Hasselblad MK70

Hasselblad Engineering AB · Fixed lens · 6×6 on 70mm perforated film in dedicated Magazine 70 MK backs (Leitz Auction lot with two 70mm magazines; Jo Geier lists a 'Magazine 70 f. MK70 Metric Camera'); Collectiblend also gives 70mm, 6×6. Whether a standard 120 magazine can be fitted over the réseau plate is not stated by any consulted source · 1974

Also known as: Hasselblad MK70 · Hasselblad MK 70 · Hasselblad MK-70 · MK70 metric camera · Hasselblad photogrammetric camera · Hasselblad Engineering MK70

Variants & identification

Variant	Mount	Years	Serial ranges	Production
MK70 with Biogon 5.6/60 MK, réseau plate, Magazine 70	Hasselblad V	1974	UIE21534 (1974, third letter E as on EL/M bodies of the period) — Leitz Auction lot AI-13-17026; with Biogon 5198308 and 70mm magazines UI400698, UI400656 The body number sits inside the 500EL/M sequence (a Japanese products list starts EL/M numbering at 15075), consistent with the MK70 being built from EL/M bodies rather than numbered separately — inference from one example UIE21541 (1974) — Leitz Auction 14 lot 465; camera also numbered 1182, with Planar 3.5/100 no.5196295 and 70mm magazines UP400578, UI400678 RV1320856 (1981) — Leitz Auction 15 lot 448; with Planar 3.5/100 no.6785178 and 70mm magazine RP362682 RV1320870 (1981) — Leitz Auction 18 lot 289; with Biogon 5.6/60 T* no.2599337 and 70mm magazine UV400449 61029, catalogued c.1990 and carrying no year letters — Leitz Auction 29 lot 324, the yellow-leatherette camera, also numbered 1432, with MK Biogon 5.6/60 no.5225885 and A24 magazines 30SU15728 and 30SU15729	Not published. 500 or 600 is claimed in a Photrio thread seen only in a search summary; Leitz Auction calls the camera a 'rare special metric version'. No factory figure has been found

A production figure exists, from one auction house rather than from Hasselblad: Leitz Auction 29, lot 324, states that "in total 400-500 MK were produced, very few with Yellow leather". The Photrio thread's 500 or 600 is of the same order. No factory total has been found.
Dated bodies put the MK70 in production in 1974 and 1981, so its span covers at least those years; Hasselblad Historical's model table and camera-wiki give no dates for it at all.
The 100mm MK Planar was delivered on complete cameras, which answers a question left open in the prose: Leitz Auction 14 lot 465 pairs body UIE21541 with a "grey Planar 3.5/100mm no.5196295", and auction 15 lot 448 pairs body RV1320856 with a "CF Opton Planar 3.5/100mm no.6785178".
Dating rests on one auction lot; year letters from Hasselblad Historical's dating page. Collectiblend's 1981 and the Photrio thread's 1971 have not been traced to a primary source.

How to tell them apart (expand)

500EL/M body with a 60mm Biogon whose rear group enters the mirror box, a réseau plate at the film plane, dedicated 70mm magazines and a separate optical finder 65021
Sold and described everywhere as 'the commercial version of the Hasselblad 500 EL Data Camera used by NASA for the lunar missions' (Leitz Auction) — the NASA cameras themselves are silver or black HDC/HEDC bodies with no MK engraving

MK70 with Biogon 5.6/60 MK, réseau plate, Magazine 70:

A 500EL/M body — motor housing beneath, AS·A·O·S·SR selector on the right — carrying a Biogon 5.6/60 whose rear group reaches into the body; the lens does not fit a standard 500-series camera (Photrio thread on the 60mm Biogon in the MK70; Hasselblad's own lens guide lists the MK lenses 'for the MK70 photogrammetric camera only')
Réseau plate at the film plane, engraved with a grid of fine crosses that print on every frame; on the MKWE the plate carries the body's serial number (Japan Camera Hunter) — check the MK70 plate for the same
Dedicated 70mm magazines rather than A12s; a special optical viewfinder, part 65021, listed by Jo Geier as 'MK-70 65021 Optical Viewfinder' and by Leitz Auction as a 'special viewfinder for MK70'
The alternative lens is a Planar 3.5/100 MK, fixed-focused at infinity (Hasselblad lens guide); no example of an MK70 delivered with it has been found

