Hasselblad 553ELX
Hasselblad · Hasselblad V mount · 6×6cm nominal on 120 with the A12 magazine; 6×4.5 with the A16, 220 via the A24, 70mm perforated film in the 70 magazine, and Polaroid and sheet-film backs — the 1992 manual's specification page lists all of these. The body has no format of its own; the magazine decides. · 1988
Also known as: Hasselblad 553 ELX · Hasselblad 553elx · 553ELX · 553 ELX · Hasselblad 553ELX black · Hasselblad 553 ELS · 553ELS · ハッセルブラッド 553ELX
Variants & identification
| Variant | Mount | Years | Serial ranges | Production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 553ELX, chrome | Hasselblad V | 1988–1999 | — | — |
| 553ELX, black | Hasselblad V | 1988–1999 | — | — |
| 553ELS (NASA Space Shuttle body, modified 553ELX) | Hasselblad V | 1991 | RC1327935 (Christie's, sale 5144 lot 363) and RC1327938 (Leitz Auction 45, lot 383) — the two bodies seen at sale | Christie's lot essay says the camera was "one of eighteen" delivered to NASA in 1991 for astronaut training and that eighteen were "made available in 1999 by Hasselblad AB and were reconditioned after their return from NASA"; Leitz says NASA received "a limited number" in 1991 and that a series of only 18 was released to collectors in 1999. Whether the two eighteens are the same cameras is not stated. |
- Date-code scheme from Hasselblad Historical's dating page; ELS serials from the Christie's and Leitz Auction lot descriptions.
How to tell them apart
- '553ELX' nameplate on the front upper left; 'HASSELBLAD' across the finder surround
- Motor housing beneath the body shell, cast in magnesium alloy against the aluminium shell — the whole camera stands 150mm high with the hood folded (manual drawing)
- Five-position mode selector (AS, A, O, S, RS) on the front left — shared with the other EL bodies, so it separates the family from a 500C/M, not the 553ELX from a 500ELX
- Battery cover on the left of the motor housing with a coin-slot lock, battery-check button and two green lamps; no charging socket — the 553ELX is the first EL body to run on off-the-shelf AA cells (Hasselblad Historical: 'AA batteries instead of proprietary batteries')
- ISO selector dial (16–1000) with a flash symbol and covered 6-pin socket on the left body side, shared with the 500ELX and 503CX; absent on the 553ELS
- Red flash indicator lamp under the left edge of the focusing screen
- Palpas-lined interior — the matte anti-reflection material Hasselblad Historical names for the 1988 bodies; it cracks and flakes with age, and its presence separates a 553ELX from a 500ELX when the magazine is off
- Product numbers 10067 (chrome) and 10221 (black) on the 1992 manual's specification page
- Against the 555ELD of 1998: no databus contacts on the rear face, no IR receiver option, and the older mirror mechanism
553ELX, chrome:
- Product no. 10067 (the 1992 manual's specification page; Kamerastore quotes the same number)
- Satin-chrome trim with black leatherette; '553ELX' nameplate on the front upper left beside the finder
- Mode selector dial on the front left of the body with five positions — AS, A, O, S, RS — where a 500C/M has nothing
- Cast magnesium motor housing below the body shell, with a coin-slot battery cover on its left side and a battery-check button flanked by two green lamps
- Two parallel-wired release sockets on the front of the motor housing; LOT (O/T/L) lever at its rear; 5-pole DIN remote socket at the rear right
553ELX, black:
- Product no. 10221 per the 1992 manual's specification page — a B&H used listing carries the same number for a black body
- Black-finished trim in place of satin chrome; otherwise identical
553ELS (NASA Space Shuttle body, modified 553ELX):
- 'RC' letter prefix on both known bodies — see serial notes; under the standard key this decodes to 1985, three years before the 553ELX existed
- Leatherette replaced by thin metal plates (Leitz Auction lot description)
- TTL/OTF flash control removed (Leitz); no ISO selector to find
- Supplied with a 70mm magazine carrying a DE-32 data-imprinting unit (magazine nos. 33 EI 10422 and 33EC10464 on the two sets seen) and a space-modified Sonnar CF 150mm f/4 (lens nos. 8164394 and 8147752)
- RM-2 magnifying hood rather than a folding hood
- 553ELX, chrome: The standard finish. Sold as a body with focusing hood, Acute-Matte screen, fuses, carrying strap, front and rear covers, release plate and an FK 30 release cord, per the manual. The brochure distributed by Victor Hasselblad Inc. (Fairfield, New Jersey) names the 80mm Planar CF and A12 as the reference kit.
