Historical, Ross Military Cameras part 5; NASA History Division)

Serial-range notes

Two letters before the digits
Body and magazine serials carry the year in the first two letters via VHPICTURES (V=1 H=2 P=3 I=4 C=5 T=6 U=7 R=8 E=9 S=0): UC = 75, UR = 78, UE = 79, RV = 81, RH = 82. Years 50–99 read 19xx (Hasselblad Historical, Q.G. de Bakker).
Three letters, up to 1978 (…E)
Up to 1978 an E was appended to the code on EL and EL/M cameras as a product-type letter, e.g. UCE26949; the year is still the first two letters (Hasselblad Historical). The C on 500C/M bodies and W on SWC bodies are the same scheme.
Five- versus seven-digit numbers
Mid-1970s bodies seen carry five digits after the letters (UCE26949); from the late 1970s the EL/M runs seven digits in a 13xxxxx block (UR1312642, UE1313959, RV1319175, RH1323084). When the change was made is not stated in any consulted source.
Body, lens and magazine dates rarely match
Edition sets were assembled from stock — a 1978-coded body in the 1979 moon edition, a 1982 A12 with a 1982 body in the space edition — so a mismatch is normal and not evidence of a swap.

Specifications

Format
56×56mm nominal on 120; 6×4.5 via the A16/A16S magazines, 220 via the A24, 70mm perforated film via the Magazine 70 (70 exposures) and 70/500 · 12 on 120 (A12); 16 at 6×4.5 (A16); 24 on 220 (A24); 70 on 70mm (Magazine 70) exposures
Finder
waist-level, interchangeable (prism and meter-prism finders available)
Shutter
none in body — auxiliary rear flaps; exposure by the lens leaf shutter · 1s–1/500, B on the Synchro-Compur (C) and Prontor CF lenses; time lever T holds the auxiliary shutter open for exposures over one minute and for the lens self-timer · flash sync all speeds (leaf shutter); X and M on C lenses, X only on CF · no self-timer
Film advance
built-in electric motor in the housing under the body: single frame (O), pre-release (S, SR), continuous at about one frame per second (A, AS); no manual wind
Back
interchangeable magazines — A12, A16, A16S, A24, Magazine 70, 70/500, Polaroid; pre-1970 non-automatic magazines also fit
Meter
none in body; prism finder with light meter optional
Motor drive
built-in — Two DEAC 5/500 DKZ nickel-cadmium cells (6 V), each good for about 1,000 exposures per the instruction book; 1.6 A slow-blow fuse; Recharge unit I supplied, 14 hours per cell; 5-pin DIN side socket (Preh 8-6404) for SK/LK/DK release cords, Intervalometer II (2 s–12 min), radio release and charging. Original cells are long out of production; adapters for 9 V alkaline or CR-P2 lithium are sold (camera-wiki)
Country
Sweden
Original price
US$686.00 body only, US$1,300.00 with 80mm Planar f/2.8 and A12 (chrome); black body US$700.00, US$902.00 with A12, US$1,617.00 with 100mm Planar f/3.5 and A12 — U.S. suggested retail, April 1973 (today $4,850)
Accessories
Recharge unit I (supplied), Recharge unit III with timer, battery compartment for out-of-camera charging, battery case for five dry cells (field charging) · Release cords FK 30/300/600 (front socket), SK 150, LK and DK cords (side socket); cord reel II; detachable release button · Intervalometer II (2 s–12 min), radio release unit, AC power supply unit 46302/46310 with motor-housing contact panel (1980 list) · Pistol grip 46221 for 500EL/M and 500EL; flash-gun bracket with leather strap 46329 · Prism finders NC-2, HC-1, HC-3/70, meter prism; magnifying hood; sports viewfinder on the accessory socket · Magazines A12, A16, A16S, A24, Magazine 70 and 70/500, Polaroid magazine, cut-film adapter · Automatic Diaphragm Control Unit (ADCU) for the 80/100/150/250 C lenses, listed 'for 500C/M, 500EL/M & 2000FC' in 1980 · Storage case 57576 for the complete outfit ($8,600 in 1980, camera and lenses included)

Screen changeable by the user — the feature that defines the model against the 500EL. The instruction book's procedure: magazine and hood off, retainers shifted, camera inverted, screen drops into a cupped hand; four supports, red-tape edge down. Split-image (42188), grid (42234) and standard (42161) screens were listed 'for M models' in 1973

Where sources disagree

First
  • 1970 — Hasselblad Historical's model table; German and Swedish Wikipedia; the Japanese products list's first reference (クラシックカメラ専科 No.4)
  • 1971 — Hasselblad's own 500-series history page, camera-wiki, English Wikipedia, Kamerastore
  • 1972 — the Japanese products list's alternative references

Better supported: 1970

The 500C/M, which received the same change, is dated 1970 by every source; a 1971 date for the EL/M may reflect first deliveries rather than announcement. No consulted source shows a dated document.

