Hasselblad H2
Hasselblad · Hasselblad H mount · 6×4.5cm on 120 or 220 roll film in the HM 16-32 magazine (16 frames on 120, 32 on 220); instant film via the HMi 100 magazine; digital backs — Hasselblad/Imacon CFH and third-party Phase One and Leaf backs — on the H interface. · 2005
Also known as: Hasselblad H2 · Hasselblad H-2 · Hasselblad H2 645 · Hasselblad H2 film camera · ハッセルブラッド H2
Variants & identification
| Variant | Mount | Years | Serial ranges | Production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hasselblad H2 | Hasselblad H | 2005–2007 | — | No figure published |
- Mechanical and optical specifications are carried from the H1, which every source describes as physically identical; only the firmware changed.
How to tell them apart
- Externally an H1 with a different model name; the change is in the firmware
- Single on/off switch and one menu system shared with an Ixpress CFH back — the feature Hasselblad announced the camera for
- Listing trap: an upgraded H1 is functionally an H2 but still says H1; a body sold as an H2 with a CF-slot back that will not come off is an H2D
Hasselblad H2:
- 'H2' on the body in place of 'H1'; otherwise identical outside — Hasselblad product code 3013100 for the body (B&H listing)
- Firmware identifies the model on the grip display; an H1 upgraded by a service centre reports as an H2 while still engraved H1
- Grey-and-black finish, removable battery grip with LCD, HM 16-32 magazine, HV 90x prism — all shared with the H1
- Hasselblad H2: The only film-capable H2. The H2D announced beside it carried an integrated Hasselblad/Imacon back with a CompactFlash slot that could not be exchanged for a film magazine (Hasselblad Historical), and is a digital camera outside this catalogue.
Specifications
- Format
- 6×4.5cm on 120 or 220 roll film in the HM 16-32 magazine (16 frames on 120, 32 on 220); instant film via the HMi 100 magazine; digital backs — Hasselblad/Imacon CFH and third-party Phase One and Leaf backs — on the H interface.
- Finder
- Interchangeable — HV 90x 90° eye-level AE prism finder with built-in flash; HVM waist-level finder · 2.7× magnification · 97% coverage
- Shutter
- None in the body — exposure by the electronically controlled leaf shutter in each HC lens · 18 hours (64,800 s) to 1/800 s, B and T · flash sync All speeds (leaf shutter); built-in TTL flash, guide number 12, in the prism; hot shoe · self-timer
- Film advance
- Built-in motor, up to about 2 frames per second; no manual advance
- Back
- Interchangeable magazines — HM 16-32 (120/220), HMi 100 instant film, and digital backs on the H interface, the CFH backs now powered from the camera's own battery
- Meter
- TTL through the prism — spot, centre-weighted and average, EV 1–21 at ISO 100 (spot from EV 2 per camera-wiki's H1 figures); TTL phase-detection autofocus, EV 1–19, single and continuous. Unchanged from the H1.
- Motor drive
- Compatible — Built in; three CR123A cells in the grip or the rechargeable lithium-ion grip. On the H2 the same battery also powers a CFH digital back (Photography Blog).
- Weight
- 715 g
- Dimensions
- 145 × 114 × 88 (body — the H1's figures from Fujifilm's GX645AF specification, the two bodies being physically identical) mm
- Country
- Sweden
- Accessories
- HV 90x AE prism finder with built-in flash; HVM waist-level finder · HM 16-32 roll-film magazine; HMi 100 instant-film magazine — a film magazine is said to have cost about $2,000 at the time of the H2 (mrleica.com) · Battery grip for three CR123A cells; rechargeable lithium-ion grip · Imacon Ixpress CFH digital backs, powered from the camera; Phase One and Leaf backs also mount · HC lenses 35, 50, 80, 100, 120 macro, 150, 210, 300 and the 50–110 zoom
The finders are the H1's; figures are Fujifilm's for the identical GX645AF prism (97% coverage, 2.7×, −4.0 to +2.5 dioptres).
Where sources disagree
- First
- 2005 — Hasselblad Historical's table; Hasselblad's own release, quoted by Photography Blog, promised rollout in Q3 2005
- 2006 — Matt Osborne (mrleica.com)
Better supported: 2005
The 2006 date probably reflects when bodies became common rather than the announcement
- Last
- 2006 — Hasselblad Historical's table
- 2007 — the H2F was announced as the H2's replacement on 18 October 2007 (photomediaonline)
The table may record the last year of manufacture and the announcement the end of sale; both can be right
What reviewers say
- Matt Osborne (Leica Blog), H2 with the film back (blog) — "Sharp images shot wide open. Easy and fun to operate. Reliable results": a 645 SLR for portrait and wedding work that still takes V-series Zeiss glass through an adapter. Battery- dependent where a 500-series is not, and 6×4.5 rather than the square.
