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

Hasselblad 503CXi

Hasselblad · Hasselblad V mount · 6×6cm on 120 (12 exposures with the A12; 220 via the A24). 6×4.5 by A16 magazine, or — new with this body — by the format mask set 41151, which also gives a 6×3cm panoramic frame without changing the magazine. · 1994

Also known as: Hasselblad 503CXi · Hasselblad 503 CXi · Hasselblad 503CXI · Hasselblad 503 CXI · 503CXi · 503 CXi · ハッセルブラッド 503CXi · Hasselblad 503CXi body · Hasselblad 503CXi A12 · Hasselblad 503CXi 80mm CF

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
503CXi chrome Hasselblad V 1994–1996 — —
503CXi black Hasselblad V 1994–1996 — —
  1. Years from Hasselblad Historical's V-system model table (HSTable), agreeing with English and German Wikipedia, camera-wiki and Hasselblad's 500-series history page on 1994–1996. Jo Geier's guide gives the same span but has the 503CX ending in 1993 rather than 1994.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • '503CXi' engraved on the front plate; the 503CX says '503CX' and the 503CW '503CW'
  • Wide, flat shutter-release button of the 1994 type (Jo Geier, Kamerastore; Japanese Wikipedia calls it a soft-touch release) in place of the 503CX's small button with its O/T time-exposure lock lever
  • Winding Crank E (44086), the black crank with the winder coupling behind it; the 503CX carried the Rapid Winding Crank 44040
  • Rubber pads on the tripod base (Jo Geier's 'rubber bottom grips'; Japanese dealers describe a rubber-covered tripod plate); the service manual records the tripod foot modified in April 1995
  • Accepts the 6×4.5 / 6×3 mask set 41151 at the rear body opening — the 503CX does not
  • TTL/OTF flash electronics: ISO dial on the left body wall and SCA socket, as on the 503CX; absent on the 500C/M, 500 Classic, 501C and 501CM
  • No cocked/released signal window on the body side, per Jo Geier — the 503CX has one
  • Short-geometry mirror: finder cut-off with 150mm and longer lenses, unlike the 503CW

503CXi chrome:

  • Satin-chrome trim with black leatherette; '503CXi' on the front nameplate
  • Dealers file the chrome body under Hasselblad catalogue number 10026 — the same number the 1992 503CX manual gives for the chrome 503CX

503CXi black:

  • Black-finished body; '503CXi' on the front nameplate
  • Dealers file the black body under catalogue number 10172 — again the number the 1992 manual assigns to the black 503CX

Serial-range notes

two-letter date code with numeric prefix, EI… (1994), EC… (1995), ET… (1996)
Hasselblad bodies carry a two-letter year code read with VHPICTURES (V=1 H=2 P=3 I=4 C=5 T=6 U=7 R=8 E=9 S=0), so a 503CXi reads EI, EC or ET. From 1990 a two-digit product prefix precedes the letters; Q.G. de Bakker's page on Hasselblad Historical says it is for factory records only. The 503CW service manual quotes a CW serial as 19ER18271, so the 503-series prefix is at least sometimes 19; no 503CXi serial has been seen to confirm its prefix.

