Hasselblad FlexBody
Hasselblad · Hasselblad V mount · 6×6cm on 120 with the A12 magazine; 6×4.5 with the A16/A16S; 220 via the A24. Any V-system magazine hooks onto the rear standard in place of the focusing-screen adapter. Kamerastore lists a format mask for the screen among the parts supplied with the camera. · 1995
Also known as: Hasselblad FlexBody · Hasselblad Flexbody · Hasselblad Flex Body · FlexBody 72109 · Hasselblad FLEXBODY · ハッセルブラッド フレックスボディ
Variants & identification
| Variant | Mount | Years | Serial ranges | Production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FlexBody (72109) | Hasselblad V | 1995–2003 | 451EU1143 (dealer-listed example — EU = 1997) 451ER1165 (dealer-listed example — ER = 1998) | No published figure. Nordin's Hasselblad Compendium (2011) is where a total would appear; none has been located online. |
- Movements per Kamerastore: tilt approximately ±28°, shift approximately ±14 (given as degrees on the page but evidently millimetres, as other dealers state); bellows extension 22mm, which also serves as a continuously variable extension tube for close-up work. Kamerastore warns that maximum tilt and shift together distort the bellows.
- Weight and dimensions are Kamerastore's; no manual or Hasselblad data sheet has been consulted directly.
How to tell them apart
- Bellows technical body with a V bayonet at the front — the ArcBody of 1997 is the same layout with a coupling-free bayonet for Rodenstock lenses and a longer body; a Zeiss C or CF lens on the front identifies a FlexBody
- Rear standard tilts and shifts; the front standard is fixed
- Product number 72109 on the box and dealer paperwork; the focusing-screen adapter is 72405
FlexBody (72109):
- Black metal body, roughly 140 × 140 × 110mm, with a fabric bellows between a front standard carrying a Hasselblad V bayonet and a rear standard that tilts and shifts (Kamerastore)
- Tilt scale in degrees and shift scale in millimetres on the rear-standard locking controls; no mirror, no finder on the body itself
- Front bayonet carries the V-system shutter coupling, so the lens's own leaf shutter is cocked and released through the body — unlike the ArcBody's coupling-free bayonet
- Rear standard takes any V magazine or the 72405 focusing-screen adapter (Acute-Matte screen with grid and split-image), which has a slot for the 10° and 20° correction screens and the 72411 stray-light protection slide
- Serials in Hasselblad's post-1990 form — numeric product prefix, two-letter VHPICTURES year code, then a running number (451EU1143, 451ER1165 on dealer listings)
- FlexBody (72109): The only model; no cosmetic or mechanical change during the run is recorded anywhere consulted. Sold as a set with the 72405 focusing-screen adapter, the two correction screens, the stray-light slide, a format mask, a cable release, a carrying case and a case for the adapter (Kamerastore's description of the original contents). Dealers write 'FlexBody CP' for the complete kit.
Serial-range notes
- 451EUxxxx, 451ERxxxx and the like
- Hasselblad Historical's dating page gives the rule for all bodies of this period — a numeric product prefix followed by two letters read with VHPICTURES (V=1 H=2 P=3 I=4 C=5 T=6 U=7 R=8 E=9 S=0) — so the dealer-listed 451EU1143 is a 1997 body and 451ER1165 a 1998 one. No FlexBody-specific serial block or total has been published.
Specifications
- Format
- 6×6cm on 120 with the A12 magazine; 6×4.5 with the A16/A16S; 220 via the A24. Any V-system magazine hooks onto the rear standard in place of the focusing-screen adapter. Kamerastore lists a format mask for the screen among the parts supplied with the camera.
- Finder
- removable focusing-screen adapter (72405) with an Acute-Matte screen carrying a grid and split-image rangefinder, used in place of the magazine and exchanged for it before exposure; V-system hoods, prism finders and meter-prisms fit on top of it
- Shutter
- none in body — exposure by the leaf shutter in the lens; the body cocks and releases it through the V bayonet coupling, and a viewing lever holds the shutter open for focusing on the screen adapter · 1–1/500 s, B, as on the C / CF / CFi / CFE lenses used · flash sync all speeds (leaf shutter), via the lens's sync terminal
- Film advance
- manual, by a winding crank on the body that drives the magazine and cocks the lens shutter; one frame per cycle
- Back
- interchangeable V-system magazines — A12, A16, A16S, A24, 70mm and Polaroid backs — alternating with the 72405 focusing-screen adapter on the same supports
- Meter
- none in body; metering by a meter-prism finder on the focusing-screen adapter, or externally
- Motor drive
- Not compatible — No motor provision; tripod working with a cable release is assumed throughout.
- Weight
- 700 g
- Dimensions
- 140 × 140 × 110 (Kamerastore; the manual's own figure has not been checked) mm
- Country
- Sweden
- Accessories
- 72405 Focusing screen adapter (Acute-Matte screen with grid and split-image; slot for correction screens) · 72413 / 72415 Correction screens 10° and 20° · 72411 Stray-light protection slide · Format mask for the screen, cable release, carrying case and adapter case (supplied with the body, per Kamerastore) · All V-system magazines, hoods, prism and meter-prism finders
Two wedge-type correction screens (10° and 20°) restore screen brightness under tilt; a stray-light protection slide (72411) is also supplied. The same 7241x part numbers appear in the ArcBody manual's accessory list, so the two bodies share the slide system.
