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

Hasselblad SWA / SW (Supreme Wide Angle / Super Wide)

Hasselblad · Fixed lens · 56×56mm nominal on 120, 12 frames, with the magazines of the 1600F/1000F system; the 16-exposure 6×4.5 magazine and the later A-series magazines fit the same mount · 1954

Also known as: Hasselblad SWA · Hasselblad SW · Hasselblad Supreme Wide Angle · Hasselblad Super Wide · Hasselblad Superwide · Hasselblad Super Wide 1954 · Hasselblad Super Wide early version · Hasselblad SW Biogon 38mm · ハッセルブラッド スーパーワイド · ハッセルブラッド SWA

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Supreme Wide Angle (SWA) Hasselblad V 1954–1956 1001 onward per a commenter on Dan Cuny's review; Japanese Wikipedia gives only a production estimate About 100–500 per Japanese Wikipedia; no factory figure is published
Super Wide (SW) Hasselblad V 1956–1958 2001 onward per a commenter on Dan Cuny's review; 1001–2999 per Japanese Wikipedia
CTW 2303 — a dealer-listed example whose two-letter code reads 1956 through VHPICTURES (chapterlux.com)
CTW2145 — Flints Auctions, 21 May 2020, catalogued 1956; Biogon 1521598
CUW2769 — Leitz Auction 30 lot 286, catalogued 1957; Biogon 1521749 		Fewer than 2,000 for SWA and SW together per Kamerastore; Japanese Wikipedia's SW serial span (1001–2999) implies a similar order of magnitude
  1. Hasselblad Historical publishes the date-code rule but no serial-number-to-year table for bodies. The SWA and SW range figures on this page come from a commenter on Dan Cuny's review and from Japanese Wikipedia, neither of which states a source; Richard Nordin's Compendium is where such tables exist.
  2. A dated 1957 body — CUW2769, Leitz Auction 30 — puts the SW in production that year, which sits as easily with Kamerastore's and camera-wiki's 1957 as with Hasselblad Historical's 1958 close. No dated 1958 body has been located.
  3. Family years from Hasselblad Historical's model table, which gives SWA & SW as 1954–1958 with the barrel change in 1956; variant boundaries follow camera-wiki (SWA 1954–1955, SW 1956–1957/1959) and Dan Cuny.
  4. Weight and dimensions are a dealer's measurements of one SW without magazine (Kamerastore); Hasselblad's own figures were not found.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • A shallow box with no mirror, no hood and no focusing screen — the Biogon's rear vertex sits so close to the film that the lens cannot be mounted on any reflex Hasselblad (Zeiss data sheet)
  • Fixed Carl Zeiss Biogon 38mm f/4.5 in a chrome barrel with Synchro-Compur, aperture, speed and depth-of-field scales, and a cocking trigger on the barrel — the C-lens EV interlock and the SWC's body-top release are absent
  • Shutter release button and cable-release socket on the lower front face, two round signal windows beside them; winding knob on the right side (1954 instruction book)
  • Accessory shoe on the top plate for the clip-on optical finder with level prism; a body offered without its finder is common
  • SWA: cutout in the lens barrel and ~180° helicoid throw; SW: full outer cylinder and near-360° throw (Dan Cuny)
  • Listing trap: dealers file SWA and SW under both names, and 'SWA' is also used for early SWC bodies — a body-top release button means SWC, not SW

Supreme Wide Angle (SWA):

  • Lens barrel with an open cutout through which the shutter-cocking trigger and speed ring are reached; no full-length outer cylinder joining the front of the barrel to the rear (Dan Cuny)
  • Focusing helicoid turns about 180° from 0.5 m to infinity (Dan Cuny); the SW turns nearly a full revolution
  • Chrome-finished body with black leatherette, winding knob on the right side, shutter release button and cable-release socket low on the front face, two signal windows beside them (1954 instruction book)
  • Clip-on optical finder in the accessory shoe with a prism that shows the built-in spirit level beside the image (1954 instruction book)

Super Wide (SW):

  • An additional metal cylinder on the lens barrel connecting the front of the lens to the rear, closing the SWA's cutout (Dan Cuny)
  • Focusing helicoid turns just under 360° (Dan Cuny)
  • Otherwise the SWA's body: knob wind, trigger-cocked Synchro-Compur, front release, level-prism finder