MK70 with Biogon 5.6/60 MK, réseau plate, Magazine 70: The one configuration every consulted source agrees on: Leitz Auction's 2013 lot (AI-13-17026) is a 1974 body with Biogon 5.6/60 'with auto diaphragm control', two 70mm magazines, the special finder and a fitted outfit case, sold for €4,560 including premium against a €2,000–2,500 estimate. Hasselblad's lens guide gives the 60mm MK Biogon a closest focus of 0.9 m and says a special body was needed for the 60 and 100 mm MK lenses. Whether the lens is removable — it sits in the V bayonet, but no other body clears its rear group — is why this entry treats the camera as fixed-lens.

Serial-range notes

The first two letters of the serial number: The rule for dating any Hasselblad, and it works on this camera. Every Hasselblad camera and film magazine carries a two- or three-letter code in front of, or built into, the serial number, and the first two letters give the year through the word VHPICTURES: V=1, H=2, P=3, I=4, C=5, T=6, U=7, R=8, E=9, S=0. The two digits are the decade and the year — UI reads 74, RV reads 81. A code from 50 to 99 takes the prefix 19; a code below 50 takes 20, so SU is 2007 and not 1907. A third letter marks the product, never the year, and from 1990 a two-digit number precedes the letters for the same purpose. Q.G. de Bakker sets the scheme out on Hasselblad Historical and traces it to Kodak's CAMEROSITY.
Two letters + product letter + five digits (UIE21534): Body serials carry the year in the first two letters via VHPICTURES (V=1 H=2 P=3 I=4 C=5 T=6 U=7 R=8 E=9 S=0): UI = 1974. The third letter E is the product letter appended to EL-family bodies up to 1978 (Hasselblad Historical). The one MK70 body found so far is a 1974 camera.
Magazines UI400xxx: The 70mm magazines in the Leitz lot carry 1974 year letters, matching the body; 4xxxxx numbering is the Magazine 70 block.
Lens 5198308 (Biogon 5.6/60): Zeiss Oberkochen seven-digit serial; carries no date. The red-ink date code Zeiss stamped inside rear mounts (YY(Y)MM, year = code + 1957 before 1980) would be the way to date the lens if the mount can be inspected.
UIE21534, UIE21541, RV1320856, RV1320870, 61029: Five MK70 bodies with their numbers on record, superseding the single example named in the note above. Leitz Auction has catalogued four: UIE21534 (auction 13 lot 345) and UIE21541 (auction 14 lot 465), both read 1974; RV1320856 (auction 15 lot 448) and RV1320870 (auction 18 lot 289), both read 1981. Each agrees with the year Leitz gives. A fifth, lot 324 of auction 29, is numbered 61029 without letters and is catalogued only as "c.1990". The camera therefore ran from at least 1974 to at least 1981, and Collectiblend's 1981 is a real MK70 year rather than the year of introduction.
The E in UIE21534 and its absence in RV1320870: A worked check on the product letter. Hasselblad Historical records that "upto 1978 an 'E' was appended to the code on EL and EL/M cameras": the two 1974 MK70 bodies carry it, the two 1981 bodies do not. A three-letter MK70 number is therefore a pre-1979 camera and a two-letter one is later — but the year is always in the first two letters either way.
A second number — 1182, 1432: Metric cameras carry an instrument number as well as the dated body serial, and the two are easily confused. Leitz's lot for body UIE21541 gives the camera as "no.1182" and the lot for body 61029 calls it "metric camera 1432". These numbers carry no date code. The sibling MKWE is numbered in the same way, which is why figures like 547 and 1322 quoted for that camera cannot be read as body serials.
Magazine 70 block — UV400449, UP400578, UI400656, UI400678, UI400698, RP362682: The 70mm magazines run in a 400xxx block behind the ordinary two-letter year code, and they were not matched to the bodies they were sold with. Reading the letters: UV 1971, UP 1973, the three UI magazines 1974, RP 1983. The 1971 magazine came with a 1981 body and the 1983 magazine with a different 1981 body, so a magazine's date says nothing about its camera.