- 553ELX, black: A catalogued alternative finish from the start — the brochure says the body "is available with chrome or black trim". Kamerastore gives 10167 as a 553ELX product number, which does not match the manual; whether 10167 was an earlier black number or a dealer error is not established. No chrome-versus-black production split is published.
- 553ELS (NASA Space Shuttle body, modified 553ELX): English Wikipedia lists the 553ELX among the bases of the Space Shuttle-era cameras alongside the 500EL/M, 205TCC and 203FE. The 553ELS is known only through the 1999 collector release: Christie's sold RC1327935 in its South Kensington photographic sale 5144 (price not shown online); Leitz offered RC1327938 in Auction 45 with an estimate of €30,000–40,000 and did not sell it. Leitz's listing dates the body 1985, which is what the RC code yields under VHPICTURES and cannot be right for a 553ELX-based camera; the figure is recorded here as the auction house's, not as a manufacturing date. No Hasselblad or NASA document about the ELS has been found online.
Serial-range notes
- RR…, RE… (1988–1989); two-digit prefix + two letters from 1990
- 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, EE = 1999. From 1990 a two-digit product prefix precedes the letters (Hasselblad Historical, Q.G. de Bakker); the 553ELX's prefix has not been read off an observed body by any source consulted. The third-letter "E" that marked EL and EL/M bodies up to 1978 does not apply here.
- RC1327935, RC1327938 (553ELS)
- Both collector-release NASA bodies carry RC, which the standard key reads as 1985 — before the 553ELX was made — while their 70mm magazines (33 EI 10422 = 1994, 33EC10464 = 1995) decode normally. Either the ELS bodies were numbered outside the date-code scheme or the letters mean something else on NASA hardware; no source explains it.
Specifications
- Format
- 6×6cm nominal on 120 with the A12 magazine; 6×4.5 with the A16, 220 via the A24, 70mm perforated film in the 70 magazine, and Polaroid and sheet-film backs — the 1992 manual's specification page lists all of these. The body has no format of its own; 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; T via the body's LOT lever with the lens on B · flash sync all speeds (leaf shutter); PC terminal on the lens, TTL/OTF control via the body's 6-pin side socket · no self-timer
- Film advance
- Integral electric motor: pressing the release plate fires the lens shutter, then the motor lowers the mirror, cocks the shutter and auxiliary blinds and advances the film, at about 1.2 frames per second (manual and brochure). The mode selector gives O (single exposure), S (single exposure with pre-release — the dial springs back to O), RS (pre-release retained after every frame), A (continuous sequence at about one frame per second) and AS (continuous with pre-release). There is no crank: a dead battery or blown fuse leaves the camera inoperable, which is why the manual has the batteries and fuse as its first operating section.
- Back
- interchangeable magazines — A12, A24, A16, A16S, A12V, 70mm cassette with or without DE-32 data unit; Polaroid and sheet-film backs
- Meter
- None for ambient light. TTL/OTF flash metering only: a sensor in the body floor reads a 40mm-diameter circle off the film during exposure and quenches a Hasselblad Proflash 4504 directly, or any SCA 300- or SCA 500-system unit through an SCA 390 or SCA 590 adapter; ISO 16–1000 on the selector dial on the left body side. A red lamp under the left edge of the screen shows ready (steady) and correct exposure (blinking for just over a second). Ambient metering only through a PME-series prism.
- Motor drive
- built-in — integral motor and magnesium motor housing — Powered by five 1.5V AA (LR6, AM-3) alkaline cells or 1.2V NiCd equivalents, good for up to 4,000 exposures per set of alkalines above 0°C; NiCds give less than half that and are charged externally, lithium AAs are forbidden for their higher voltage and zinc-carbon discouraged for leakage (manual, "Battery Types"). A 5×20mm 1.6A medium-slow-blow fuse sits in the battery compartment with a spare hole beneath it. Circuit: 6–7.5V, 0.2A exposure current across pins 1 and 3 of the Preh 8-6404 remote socket; anything that closes those pins for 0.1s through less than 6 ohms fires the camera.
