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

Hasselblad 905SWC

Hasselblad · Fixed lens · 55×55mm per the Zeiss CFi data sheet (56×56 nominal) on 120; 6×4.5 via the A16, 220 via the A24, Polaroid via the Polaroid magazine — 'all different types of Hasselblad film magazines for 120, 220 and Polaroid type films with 6x6 cm and 6x4.5 cm image formats' (905SWC manual) · 2001

Also known as: Hasselblad 905SWC · Hasselblad 905 SWC · Hasselblad 905-SWC · Hasselblad SWC 905 · Hasselblad 905SWC Biogon CFi 38mm · Hasselblad 905SWC CFi · ハッセルブラッド 905SWC · ハッセルブラッド905SWC

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
905SWC with Biogon T* 4.5/38 CFi (10304) Hasselblad V 2001–2006 Numeric product prefix plus two year letters plus digits: VV (2001), VH (2002), VP (2003), VI (2004), VC (2005), VT (2006) via VHPICTURES (Hasselblad Historical) Not published
  1. Kit contents from the 905SWC instruction manual (M. Butkus library); year letters from Hasselblad Historical; lens data from the Zeiss CFi data sheet 10 49 42.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • A fixed 38mm Biogon CFi on a short non-reflex body with top release and time-exposure lock, right-hand folding crank, and the 52036 finder locked in the shoe
  • 905SWC on the front plate; 'Biogon 4.5/38 T*' with CFi barrel styling — squarer rubber grips than the CF, printed scales in one colour
  • Plastic (Makrolon) front filter bayonet where the 903's is metal (Ken Rockwell)
  • Supplied lens shade 40668 bayoneted to the front; a 903 seldom has one
  • Otherwise the 903SWC's shell: no body level, Palpas interior, one-piece cast housing
  • Listing trap: the lens is the whole difference from a 903; a body plate reading 903SWC with a CFi lens is not a 905 but a repair

905SWC with Biogon T* 4.5/38 CFi (10304):

  • 905SWC on the front plate; chrome trim (product no. 10304 — the only number the manual and Kamerastore give)
  • Biogon T* 4.5/38 CFi: CFi-style barrel with blocky rubber grips on focusing and aperture rings, feet and metre scales in the same colour, Makrolon (plastic) Bay 60 filter mount, PC flash terminal on the lens (Ken Rockwell; ePHOTOzine)
  • Lens shade 40668 ø60/38 supplied and bayoneted to the front — the first Superwide to come with one (905SWC manual)
  • Viewfinder 52036 as on the 903: built-in level, locking shoe, corner marks for 6×4.5, crescent bifocal for the scales
  • Lens ring 'Made in Germany'; the rear group is the recomputed lead- and arsenic-free glass — invisible from outside, but the Zeiss CFi sheet's 19.0 mm back focal distance against the CF sheet's 18.8 mm confirms a different prescription

Serial-range notes

Product prefix + VV… to VT…
Body serials carry the year in two letters via VHPICTURES (V=1 H=2 P=3 I=4 C=5 T=6 U=7 R=8 E=9 S=0): VV = 2001, VH = 2002, VP = 2003, VI = 2004, VC = 2005, VT = 2006; a numeric product code precedes them (Hasselblad Historical). Bodies lettered VU (2007) or later would bear on the disputed end date.
Lens serial (7 digits, front ring)
Zeiss serials are placed only against Nordin's tables (Hasselblad Historical); the red-ink date code inside the rear mount is unreachable on a fixed lens.