Specifications

Format: 6×6 on 70mm perforated film in dedicated Magazine 70 MK backs (Leitz Auction lot with two 70mm magazines; Jo Geier lists a 'Magazine 70 f. MK70 Metric Camera'); Collectiblend also gives 70mm, 6×6. Whether a standard 120 magazine can be fitted over the réseau plate is not stated by any consulted source
Finder: Reflex focusing screen with waist-level hood as on the 500EL/M is presumed but not stated by any consulted source; the outfit includes a separate direct-view optical viewfinder, part 65021 (Jo Geier; Leitz Auction 'special viewfinder for MK70') · no rangefinder image
Shutter: none in body — auxiliary rear flaps as on the 500EL/M; exposure by the leaf shutter in the MK lens · flash sync all speeds (leaf shutter)
Film advance: Built-in electric motor in the EL housing; single and continuous modes via the EL/M selector dial (presumed from the base body — no MK70 instruction book has been consulted)
Back: Dedicated 70mm magazines (Magazine 70 MK) — Leitz Auction; Jo Geier. The réseau plate sits at the film plane; whether it lives in the body or in the magazine is not stated by the consulted sources (on the MKWE the plate is numbered to the body — Japan Camera Hunter)
Meter: none
Motor drive: Compatible — Built in — the MK70 is a 500EL/M body; power from the EL battery (NiCd) or external supply as on the base camera. Not verified against an MK70 manual
Country: Sweden (body, Hasselblad Engineering AB); lens made in West Germany by Carl Zeiss, Oberkochen
Accessories: Magazine 70 MK (70mm perforated film) — Jo Geier; two supplied in the Leitz outfit · Optical viewfinder 65021 — Jo Geier; Leitz Auction · Fitted outfit case — Leitz Auction · Planar 3.5/100 MK, fixed focus at infinity — Hasselblad lens guide

The optical finder follows NASA practice — the Apollo Data Cameras were aimed without a reflex finder. How the 65021 mounts and what it frames is not described by the sources found

Where sources disagree

Year

1974 — the only dated body found: UIE21534 with 1974 magazines (Leitz Auction AI-13-17026)
1981 — Collectiblend's MK-70 price-guide page
1971 — a Photrio thread ('Hasselblad MK70', threads/146537), seen only in a search summary, which also claims 500 or 600 made

Better supported: 1974 as a lower bound

A 1974 body cannot be reconciled with a 1981 start; Collectiblend's date may be the year of a catalogue rather than of introduction. The 1971 claim is unverified. Neither Hasselblad Historical's model table nor camera-wiki gives a date.

Production

500 or 600 — Photrio thread, unverified
not published — no factory or Nordin figure found

What reviewers say

No reviews aggregated yet — this family is still in the research queue. Written one? We'd love to index it.

History

The MK70 is the camera Hasselblad built for people who wanted to measure things from photographs, and it descends directly from the cameras that went to the Moon. Between 1969 and 1972 NASA’s lunar-surface Hasselblads were 500EL bodies rebuilt as the Data Camera (HDC, later HEDC) with a réseau plate — a glass plate at the film plane engraved with a grid of fine crosses that prints on every frame, so that film shrinkage and lens distortion can be corrected in the measuring room — and a 60mm f/5.6 Biogon computed by Zeiss for the job. Leitz Auction’s catalogue puts the civilian relationship in one line: the MK70 is “the commercial version of the Hasselblad 500 EL Data Camera used by NASA for the lunar missions”. Museum records for the Apollo Data Camera describe the MK70 the same way, as a photogrammetric version of the 500EL/M with specially calibrated components, an outgrowth of the NASA work.