- Weight
- 1240 g
- Dimensions
- 119 × 100 × 150 (body only, hood folded); 203 high with the hood raised; 180 × 100 × 150 with 80mm Planar CF and A12 — the 1992 manual's dimension drawing mm
- Country
- Sweden
- Accessories
- Hasselblad Proflash 4504 (dedicated TTL flash); flash adapters SCA 390 and SCA 590 · Release cords FK 30 (0.3m, supplied) and FK 600 (6m) for the front sockets; LK and SK cords 1.5–5m for the DIN remote socket; interval timers and remote-control units · Prism finders PM, PME, PME3, PME5; RM-2 magnifying hood; sports viewfinder · Acute-Matte screens — plain, grid, split-image, microprism · Magazines A12, A24, A16, A16S, A12V, 70mm (with DE-32 data unit); Polaroid and sheet-film backs · Extension tubes, bellows, Mutar 2× and PC-Mutar shift converter (brochure) · Tripod quick-coupling plate; left-hand grip
Folding all-steel focusing hood with a magnifier, interchangeable with the PM and PME prisms, the metered PME3 and PME5, the RM-2 magnifying hood and the sports finder. Hasselblad Acute-Matte screen standard, footnoted in the manual and the brochure as designed by Minolta; user-changeable, with grid, split-image and microprism alternatives. The manual carries a compensation table: a PME3 or PME5 needs no correction on the Acute-Matte, an original PME must be set to half the film speed (or read one EV lower), and the reverse applies if an older ground-glass screen is fitted.
Figures we worked out rather than found: serial_notes — the RC-prefix reading of 1985 is the standard VHPICTURES decode applied by this entry; no source states it, and the conclusion drawn is only that the code cannot be a normal date
Where sources disagree
- First
- 1988 — Hasselblad Historical's model table, Hasselblad's 500-series history page, English and Japanese Wikipedia
- 1989 — Kamerastore and lens-db
Better supported: 1988
The 1989 figure is probably first full-year availability; the only manual found online is the 1992 printing.
- Last
- 1999 — Hasselblad Historical and English Wikipedia (553ELX 1988–1999)
- 1998 — implied by the 555ELD's start in Hasselblad Historical's table (555ELD 1998–2006); Japanese Wikipedia has the 555ELD from 1999
Better supported: 1999
An overlap year between the two models is the simplest reading.
- Weight (grams)
- 1240 g body only — the 1992 instruction manual and the Victor Hasselblad Inc. brochure (2 lb 11–12 oz; 2130 g with 80mm Planar CF and A12)
- 1019 g — Kamerastore's listing
Better supported: 1240
The manual's figure includes the motor housing; Kamerastore's may have been weighed without batteries or copied from another model.
- 553elx-black product number
- 10221 — the 1992 manual and a B&H used listing
- 10167 — Kamerastore
Better supported: 10221
- 553els-nasa years
- 1991 delivery to NASA — Christie's and Leitz lot descriptions
- 1985 — Leitz's catalogue year, evidently read from the RC serial prefix
Better supported: 1991
A 1985 date is impossible for a camera derived from a 1988 model; the RC prefix is unexplained.
What reviewers say
- photographyreview.com user reviews (six, 1999–2003) (blog) — 4.8 of 5 across six owner reviews: praised as the workhorse of the line and for the automatic mirror lock-up after each frame (Nathan Wong), faulted for weight, five odd batteries, a fragile coin-lock battery cover and a slow motor (Carl Hyndman); several note it is too loud for a wedding ceremony.
- Camera Solutions (YouTube short) (video) — The electric version of the 500/501/503 family, on AA cells or a 9V conversion; it adds weight and has more of a whine than the mechanical bodies.
- Domenico Pescosolido, 'Hasselblad 553ELX: Il suono del motore' (video) — Presents the 553ELX as a significant evolution of the EL line that mattered to professionals and enthusiasts alike, built around the sound and operation of the motor. via machine translation — corrections welcome
History
The motorised Hasselblad had been on sale since 1965, and by 1988 it had been through two revisions without changing its power supply. Hasselblad Historical’s model table gives the sequence: the 500EL of 1965–70 “in addition to the 500 C”, the 500EL/M of 1970–84 adding the user-changeable screen, the 500ELX of 1984–88 adding TTL/OTF flash control and a larger, non-vignetting mirror, and then the 553ELX of 1988–99, whose one-line entry reads “AA batteries instead of proprietary batteries. New Palpas coating inside the body to reduce flare”. Japanese Wikipedia says the same in its own words — TTL flash built in, the power source now five ordinary AA cells, Palpas for the interior. It was one of four bodies Hasselblad Historical lists as receiving Palpas in 1988, with the 503CX, 903SWC and 2003FCW, so the 553ELX is one part of a range-wide refresh; the battery change is what is particular to it.
The manual — the only edition found online carries a 1992 copyright — describes the power system in detail. Five 1.5V AA cells (LR6 or AM-3) sit behind a coin-locked cover on the left of the motor housing, with a 5×20mm 1.6A fuse and a spare hole beside them; a fresh alkaline set is rated for up to 4,000 exposures above 0°C, NiCd AAs give less than half that and are charged outside the camera, lithium cells are forbidden for their voltage and zinc-carbon discouraged for leakage. A battery-check button lights two green lamps for more than 40% remaining and one for 20–40%. The circuit diagram gives 6–7.5V and a 0.2A exposure current across pins 1 and 3 of the Preh 8-6404 DIN socket at the rear right of the housing, and the text says anything that closes those pins for a tenth of a second through less than 6 ohms will fire the camera — the basis of the remote and interval work the brochure sells.