Specifications

Format
55×55mm per the Zeiss CFi data sheet (56×56 nominal) on 120; 6×4.5 via the A16, 220 via the A24, Polaroid via the Polaroid magazine — 'all different types of Hasselblad film magazines for 120, 220 and Polaroid type films with 6x6 cm and 6x4.5 cm image formats' (905SWC manual) · 12 on 120 (A12); 16 at 6×4.5 (A16); 24 on 220 (A24) exposures
Finder
Direct-view optical finder 52036, removable, locking shoe; transparent spirit level built into the top of the finder, displayed beneath the image area; crescent-shaped bifocal at the foot of the field reads the lens scales · 0.23× magnification · none — the finder 'shows an image that is slightly larger than the image recorded on the film'; its centre is about 7.5 cm above the lens axis (905SWC manual) parallax correction · no rangefinder image
Shutter
none in body — a non-reflex camera, so no mirror and no flaps; exposure by the Prontor leaf shutter in the fixed Biogon CFi · 1s–1/500, B; time-exposure/TTL-viewing lock (O/T) around the top-mounted release holds the shutter open · flash sync all speeds (leaf shutter); X only, PC terminal on the lens · no self-timer
Film advance
Fold-out crank on the right; one turn advances the film and cocks the shutter; the crank is on a ratchet and is pumped up and down when a Polaroid magazine blocks a full turn (905SWC manual)
Back
interchangeable magazines — A12, A16, A24, Polaroid magazine; Focusing screen adapter SWC 41050 in place of the magazine
Meter
none
Motor drive
Not compatible
Weight
940 g
Dimensions
113 × 112 × 126 body with lens, no finder (Kamerastore, matching Ken Rockwell's 903 measurements of the same shell) mm
Country
Sweden (body); lens made in Germany by Carl Zeiss, Oberkochen
Original price
About US$6,000 new, per Ken Rockwell (who gives no year); Kamerastore's 'average certified condition price' in 2026 is US$5,205. No Hasselblad price list for the 905 has been found
Accessories
Viewfinder SWC 52036 (supplied) · Lens shade 40668 ø60/38 (supplied) — bayonets to the lens front, indexed vertically · Focusing screen adapter SWC 41050 — fits in place of the magazine, takes any Hasselblad hood or prism; the Zeiss CFi sheet gives focusing to 20 cm in front of the lens with it · Meter prism finders PME45 and PME90 on the focusing screen adapter (905SWC manual) · Bay 60 filters and lens shades on the front bayonet · Front protective cover 51643, rear protective cover 51070, standard strap 59110 — supplied · Magazines A12, A16, A24, Polaroid magazine; tripod quick-coupling for the plate, 1/4 in and 3/8 in sockets

Corner marks for the 6×4.5 format and a centre mark; the level reads 1° per millimetre of bubble travel, so a bubble inside the centre circle means less than 1° off level; rubber eyecup folds forward; spectacles can be worn (905SWC manual). Magnification per Ken Rockwell. Through-the-lens viewing via the Focusing screen adapter SWC 41050 with any Hasselblad hood or prism; PME45 and PME90 meter directly on that screen, PME3/5/51 also read correctly, older meter prisms need 1–2 stops taken off.

Figures we worked out rather than found: finders[0].magnification — 0.23× is Ken Rockwell's figure for the 52036 finder, carried from the 903SWC; Hasselblad publishes none · dimensions_mm — Kamerastore's 113 × 112 × 126 mm is identical to Rockwell's measurement of a 903 body, so it may be carried rather than measured

Where sources disagree

First
  • 2001 — Hasselblad Historical; Japanese, English and German Wikipedia; Kamerastore; Ken Rockwell (28 August 2001); Zeiss CFi sheet printed 16.08.2001
  • 2003 — Swedish Wikipedia ('905SWC (2003–nutid)')

Better supported: 2001

Last
  • 2006 — Hasselblad Historical; English and German Wikipedia
  • 2009 — Ken Rockwell ('28 August 2001 ~ 2009: 905 SWC')
  • Still current — Swedish Wikipedia, in an article not updated since

Better supported: 2006

Hasselblad kept selling V-system bodies until 2013, so a 2006 end for the 905 means it left the catalogue several years before the 503CW. Bodies with year letters VU (2007) or later would settle it; none has been reported here.

Body finish
  • Chrome only, product no. 10304 — the 905SWC instruction manual's parts list; Kamerastore ('metal body available in silver (10304)')
  • Chrome or black — Ken Rockwell, who applies the phrase to every SWC generation

Better supported: Chrome only, 10304

Lens quality against the 903's CF Biogon
  • 'Slightly poorer', 'watered-down', 'not quite as good as the original, but close enough' — Ken Rockwell, untested by him
  • 'Extraordinary sharpness and brilliance … max. distortion of the Biogon CFi lens is far less than 0.1 mm' — the 905SWC manual; the Zeiss CFi sheet's MTF curves are the only measured data

The two Zeiss sheets (CF 10 48 67, CFi 10 49 42) publish MTF at f/4.5 and f/8 for both lenses and would allow a direct comparison; none has been made here.