The maker of record is Hasselblad Engineering AB, the company’s separate division for high-precision instruments for industrial and military customers (Leitz Auction, describing the sibling MKWE). Hasselblad’s own lens guide lists two lenses for it and for nothing else: the 60mm f/5.6 MK Biogon, focusing to 0.9 m, and the 100mm f/3.5 MK Planar, fixed-focused at infinity — “for the MK70 photogrammetric camera only”, with the note that a special body was needed for them. The Biogon is the reason. Its rear group reaches through the bayonet into the mirror box, as the NASA lens did on the HDC, so the lens cannot be mounted on an ordinary 500-series body and the MK70 cannot be thought of as an EL/M with an unusual lens on the front; this catalogue therefore treats the camera as fixed-lens even though the lens sits in the V bayonet. The 60mm Biogon has its own entry.

What survives of the specification comes from objects rather than documents. The MK70 Leitz Auction sold in 2013 (lot AI-13-17026) is body UIE21534 with Biogon 5198308 “with auto diaphragm control”, two 70mm magazines numbered UI400698 and UI400656, “the special viewfinder for MK70” and a fitted case; it fetched €4,560 including premium against an estimate of €2,000–2,500. Jo Geier has separately offered a “Magazine 70 f. MK70 Metric Camera” and an “MK-70 65021 Optical Viewfinder” as new old stock, which gives the finder a part number and confirms that the 70mm magazine was a dedicated MK item rather than a stock Magazine 70. The optical finder follows NASA practice — the Apollo cameras were aimed without a reflex finder — though whether the MK70 also keeps the EL/M’s focusing screen and hood is something no consulted source states. Collectiblend’s price guide summarises the camera as a 70mm-magazine metric camera with 6×6 exposures.

The date is where the sources part company, and none of them is strong. Body UIE21534 carries Hasselblad’s two-letter year code — U=7, I=4 — so it was made in 1974, and its magazines carry the same UI letters; the third letter E is the product letter EL-family bodies wore until 1978 (Hasselblad Historical’s dating page). Collectiblend dates the MK70 to 1981, which a 1974 body flatly contradicts unless 1981 is the year of a catalogue rather than an introduction. A Photrio thread, seen here only through a search summary, says production started in 1971 and ran to 500 or 600 cameras; that would make the MK70 roughly contemporary with the EL/M itself (1970 per Hasselblad Historical) and the last Apollo landings, which is plausible but unverified. This entry takes 1974 as a lower bound and records the rest in disputed. Neither Hasselblad Historical’s model table nor camera-wiki, which lists “Hasselblad MK 70, Hasselblad MKW/E, Hasselblad MKWE II” under photogrammetric models without a word more, offers a year.

One trap: dealers routinely list the MK70 as a “NASA camera” or “moon camera”. The cameras NASA flew are HDC and HEDC bodies with their own markings; the MK70 is the product sold to surveyors and industrial photographers afterwards.

Open: the introduction year and production run; whether the réseau plate is in the body or in each magazine; whether any MK70 was delivered with the 100mm MK Planar; whether standard 120 magazines fit; and whether Nordin’s Hasselblad Compendium (2011), which has not been consulted, carries a table for the MK series. The Club Hasselblad museum pages on the MK70 refused an automated fetch and remain unread.

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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

Sample photo taken with the Hasselblad MK70 — Two Hasselblad MK70 bodies — marsupium photography, via Openverse (flickr) (BY-SA 2.0)

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Hasselblad MK70? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Hasselblad MK70 60 Finder Sucher — €139.00 · eBay · likely MK70
HASSELBLAD MK70 SPIRIT LEVEL BUBBLE LEVEL EXCELLENT RARE PROVENANCE — $124.00 · eBay · likely MK70

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