- Michael Reichmann (Luminous Landscape) (blog) — "The H1 / H2 are the most advanced cameras yet available": user profiles recall a whole configuration on one button, and the manual is written in real English. It ships only as a PDF on an $8,000 camera, and third-party backs misbehave — a Phase One back turned off first stops the camera shutting down.
History
The H2 is the H1 with new firmware. Hasselblad Historical’s table gives it three words — “Improved Firmware” — and dates it 2005–2006; Hasselblad’s own announcement, quoted by Photography Blog, describes a “cross-platform camera” built on the H1 and promises rollout through the company’s subsidiaries and channel partners in the third quarter of 2005. The 2009 Hasselblad Info blog and a DPReview thread agree on what that meant in practice: the two cameras are identical outside, the differences are in the firmware, and an H1 could be upgraded to an H2 by an authorised service centre. Everything mechanical on this page — the 18-hour-to-1/800 leaf shutter in the lens, the HM 16-32 magazine, the HV 90x prism, the 715 g body — is therefore the H1’s, carried over on the strength of that identity.
What the firmware did was tie the body to Hasselblad’s new digital backs. Shriro, Hasselblad’s owner, had bought Imacon in 2004 and put the Hasselblad name on Imacon’s backs (Hasselblad Historical); the H2 announcement’s central feature was “single-battery operation” with the new Ixpress CFH back — one on/off switch and one operating system for camera and back together (Photography Blog). On an H1 a CFH back needed its own power and its own controls. The H2 still mounted third-party backs from Phase One and Leaf, so the open platform survived this generation, but the direction was set: the H2D announced beside it carried an integrated Hasselblad/Imacon back with a CompactFlash slot that could not be swapped for a film magazine (Hasselblad Historical), and the H3D of 2006 was designed as a digital camera from the start.
For a film photographer the H2 offers exactly what the H1 does. The HM 16-32 magazine takes 16 frames on 120 or 32 on 220, the lenses are the Fuji-built HC range from 35mm to 300mm with the 50–110 zoom, autofocus and metering are unchanged, and the built-in motor runs at about 2 frames a second. Matt Osborne’s review notes that at the time of the H2 a film magazine alone was said to cost about $2,000, which gives some sense of the system’s pricing; no launch price for the H2 body has been found. Osborne also dates the camera to 2006, against Hasselblad Historical’s 2005 and the Q3 2005 rollout in the announcement — most likely the year bodies became common rather than the year of release.
Identification is a matter of firmware rather than metal. The body says H2 where an H1 says H1, and Hasselblad’s product code for the body is 3013100 (B&H’s listing). Because an upgraded H1 behaves as an H2 while still engraved H1, and because the H2D’s back does not come off, a listing needs to be checked for both: a “film H2” is either an H2 body or an upgraded H1, and an H2 whose back has a CF-card slot and no dark slide is an H2D.
When the H2 ended is the main disagreement. Hasselblad Historical closes it in 2006, while the film-only H2F was announced on 18 October 2007 as a simplified, cheaper replacement for the H2 (photomediaonline) — which implies the H2 was still on sale, or at least still in the price list, a year after the table’s end date. Both may be true if the table records manufacture and the announcement records the end of sale. No production figure is published, the serial scheme is undocumented in the sources consulted, and whether the H2 firmware was the final version offered to H1 owners is not stated.
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 $680 across 5 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $530–$990). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 2 days: unchanged from $680.
By day
| Date | Median | Middle half | Listings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-09-11 | $680 | $530–$990 | 5 |
| 2026-09-06 | $680 | $530–$990 | 5 |
Asking prices from the listings scanned, not sales; junk-flagged rows and auction lots excluded; other currencies are not converted.
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- HASSELBLAD H2 HM 16-32 80MM PHASEONE P40+ EXTRAS
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- Hasselblad H2 Body w/ HV90X Viewfinder
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- REDUCED Hasselblad H2 Medium Format Camera Body & Phase One P30 Back Grey/Black
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Listings updated 2026-09-11. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.