What reviewers say

History

The 905SWC is the 903SWC with a different lens, and the lens is different for a reason that has nothing to do with photography. Hasselblad Historical’s table puts it in one sentence: “The Biogon had to be recalculated for new environmentally friendly lens materials. Now comes as a CFi lens.” Ken Rockwell gives the mechanism — the leaded glass of the original Biogon was removed “to aid the health of those who working around the lens’ grinding and polishing stages” — and Japanese Wikipedia says the same in one word, 無鉛化, made lead-free. The recomputation can be read off Zeiss’s own sheets. The CF sheet (Cat. No. 10 48 67) gives a back focal distance of 18.8 mm, principal planes at 23.5 and 19.9 mm, exit pupil 21.6 mm in front of the last vertex and 76.2 mm between first and last vertex; the CFi sheet (10 49 42, printed 16 August 2001) gives 19.0, 23.9, 19.6, 21.9 and 76.1 mm. Element and group counts, focal length (38.6 mm), field (72° by 72°, 91° diagonal) and close focus (0.3 m) are unchanged. It is a new prescription in the old layout, not a new design.

The rest of the CFi package is what Hasselblad had introduced across the lens line in 1998. An ePHOTOzine news item on the launch — reachable here only as a search snippet — quotes Hasselblad on “smoother focusing, improved flash PC contact, filter and lens shade interfaces, improved ergonomics and greater durability of leaf shutter mainspring”. Rockwell adds the two changes an owner notices: the metal Bay 60 filter mount became Makrolon plastic, and the feet and metre scales became the same colour. The manual’s parts list shows the one addition to the kit — 10304 905SWC camera body, chrome, supplied with the Biogon CFi 4.5/38, viewfinder 52036, standard strap 59110, lens shade 40668 (38–60), front protective cover 51643 and rear protective cover 51070. No earlier Superwide came with a shade.

Everything else is the 903. The manual describes “the only model that is not a single lens reflex type”, the lens “permanently attached to the short and very robust die cast metal housing”, a detachable optical finder with a built-in spirit level accurate to “1° for each mm of bubble travel”, a finder centre “about 7.5 cm (3 in.) above the centre of the lens area”, the ratcheting crank pumped up and down when a Polaroid magazine blocks a full turn, and the Focusing screen adapter SWC 41050 for through-the-lens viewing with any Hasselblad finder, the PME45 and PME90 metering directly on it. Kamerastore gives 113 × 112 × 126 mm and 940 g, which are Rockwell’s measurements of a 903 body to the millimetre and the gram, and lists the same Prontor shutter, 1 s to 1/500 with B and T, and a five-bladed diaphragm.

The dates are less settled than they look. Rockwell gives 28 August 2001 for the launch, and the Zeiss sheet’s print date two weeks earlier fits; Hasselblad Historical and English and German Wikipedia end the camera in 2006, Rockwell in 2009, and Swedish Wikipedia has it beginning in 2003 and still current. Hasselblad went on selling V-system bodies until 2013, so an end in 2006 means the Superwide left the catalogue seven years before the 503CW did. Body serials would settle it — VHPICTURES gives VV for 2001 through VT for 2006, and a VU body would be a 2007 camera — but none has been reported in the sources used here. Nor has a black 905 been found in any Hasselblad document: the manual lists only 10304 chrome, Kamerastore knows only silver, and Rockwell’s “chrome or black” is a phrase he attaches to every generation.

The price is known only loosely. Rockwell says the 905 “sold for $8,000 new when considering inflation in 2016 ($6,000 at the time)”, without saying which year “the time” is; Kamerastore’s average certified price in 2026 is $5,205, above what a 903 fetches. That reversal is the centre of Rockwell’s verdict: a camera he calls great, marked “AVOID” because the recomputed lens is, in his untested judgement, “slightly poorer” and the camera costs more than the earlier bodies with the original glass. The Zeiss sheets publish MTF at f/4.5 and f/8 for both computations, so the claim could be checked against measured curves; it has not been, here or in any source consulted.

What remains open is nearly everything a collector would want: the launch venue and list price, production totals, whether a black body was ever catalogued, the true end of production, and a curve-by-curve comparison of the CF and CFi sheets. Hasselblad Historical hosts a 905 SWC brochure (about 2.4 MB) that was not fetched; Nordin’s 2011 Compendium is the printed source most likely to hold the answers, and neither has been read for this entry.

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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.

Example photos

More sample photos elsewhere

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Sample photo wanted — shot with a Hasselblad 905SWC? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $6,200 across 4 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-06 (middle half $5,900–$6,200). 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 903SWC · Hasselblad SWC/M · Hasselblad SWC · Hasselblad SWA / SW (Supreme Wide Angle / Super Wide)

Lenses for this body: Biogon 38mm f/4.5

Sources (17)

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.