500elm-10-years-on-the-moon-1979 finish
  • 1,000 chrome and 500 black — RR Auction lot description; Leitz Auction's black examples are numbered 1167 and 1256 'of only 500'
  • Grey artificial leather with moon emblem and numbered plate — Japanese Wikipedia products list, citing クラシックカメラ専科 No.4

Better supported: 1,000 chrome and 500 black

Grey leather is the finish every auction record gives for the 1982 '20 Years in Space' edition; the Japanese description appears to conflate the two. Every catalogued moon-edition body seen is chrome or black.

First
  • 1975 — German Wikipedia names a 500EL/M on the Apollo–Soyuz flight
  • 1973–74 — Skylab is often assumed, but no consulted source distinguishes EL from EL/M bodies on Skylab

Hasselblad Historical says only that 'a modified version' of the 500EL flew to the Moon; English Wikipedia (from Nordin) puts EL/M-based cameras in the Shuttle period.

Notes — late focusing screen
  • Acute-Matte fitted as standard on late 500EL/M bodies — Japanese Wikipedia products list
  • Acute-Matte screens dated to 1989 by Nordin (as reported on Photrio), five years after the EL/M ended — which would make a factory-fitted Acute-Matte on an EL/M impossible

Better supported: 1989 (Nordin)

A bright screen in a 500EL/M today is most likely a later retrofit; the model's changeable screen makes that trivial.

What reviewers say

History

The 500EL/M is the 500EL with a focusing screen the owner can lift out, and nothing else. Hasselblad Historical’s model table gives the change in the same words it uses for the 500C/M — ”+ Screen changeable by user” — and the instruction book describes the procedure: magazine and hood off, the two retainers pushed aside, the camera inverted and the screen dropped into a cupped hand, the replacement seated on four supports with its red-taped edge down. The rest of the camera is the motorised body Hasselblad introduced in 1965, which Hasselblad’s own history page says Victor Hasselblad conceived for bird photography with a radio release, and which the company’s table credits, in modified form, with the NASA moon missions. The model table dates the EL/M 1970–1984; Hasselblad’s history page, camera-wiki and English Wikipedia say 1971, and the Japanese products list records 1970, 1971 and 1972 from three different books. No consulted source shows a dated document, and the 500C/M, which received the identical change, is dated 1970 by everyone.

What the motor does is set out in the manual. The housing under the body holds two DEAC 5/500 DKZ nickel-cadmium cells, 6 volts in series, each said to be good for about a thousand exposures, behind a 1.6-amp fuse. A selector dial on the right side has five positions: O for a single frame with automatic wind and mirror return; S for pre-release, which raises the mirror, closes the lens shutter, opens the auxiliary flaps and stops the lens down, then returns the dial to O; SR for pre-release after every frame; A for continuous exposure at about one a second for as long as the release is held and film remains; AS for continuous with the mirror held up between frames. A time lever on the left reads L (locked, and the charging position), O and T, the last holding the auxiliary shutter open for exposures over a minute and for the lens self-timer. The Japanese list adds a figure the manual does not: a motor turning at 11.5 rpm through Delrin gears, emptying a 70-frame Magazine 70 in about a minute. Release is by a detachable button in either of two front sockets, by FK cords, or through the 5-pin DIN side socket that also serves the SK/LK/DK cords, the Intervalometer II (2 seconds to 12 minutes), the radio unit and the charger — Recharge unit I, 14 hours per cell.