Specifications

Format
6×6cm on 120 (12 exposures with the A12; 220 via the A24). 6×4.5 by A16 magazine, or — new with this body — by the format mask set 41151, which also gives a 6×3cm panoramic frame without changing the magazine.
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, set on the lens (Prontor CF or Synchro-Compur C) · flash sync all speeds (leaf shutter) · no self-timer
Film advance
Winding Crank E (44086) on the body right side, cocking shutter and mirror and advancing the film; the crank is the winder coupling, and the Winder CW replaces it
Back
interchangeable magazines — A12, A16, A24, A16S, 70mm, Polaroid; format mask set 41151 for 6×4.5 and 6×3 panoramic (501C, 503CXi and 503CW only)
Meter
None for ambient light; TTL/OTF flash metering only, ISO 16–1000 via SCA390/SCA590 adapters or Proflash 4504, 40mm-diameter central sensor — exposure metering needs a PME prism or a hand-held meter
Motor drive
Winder CW — The winder coupling is the model's defining change per Hasselblad Historical ('+ Winder connection'). The Winder CW itself arrived with the 503CW in 1996 — Jo Geier says the crank was fitted 'in anticipation' of it, and Japanese Wikipedia notes no winder was on sale during most of the 503CXi's run. The 503CW service manual gives the CW a 1.05 s winding time, about 0.8 frames/s continuous.
Dimensions
87 × 114 × 107 body only (160 high with hood raised) per the 1992 503CX manual — carried from the 503CX, whose shell the 503CXi shares; no 503CXi-specific figure located mm
Country
Sweden
Accessories
Winder CW (1996) — the first 500-series body to accept it · Format mask set 41151 (6×4.5 and 6×3 panoramic), introduced 1994 for the 501C, 503CXi and 503CW · A12, A16, A24, A16S and 70mm magazines; Polaroid backs · Acute-Matte focusing screens (grid, split-image, microprism) · PM and PME prism finders; PME types carry the only ambient metering available · SCA390 / SCA590 flash adapters and Proflash 4504 for TTL/OTF flash control · Winding Crank E 44086 (replacement); the knob with built-in meter of earlier bodies is not listed for it · Quick-coupling tripod plate; Japanese Wikipedia says the revised base needed a new quick coupling and older bodies an adapter

Folding focusing hood over the Acute-Matte screen the 503CX introduced (the 1992 manual's footnote credits the screen to Minolta), user-changeable. The mirror is the 1957 geometry: the top of the screen image is cut off with long lenses, which the Gliding Mirror System of the 503CW cured in 1996.

Figures we worked out rather than found: dimensions_mm is the 503CX body-only figure from the 1992 manual, carried across because the 503CXi uses the same shell; no 503CXi-specific dimensions were found · The 1994–1996 date codes EI / EC / ET are read from the VHPICTURES key, not from surveyed examples

Where sources disagree

Weight (grams)
  • 529 g body only — Kamerastore's scale weight for listed 503CXi bodies, evidently without hood or screen
  • 610 g body only — the factory figure for the 503CX (1992 manual) and for the 503CW (1998 service manual), the bodies on either side of it; no factory figure for the 503CXi itself has been located

The two are not necessarily in conflict — the factory weighs the body as delivered with hood, screen and crank — but no source gives a 503CXi weight on either basis.

Id markers (catalogue numbers 10026 / 10172)
  • 503CXi chrome 10026, black 10172 — Kamerastore's listings
  • 503CX chrome 10026, black 10172 — the 1992 Hasselblad 503CX & 500 Classic instruction manual

Either Hasselblad carried the 503CX's catalogue numbers over to the 503CXi, or the dealer has applied the predecessor's numbers. No Hasselblad price list or 503CXi manual has been found to settle it.

Years (503CX end / 503CXi start)
  • 503CX 1988–1994, 503CXi 1994–1996 — Hasselblad Historical, English Wikipedia
  • 503CX 1988–1993, 503CXi 1994–1996 — Jo Geier's V-system guide
  • 503CX 1989–1994 — camera-wiki

Better supported: 1994–1996 for the 503CXi, on which every source agrees

What reviewers say

History

The 503CXi is the middle of three bodies that carried Hasselblad’s TTL/OTF flash metering into the manual 500 series, and it existed for two years. The 503CX of 1988 had taken the 500C/M shell, put a flash sensor behind a mirror with a transmitting centre, added the Acute-Matte screen and lined the interior with Palpas anti-reflection material — the delta Hasselblad Historical’s model table records against it. The 503CXi of 1994 changed none of that. The same table gives its whole difference as ”+ Winder connection”, and Hasselblad’s own history page spends a single clause on it: “Next came the 503CXi in 1994, followed by the 501C. In 1996 came the 503CW, which received a specially made electric winder.”