The rest of the specification is the 500ELX’s, carried over. The body shell is aluminium alloy and the motor housing magnesium alloy, each cast in one piece; the exposure rate is about 1.2 frames per second, or about one per second in the continuous A mode; the five-position selector gives single exposure, single with pre-release (S, which springs back to O), pre-release retained (RS), continuous (A) and continuous with pre-release (AS). The flash system reads a 40mm circle off the film at ISO 16–1000, quenching a Proflash 4504 directly or SCA 300/500 units through the SCA 390 and 590 adapters, with the same red lamp under the screen edge as the 503CX. The Acute-Matte screen is standard and footnoted “Designed by Minolta”; the manual’s compensation table tells a PME owner to halve the film speed and a PME3 or PME5 owner to do nothing. Body weight is 1,240g, 2,130g with the 80mm Planar CF and A12 — both the manual and the American brochure agree — and the body stands 150mm high with the hood folded, 203mm with it raised. Kamerastore’s 1,019g and 139 × 119 × 98mm do not match and are recorded as disputed.
Identifying one is not difficult: the nameplate reads 553ELX, the mode selector on the front left has five positions, and the battery cover has no charging socket, because the cells are not charged in the camera. The 1992 manual lists the chrome body as product 10067 and the black as 10221 — a B&H used listing carries the same number — while Kamerastore’s 10167 is unexplained. The 555ELD that followed in 1998 (Hasselblad Historical; 1999 in Japanese Wikipedia) added databus contacts for digital backs, an optional infrared receiver and, per Japanese Wikipedia, a mirror support of the same design as the space cameras. The brochure, distributed by Victor Hasselblad Inc. of Fairfield, New Jersey, is undated and carries no price; no list price for the 553ELX in any currency has been found in a primary document.
The space connection is real but thinly documented. English Wikipedia lists the 553ELX among the bases of the Space Shuttle-era cameras, with the 500EL/M, 205TCC and 203FE. The derived body is the 553ELS, known through two examples sold at auction: Christie’s South Kensington lot 363 in sale 5144, no. RC1327935, described as one of eighteen cameras delivered to NASA in 1991 for astronaut training and one of eighteen “made available in 1999 by Hasselblad AB and … reconditioned after their return from NASA”; and Leitz Auction 45 lot 383, no. RC1327938, which Leitz says had its flash control removed and its leather replaced with thin metal plates, estimated at €30,000–40,000 and unsold. Both came with a 70mm magazine carrying a DE-32 data unit, a space-modified Sonnar CF 150mm f/4 and an RM-2 hood. Leitz dates its body 1985, which is what the RC prefix yields under the VHPICTURES key — an impossible year for a camera derived from a 1988 model, while the magazines’ 33 EI and 33EC prefixes decode normally to 1994 and 1995. The ELS bodies were evidently numbered outside the usual scheme, and no source explains how.
Owners’ verdicts are consistent across twenty-five years. The six reviews on photographyreview.com (1999–2003) call it the workhorse of the line and single out the automatic mirror lock-up after each frame as the thing a winder-equipped 503CW cannot do, against weight, five oddly numbered batteries, a fragile coin-lock cover and a slow motor; a 2024 dealer short notes the whine and the weight and mentions 9V conversions. Several things remain open. No production total has been published, nor a chrome-versus-black split. The 553ELX’s two-digit product prefix in serials from 1990 has not been read off an observed body. Whether an instruction manual earlier than the 1992 printing exists, what the 10167 product number was, how many 553ELS bodies were built as against released in 1999, and what the RC serial prefix means, are all unanswered by the sources consulted.
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
- Flickr — photos tagged '553elx'
- Flickr — photos tagged 'hasselblad553elx'
- Lomography — Hasselblad 553ELX camera page
- PBase — photos taken with the 553ELX
These photographers keep all rights to their work — enjoy it at the source.
Live listings
Asking price, USD: a median of $700 across 12 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $420–$1,000). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 3 days: unchanged from $700.
By day
| Date | Median | Middle half | Listings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-09-11 | $700 | $420–$1,000 | 12 |
| 2026-09-08 | $700 | $420–$1,000 | 12 |
| 2026-09-06 | $700 | $420–$1,000 | 12 |
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.