Hasselblad 503CX

Hasselblad · Hasselblad V mount · 6×6cm nominal on 120 with the A12 magazine; 6×4.5 with the A16, 4×4 superslide with the A16S, 220 film via the A24, and 70mm perforated film in the 70 magazine. The body itself has no format — the magazine decides. · 1988

Also known as: Hasselblad 503 CX · Hasselblad 503cx · 503CX · 503 CX · Hasselblad 503CX Golden Blue · Hasselblad 503CX 50th Anniversary · ハッセルブラッド 503CX

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
503CX, chrome Hasselblad V 1988–1994
503CX, black Hasselblad V 1988–1994
503CX Golden Blue, 50th anniversary (1941–1991) Hasselblad V 1991–1991 01EV10015 (set 076/700), 01EV10149 (set 229/700) — bodies seen in dealer and auction listings; EV = 1991 700 numbered sets, per every dealer, auction and press account; no factory document has been cited
  1. Date codes from Hasselblad Historical's dating page (Q.G. de Bakker); observed Golden Blue serials from Jo Geier's and Flints' listings.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • '503cx' nameplate on the front upper left; 'HASSELBLAD' across the finder surround
  • ISO selector dial (16–1000) with a flash symbol on the left body side — absent on every 500C/M
  • 6-pin OTF metering socket with cover on the left side; red indicator lamp under the left edge of the screen
  • Camera status indicator (white/red) beside the crank and O/T time-exposure lock on the release: present on the 503CX, absent on the 503CXi and 501C
  • No winder coupling on the right side and a bayonet-detachable crank — the 503CXi's Crank E and coupling are the quickest way to tell the two apart
  • Palpas-lined interior — a matte, rubbery anti-reflection material that develops vein-like cracks with age; its presence separates a 503CX from a 500C/M when the magazine is off
  • Product numbers 10026 (chrome) and 10172 (black); 500C/M bodies of the same years are 10022 and 10170

503CX, chrome:

  • Product no. 10026 (the 1988 manual's specification page)
  • Satin-chrome trim with black leatherette; '503cx' nameplate on the front upper left of the body beside the finder
  • ISO selector dial with a flash symbol on the left body side, in front of the strap lug — the one control a 500C/M does not have
  • 6-pin OTF metering socket with a screw-on cover on the left side, below the ISO dial
  • Small red flash indicator lamp under the left edge of the focusing screen
  • Round white/red camera status indicator beside the crank on the right side — dropped on the 503CXi
  • O/T time-exposure lock lever on the release button — also dropped on the 503CXi
  • Detachable bayonet-fitted winding crank, no winder coupling on the right side

503CX, black:

  • Product no. 10172 (the 1988 manual's specification page)
  • Black-finished trim in place of satin chrome; otherwise identical to the chrome body

503CX Golden Blue, 50th anniversary (1941–1991):

  • Blue leather covering on body and matching A12 magazine, with 24-carat gold-plated trim
  • Numbered edition plate ('No. xxx' of 700)
  • Planar CF 80mm f/2.8 T* in black with a gold front ring; lens serials in the 7208xxx range on the examples seen
  • Blue leather presentation case

Serial-range notes

RR…, RE… (1988–1989)
Two-letter year code before the serial, read with VHPICTURES (V=1 H=2 P=3 I=4 C=5 T=6 U=7 R=8 E=9 S=0): RR = 1988, RE = 1989. Hasselblad Historical's dating page describes the scheme; magazines use the same code.
01EV… (1991), and by extension 01SS…–01EI… (1990–1994)
From 1990 a two-digit product prefix precedes the letters (Hasselblad Historical). Both Golden Blue bodies seen in listings read 01EV, with their matching A12 magazines 03EV, so 01 is the 503CX prefix at least in 1991; the range given for the other years is inferred from the scheme, not from observed bodies. The 503CW uses 19 (Hasselblad's service manual cites body 19ER18271).