The U.S. price lists fix the trade in it. In April 1973 the chrome body was $686.00 and the kit with 80mm Planar and A12 $1,300.00 — against $381.00 and $995.00 for a 500C/M — and a “500EL/70M” outfit with the Magazine 70 was offered with five different lenses. A black body was $700.00, and its kit came with the black 100mm Planar f/3.5 — the same sheet lists the 80mm Planar only in chrome. By the dealer list of 1 January 1980 the same product numbers stood at $1,620.00 and $3,090.00, and a complete outfit in its storage case at $8,600.00. The Japanese list states that black was offered from the start; no other consulted source dates the black EL/M, and the 1973 sheet is the earliest document found that prices one.

Two editions used this body. For the tenth anniversary of Apollo 11, 1,500 numbered cameras received a small moon emblem on the front of the motor housing; RR Auction’s description has the first thousand in chrome and the last five hundred in black, and Leitz Auction’s black examples are numbered 1167 and 1256 “of only 500”, which fits. The Japanese list instead describes grey artificial leather, the finish that every auction record gives to the second edition, and appears to conflate the two. Body codes on the moon cameras run UR and UE — 1978 and 1979 — so the edition was assembled over two production years, and one Leitz lot (no. 0719, moon emblem, 1978) has been catalogued as “10 Years in Space” without anything to distinguish it from the rest. For 1982, twenty years after Schirra’s 500C on Mercury 8, another 1,500 were covered in grey leather with a sterling-silver numbered plaque and sold as a set with a Planar T* 2.8/80 and an A12, all RH-coded; Leitz’s nos. 503 and 0704 and body RH1323084 are recorded, at €2,000–2,640 including premium for unused boxed sets.

The space history is real but less specific than the marketing. Hasselblad Historical’s page on the Ross military cameras states that NASA’s Electric Data Cameras, with the Réseau plate and the 60mm f/5.6 Biogon, were built on EL/M bodies whose internal plastic parts had been replaced with metal; German Wikipedia puts a 500EL/M on the Apollo–Soyuz flight of 1975; English Wikipedia, from Nordin and NASA’s Kitmacher, says the Shuttle-era cameras were based on the 500EL/M, 553ELX, 205TCC and 203FE; and the photogrammetric MK 70 is, again per Nordin, a calibrated 500EL/M. Whether the Skylab cameras of 1973–74 were EL or EL/M based, none of these sources says. A different conversion — a 1981 body fitted by Epsilon Labs for Lockheed with a data-printing head in place of the finder — shows that the motorised Hasselblad was modified for aerial work outside NASA as well.

Dating a body follows the usual two-letter code, with one wrinkle: up to 1978 an E was appended as a product letter, so UCE26949 (a 1975 cut-away demonstration body, one of about 25) reads as 1975, EL type. Later bodies carry seven digits in a 13xxxxx block; when the numbering changed is not recorded anywhere consulted. What remains open: the launch year; when black was first catalogued; whether any late EL/M left the factory with an Acute-Matte screen, which the Japanese list asserts but Nordin’s 1989 date for that screen makes unlikely; the serial-number change; and the total built, for which no figure has been published by anyone.

Expand Collapse

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

More sample photos elsewhere

These photographers keep all rights to their work — enjoy it at the source.

Live listings

Asking price, DKK: a median of DKK 2,000 across 3 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half DKK 2,000–DKK 2,000). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 2 days: unchanged from DKK 2,000.

By day
DateMedianMiddle halfListings
2026-09-11DKK 2,000DKK 2,000–DKK 2,0003
2026-09-06DKK 2,000DKK 2,000–DKK 2,0003

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Listings updated 2026-09-11. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Related: Hasselblad 500C · Hasselblad 500C/M · Hasselblad 500EL · Hasselblad 500ELX · Hasselblad 553ELX · Hasselblad 555ELD · Hasselblad MK70

Lenses for this body: Planar 80mm f/2.8 · Planar 100mm f/3.5 · Distagon 40mm f/4 · Distagon 50mm f/4 · Distagon 60mm f/3.5 · F-Distagon 30mm f/3.5 · UV-Sonnar 105mm f/4.3 · S-Planar 120mm f/5.6 · Makro-Planar 120mm f/4 · S-Planar / Makro-Planar 135mm f/5.6 (bellows) · Sonnar 150mm f/4 · Sonnar 250mm f/5.6 · Sonnar Superachromat 250mm f/5.6 · Tele-Tessar 350mm f/5.6 · Tele-Tessar 500mm f/8 · Variogon 140-280mm f/5.6 · Biogon 60mm f/5.6 (NASA Data Camera / MK70)

Sources (30)

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.