The mechanical changes are small but several. Jo Geier’s V-system guide lists a wider release button, rubber pads on the base, a seat at the rear body opening for the new 6×4.5 and 6×3 panoramic mask set, and Winding Crank E fitted “in anticipation for the Winder CW which was introduced in 1996”. Kamerastore’s stock descriptions repeat the list — Wind Crank E, the “newer style (1994) shutter release button and rubber feet”, mask set 41151 — and its page for the mask set says it fits “the 501C, 503CXi and 503CW cameras only”. Japanese Wikipedia, drawing on the Futabasha quarterly Classic Camera No. 5 and Yamagata Toshinori’s book, adds two things the English-language sources omit: the shutter button’s O/T time-exposure lock lever was dropped with the new soft-touch release, so long exposures and the self-timer function of C lenses now needed a locking cable release or an air release; and the tripod base was redesigned with a new quick-coupling interface so that older bodies needed an adapter. The factory service manual’s revision list corroborates a base change from the other side, recording the tripod foot “modified” for the 501C and 503CXi in April 1995 and the signal arm shortened on both in February 1996.

What the 503CXi did not get was the mirror. The 503CW of 1996 introduced the Gliding Mirror System, and the 503CXi keeps the 1957 geometry with its finder cut-off at 150mm and beyond; forum comparisons turn on exactly this — the CXi takes the winder, the CX does not, and the CW alone shows the whole frame with long glass. Jo Geier also has the 503CXi lose the cocked/released signal window on the body side, a point no other source consulted mentions, and the same service manual’s 1996 exploded view for the 503CXi says its “spare parts not listed are the same as for 503CW”, listing only a coupling, a crank support and the name plate as its own.

Identification and dating are straightforward. The nameplate reads 503CXi; the date code is two letters read with VHPICTURES, so EI, EC or ET for 1994, 1995 and 1996, behind a two-digit product prefix that Q.G. de Bakker’s page on Hasselblad Historical says is for records only. The catalogue numbers are the one real tangle: Kamerastore files the chrome body as 10026 and the black as 10172, and those are precisely the numbers the 1992 503CX manual assigns to the chrome and black 503CX. Whether Hasselblad kept the numbers through the model change or the dealer has borrowed them is not settled by anything found here. Weight is a second gap — 529 g on a dealer’s scale for a bare body, against a factory 610 g for both the 503CX before it and the 503CW after it, with no factory figure for the 503CXi itself.

Sources disagree only at the edges. Hasselblad Historical, English Wikipedia and camera-wiki have the 503CX running to 1994 (camera-wiki starts it in 1989 rather than 1988); Jo Geier ends it in 1993. Everyone gives the 503CXi 1994–1996. Japanese Wikipedia’s remark that the winder the camera was built for was not on sale during its run is consistent with the Winder CW’s 1996 launch, which coincides with the 503CW that replaced the 503CXi.

What remains open: a Hasselblad list price in any currency, which no source consulted gives; whether the 503CXi shipped in a kit with the CF Planar or body-only throughout; the production figures for either finish; a 503CXi-specific instruction sheet, which Butkus hosts but which could not be retrieved; and whether Nordin’s Compendium confirms the catalogue-number carry-over and the missing signal window. Both Nordin volumes and Wildi’s 1996 edition of The Hasselblad Manual presumably settle some of this and have not been consulted.

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

Hasselblad 503CXi
Hasselblad 503CXi — torres21, via Openverse (flickr) (BY-SA 2.0)

More sample photos elsewhere

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

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $2,500 across 20 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-06 (middle half $1,600–$3,300). First day tracked.

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 2026-09-05. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Related: Hasselblad 503CX · Hasselblad 503CW · Hasselblad 501C · Hasselblad 501CM · Hasselblad 500C/M · Hasselblad 500 Classic

Lenses for this body: Distagon 40mm f/4 · Distagon 50mm f/4 · Distagon 60mm f/3.5 · Makro-Planar 120mm f/4 · Planar 80mm f/2.8 · S-Planar / Makro-Planar 135mm f/5.6 (bellows) · 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 350mm f/5.6 · Tessar 160mm f/4.8

Sources (21)

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.