Specifications

Format
6×6cm nominal on 120 with the A12 magazine; 6×4.5 with the A16, 4×4 superslide with the A16S, 220 film via the A24, and 70mm perforated film in the 70 magazine. The body itself has no format — the magazine decides.
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 and B on the Synchro-Compur (C) and Prontor CF lenses · flash sync all speeds (leaf shutter); PC terminal on the lens, TTL/OTF control via the body's 6-pin socket · no self-timer
Film advance
Manual crank, one full turn cocking the lens shutter and auxiliary blinds and advancing the film; bayonet-fitted and detachable, replaceable by a knob with a built-in exposure meter. Pre-release button raises the mirror and closes the lens shutter ahead of exposure. No winder coupling — that arrived with the 503CXi in 1994.
Back
interchangeable magazines — A12, A24, A16, A16S, A12V, 70mm cassette; Polaroid backs
Meter
None for ambient light. TTL/OTF flash metering only: a silicon cell in the body floor reads a 40mm-diameter circle off the film surface during exposure and cuts the flash through an SCA 390 (SCA 300 system) or SCA 590 (SCA 500 system) adapter; ISO 16–1000 on the body's selector. The flash unit powers the camera's electronics — the body has no battery. Ambient metering only through a PME-series prism or the metering knob.
Motor drive
Not compatible — No winder coupling. The Winder CW fits the 503CXi and 503CW only; a motorised body of the same generation is the 553ELX (1988), which carries the same TTL/OTF system.
Weight
610 g
Dimensions
87 × 114 × 107 (body only, hood folded); 160 high with the hood raised — the manual's dimension drawing mm
Country
Sweden
Original price
Not established from a primary source. A single owner's page (stollee.org) gives $2,800 in the US in 1988 without saying whether that bought a body or a kit; On Slow Photography quotes about 6.9 million lire for a kit in Italy in 1992. No Hasselblad or distributor price list for the 503CX has been found online.
Accessories
Flash adapters SCA 390 (for SCA 300-system units) and SCA 590 (for SCA 500-system units) · Prism finders PM, PME and PME3 (metered), RM-2 magnifying hood, sports viewfinder · Acute-Matte screens — plain, grid, split-image and microprism · Magazines A12, A24, A16, A16S, A12V, 70mm; Polaroid backs · Extension tubes 8, 16, 32 and 56; bellows extension 64–85; Mutar 2× converter · Tripod Quick-coupling plate with 1/4in and 3/8in sockets · Meter knob replacing the winding crank

Folding focusing hood with magnifier. Prism finders PM, PME (metered) and PME3 (metered), the RM-2 magnifying hood and the sports viewfinder all fit. Hasselblad Acute-Matte screen standard — the manual footnotes it as designed by Minolta — with grid, split-image and microprism versions available; a user-changeable screen as on the 500C/M. The manual warns that a PME metering prism calibrated for the older ground-glass screen reads one stop high on an Acute-Matte and must be compensated.

Figures we worked out rather than found: serial_notes — the 1990–1994 prefix range is projected from the VHPICTURES scheme and two observed 1991 bodies, not from a published serial table

Where sources disagree

Last
  • 1994 — Hasselblad Historical's model table and English Wikipedia
  • 1993 — Jo Geier's model history (503 CX 1988–1993)

Better supported: 1994

Both agree the 503CXi followed in 1994; the disagreement is whether the CX was still listed in that year.

First
  • 1988 — Hasselblad Historical, Hasselblad's own history page, Japanese Wikipedia, and the manual's 1988 copyright
  • 1989 — Kamerastore, lens-db, collection-appareils.fr and a Medium Format Forum summary

Better supported: 1988

The 1989 figure is probably first full-year availability; no source describes a launch event.

Weight (grams)
  • 610 g body only — the 1988 instruction manual (1,510 g with 80mm Planar CF and A12)
  • 640 g body only — Kamerastore's listing

Better supported: 610

The manual gives the 500C/M as 600 g, so the TTL electronics add about 10 g.

What reviewers say

History

Hasselblad had sold the 500C/M unchanged in essentials since 1970, and by 1988 the only body in the range with any electronics was the motorised one. Hasselblad Historical’s model table records that TTL/OTF flash control arrived on the 500ELX in 1984; the 503CX of 1988 put the same system into a hand-wound body, and the table’s one-line description is exact about its status — “in addition to the 500 C/M”, which stayed in the catalogue until 1994. The instruction manual, a joint 503CX / 500C/M booklet copyrighted 1988, says the same thing from the other side: the 503CX “is an upgraded version of the 500C/M with through the lens ‘OTF’ flash metering and a number of additional refinements”, and its illustrations show the newer camera while applying to both. Hasselblad’s own history page calls it a critical advancement of the 500C/M. It was one of four 1988 bodies — with the 553ELX, the 903SWC and the 2003FCW — that Hasselblad Historical lists as receiving the new Palpas lining in the same year, so the 503CX is best read as one part of a range-wide refresh rather than a new design.