Where sources disagree
- First
- 1995 (Hasselblad Historical model table, compiled from Nordin; Kamerastore; lens-db)
- 1994 (camera-wiki.org, Hasselblad page, which gives no end date)
- 1996 (a dealer summary, possibly first deliveries)
Better supported: 1995 (Hasselblad Historical model table)
- Tilt range
- approximately ±28° (Kamerastore; usedphotopro)
- ±30° (a dealer description found in search results)
Better supported: approximately ±28° (Kamerastore)
The manual's specification table would settle this; it has not been consulted.
What reviewers say
- Darlene Almeda (Photoscapes), still life in 2026 (blog) — "Every time I open that little blue Hasselblad case, I cannot help but smile": 6 mm of rise and 4° of tilt set by eye on a tabletop, and 22 mm of bellows that make it a close-up camera. Slow and deliberate by nature — one finished frame was an afternoon's work including the retouching.
- Yaal Herman, five years with V cameras and digital backs (blog) — "Hasselblad Flexbody is no less than a magic tool for commercial/technical photographers": shift, tilt and macro in a body that fits a camera bag and doubles as a backup. The cocking lever "takes a long hard curve," and a digital back in zero-latency mode runs warm and drains fast.
History
The FlexBody was the first of two bellows bodies Hasselblad built for the V system in the 1990s. Hasselblad Historical’s model table, which is compiled from Nordin’s Compendium, lists it from 1995 to 2003 with the one-line description “tilt and shift, bellows”; camera-wiki’s Hasselblad page starts it in 1994 and gives no end. The idea was to give the existing 6×6 system the movements of a view camera without new lenses: a fabric bellows connects a fixed front standard carrying an ordinary Hasselblad V bayonet to a rear standard that tilts and shifts, and any V magazine hooks onto the back. Kamerastore’s description puts it as a bridge between the simplicity of medium format and the versatility of a large-format view camera, and that is a fair statement of the brief.
The figures come from dealer descriptions rather than a manual, and are hedged accordingly. Kamerastore gives tilt of approximately ±28° and shift of approximately ±14 — printed as degrees, though usedphotopro and others give the shift as ±14mm, which is what a shift figure must be. One dealer summary says ±30° of tilt. The bellows extends 22mm, which Kamerastore notes makes the body a continuously variable extension tube, so close-up work needs no further equipment; it also warns that maximum tilt and shift together will distort the bellows and that the bellows should be kept at neutral when not in use. The body is black metal, about 140 × 140 × 110mm and 700g by Kamerastore’s numbers. Because there is no mirror, viewing is by a removable focusing-screen adapter (72405) with an Acute-Matte screen carrying a grid and split-image, which sits where the magazine sits and is exchanged for it before the exposure. Two wedge-type correction screens, 10° and 20°, restore screen brightness under tilt, and a stray-light protection slide (72411) is supplied. The 7241x numbers reappear in the ArcBody manual’s accessory list, so the two bodies share the slide system.
The lens compatibility is the point of the design and also its limit. Kamerastore names “all Hasselblad V-system C and CF lenses” — the leaf-shutter lenses, cocked and fired through the bayonet coupling; the later CFi, CFE and CB lenses share the same mount and shutter but no consulted source lists them expressly, and the shutterless F and FE lenses have nothing to expose with. Japanese Wikipedia’s account has the FlexBody working best with 100–150mm lenses for product photography, which follows from the optics: a retrofocus 6×6 wide-angle throws an image circle barely larger than the frame, so there is little to shift into, whereas the longer Planars and Sonnars have room. Hasselblad’s answer, in 1997, was the ArcBody, whose manual describes itself as “a broadening of the revolutionary thinking that created the Hasselblad FlexBody” and which abandoned the V bayonet for three Rodenstock large-format wide-angles. Wildi’s Hasselblad Manual (6th ed., 2003) treats both bodies in a single chapter.
Identification is straightforward, since there is one model, product 72109, and no change during the run is recorded. Serials on dealer listings — 451EU1143, 451ER1165 — follow the rule Hasselblad Historical’s dating page gives for the period: a numeric product prefix, then two letters read with VHPICTURES, so EU is 1997 and ER is 1998. Dealers write “FlexBody CP” for the complete kit, which Kamerastore says originally included the screen adapter, the two correction screens, the stray-light slide, a format mask, a cable release, a carrying case and a case for the adapter.
What remains unknown is most of the commercial record. No launch price in any currency has been found, no production total has been published, and no designer is named in any source consulted. The exact tilt limit — 28° or 30° — and whether the shift is symmetrical or, as on the ArcBody, in one direction with the camera inverted for the other, would be settled by the instruction manual, which has not been read for this entry. The 1994 start on camera-wiki against 1995 on Hasselblad Historical, and the 2003 end that only Hasselblad Historical gives, also await a primary date.
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.
Live listings
Asking price, USD: a median of $3,000 across 9 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $2,700–$3,200). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 2 days: unchanged from $3,000.
By day
| Date | Median | Middle half | Listings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-09-11 | $3,000 | $2,700–$3,200 | 9 |
| 2026-09-06 | $3,000 | $2,700–$3,200 | 9 |
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.