The flash system is the reason the camera exists, and the manual describes it in detail. A sensor in the body floor reads light reflected from a 40mm-diameter circle in the centre of the film during exposure; a selector on the left side sets ISO 16 to 1000, and through an SCA 390 or SCA 590 adapter — for units of the Metz-originated SCA 300 and SCA 500 systems respectively — the body sends the quench signal that cuts the flash when exposure is correct. A red lamp under the left edge of the focusing screen glows steadily when the flash is charged and blinks for about a second after a correctly exposed frame; no blink means the flash ran out of light. The flash unit powers the camera’s electronics, so there is no battery in the body — which is also why a 503CX without a flash attached is, electrically, a 500C/M. The metering is for flash only: a Medium Format Forum thread has to remind buyers that the “TTL” on a 503 body measures no ambient light at all, which still needs a PME prism or a hand meter. Hasselblad’s service-information index records that the flash metering circuit was redesigned in 1993 (service info 20/93); what changed is not stated in the public manual.

The other two changes are the ones a user notices without a flash. The Acute-Matte focusing screen became standard, and the manual footnotes its origin on every page that names it: “Acute-Matte designed by MINOLTA”. A Japanese dealer blog puts the gain at roughly one stop over the 500C/M’s ground glass, and the manual itself warns that a PME metering prism calibrated for the old screen reads a stop high on the new one. Inside the body, Hasselblad Historical names the Palpas coating “to reduce flare”; the manual does not use the word, and Japanese Wikipedia describes it as a material applied to the interior. It has not aged well. A Rangefinder Forum thread and several Photrio threads describe it developing vein-like cracks and flaking off the auxiliary blinds, and repairers quoted there say the material is no longer available and that stripping a body to replace it costs more than the camera — the consensus is to leave it alone unless flakes reach the film. The body shell remained a one-piece aluminium-alloy casting; the manual gives 610g against 600g for the 500C/M, the electronics accounting for the difference.

Telling one from its neighbours is straightforward. Against a 500C/M the 503CX has the ISO dial and the covered 6-pin socket on its left flank, the indicator lamp at the screen edge and a “503cx” nameplate; the manual lists chrome as product 10026 and black as 10172, against 10022 and 10170 for the 500C/M. Against its own successor the differences run the other way. Jo Geier’s model history has the 503CXi of 1994 adding the winder coupling and Winding Crank E for the Winder CW, a wider release button, rubber base grips and slots for the 645 and panoramic masks, and losing the round white/red camera status indicator; Japanese Wikipedia adds that the O/T time-exposure lock on the release went too, making the 503CX the last body to carry it. Neither camera has the 503CW’s gliding mirror. The 500 Classic complicates the picture: Hasselblad Historical dates it 1990–1992 and calls it simply a special 500C/M sold as a kit, while Japanese Wikipedia dates it from 1989 and describes it as a 503CX-shaped body with the TTL parts omitted, Palpas-lined and chrome only. The two accounts are compatible — a 500C/M by name, a 503CX by casting — but only the Japanese one makes the claim.

The Golden Blue is the one special edition. Every account — PetaPixel, Amateur Photographer, Jo Geier, Flints, Classic Connection — agrees on 700 numbered sets made in 1991 for the fiftieth anniversary of Hasselblad camera manufacture, counted from the HK7 aerial camera of 1941: blue leather on body and A12, 24-carat gold-plated trim, a black CF Planar 80 with a gold front ring, and a blue leather case. Two bodies seen at sale carry serials 01EV10015 and 01EV10149, the EV decoding to 1991 under the VHPICTURES key, with their magazines prefixed 03EV. Nobody has found the launch price; PetaPixel says as much and guesses from contemporaries. Flints sold set 076 for £5,250 in 2022 and Park Cameras asked £5,999 for another in 2024.

Dating an ordinary body follows Hasselblad Historical’s scheme: two letters before the serial give the year — RR is 1988, RE 1989 — and from 1990 a two-digit product prefix precedes them, 01 on the Golden Blue bodies and, by inference, on the plain 503CX of the same years. Several things remain open. The end of production is 1994 in Hasselblad Historical and 1993 in Jo Geier’s list, and the start is 1988 in the primary sources but 1989 in most dealer databases, which have probably recorded first deliveries. No production total has been published for the 503CX in any finish, and no chrome-versus-black split. The original list price has not been found in a primary document — one owner’s page gives $2,800 in the United States in 1988 without saying what that bought, and an Italian review quotes about 6.9 million lire for a kit in 1992. Whether every 1990–94 body carries the 01 prefix, what the 1993 circuit redesign changed, and what Palpas actually is chemically are all unanswered by the sources consulted.

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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

Hasselblad 503CX
Hasselblad 503CX — marco antonio torres from sylmar, united states of america (north), via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Hasselblad 503CX
503CX 50th Anniversary 'Golden Blue' — KKPCW(Kyu3), via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $2,700 across 39 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $1,700–$3,500). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 3 days: unchanged from $2,700.

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