Serial-range notes

The first two letters of the serial number
The rule for dating any Hasselblad. 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, so CT reads 56 and CU reads 57. A code from 50 to 99 takes the prefix 19; a code below 50 takes 20. Where a third letter follows it marks the product, never the year — on this camera it is a W. Q.G. de Bakker, who sets the scheme out on Hasselblad Historical, dates its adoption to the late 1940s and traces it to Kodak, whose own keyword was CAMEROSITY.
1001 onward (SWA), 2001 onward (SW), 3001 onward (SWC) — per a commenter on Dan Cuny's 35mmc review
The only published series boundaries, and they conflict with Japanese Wikipedia, which gives the SW as 1001–2999 and the SWC as 3000–15471 with no separate SWA block. One owner describes a 1954 SWA as "number 72 off the production line" (atomicartcompany.com), consistent with either reading. The Photokina pre-series was unnumbered (Leitz Photographica Auction). Nordin's Hasselblad Compendium is where the ledger figures are likely to be.
Two-letter year code, e.g. CT 2303 or CTW 2303
Bodies of the period carry the VHPICTURES code (V=1, H=2, P=3, I=4, C=5, T=6, U=7, R=8, E=9, S=0) in front of the serial, so CT = 1956 (Q.G. de Bakker, Hasselblad Historical). A dealer-listed SW reads CTW 2303, with a W — the letter Hasselblad Historical records as the SWC/SWC/M product letter "upto 1979". Whether SWA bodies carry a code at all is not stated by any source consulted.
Biogon 1073722 and neighbours
Zeiss Oberkochen lens serials carry no date; camera-wiki's table places 500,000–1,100,000 in 1951–1953 and 1,100,000–2,600,000 in 1953–1959, so a 1,07x,xxx Biogon is from the first deliveries of 1954. Zeiss's red-ink rear-mount date code is present "in all but the very earliest C lenses" (Hasselblad Historical) and is not to be expected on these pre-C Biogons.
CTW2145, CTW2303, CUW2769
The three Super Wide bodies located with their numbers on record, and the evidence that the code was in use on this camera. CTW2145 sold at Flints Auctions on 21 May 2020 as "A Hasselblad Super Wide (SW) Medium Format Camera, 1956, chrome, serial no. CTW2145, with Carl Zeiss Biogon f/4.5 38mm lens, serial no. 1521598"; CTW2303 is a dealer listing (chapterlux.com); CUW2769, with Biogon 1521749, was lot 286 in Leitz Auction 30, catalogued as a 1957 "late user camera". CT reads 1956 and CU 1957, both agreeing with the cataloguer. All three number blocks fall above 2000, consistent with the SW series starting at 2001 and against Japanese Wikipedia's 1001–2999 — though three cameras are not a serial list.
The W in CTW and CUW
Hasselblad Historical's dating page records the W product letter only for "SWC and SWC/M cameras", "upto 1979". Every located Super Wide body carries it in 1956 and 1957, two and three years before the SWC existed, so the W marked the Superwide line from the start and is not on its own evidence that a body is an SWC.
Unnumbered — the Photokina pre-series
The earliest cameras have no serial and so no date code at all. Leitz Auction 37, lot 382 was "An unnumbered Hasselblad SWA, from a small batch of cameras, produced for the presentation at Photokina in 1954", with Biogon 4.5/38 no. 1073722, "one of the earliest Biogons delivered to Hasselblad". No numbered SWA body with its letters recorded has been found in any source consulted, so whether the 1954–55 cameras carry a code is still open.
Magazine codes — CV11187, CV12644
Magazines carry the same code as bodies, and a magazine's year need not match the camera it is sold with. The two magazines in the Leitz pre-series lot both read CV, which the code makes 1951 — earlier than the camera they accompany. A magazine's letters date the magazine and nothing else.

Specifications

Format
56×56mm nominal on 120, 12 frames, with the magazines of the 1600F/1000F system; the 16-exposure 6×4.5 magazine and the later A-series magazines fit the same mount
Finder
clip-on optical direct-vision finder in the accessory shoe, with a prism showing the built-in spirit level in the field of view · none parallax correction · no rangefinder image
Shutter
Synchro-Compur leaf shutter built into the fixed Biogon; no shutter in the body · B, 1, 1/2, 1/5, 1/10, 1/25, 1/50, 1/100, 1/250, 1/500 — ten settings (1954 instruction book) · flash sync M and X selected by a lever on the shutter; all speeds (leaf shutter) · self-timer
Film advance
Winding knob on the right side of the body, turned clockwise until it clicks, advances the film and the counter; the shutter is cocked separately by moving the trigger on the lens barrel clockwise. Two signal windows on the front (exposure and film transport) show white when both have been done, and the magazine slide must be out for the release to work (1954 instruction book). The SWC of 1959 combined cocking with the wind and moved the release to the top plate (Japanese Wikipedia).
Back
interchangeable roll-film magazines of the 1600F/1000F system — 12 (6×6); 16 and 16S later; the A-series automatic magazines from 1970 fit the same mount
Meter
none
Motor drive
Not compatible
Designed by
Bertele Ludwig — designed the Biogon 38mm f/4.5 — the 90° Biogon of 1951, U.S. patent 2,721,499 — which is the fixed lens of this camera; no designer of the body is named by any source consulted
Weight
866 g
Dimensions
108 × 101 × 96 (camera and lens, no magazine — Kamerastore's measurement of an SW) mm
Country
Sweden
Accessories
Optical view-finder with level control, clip-on for the accessory shoe (supplied with the camera) · Leather carrying case · Wratten Series VIII (series 63) filters and holder · Cable release for time exposures · Roll-film magazines 12, 16 and 16S of the 1600F/1000F system

The 1954 instruction book: "a built-in spirit level which can be viewed through a prisma at the same distance as the object you see in the view-finder", with a circle marking the level and another marking the centre of the picture. Focusing is by scale on the lens; there is no rangefinder and no ground glass. The finder "is easy to fit and remove" and is the part most often missing from surviving outfits.

Figures we worked out rather than found: years.first/last for the two variants — the 1956 boundary is shared by every source; the 1954 and 1958 ends are Hasselblad Historical's

Where sources disagree

First
  • SWA 1954–1955, SW from 1956 — camera-wiki and Dan Cuny
  • SWA & SW 1954–1958 on one line, barrel change 1956 — Hasselblad Historical model table
  • SW 1956 — Japanese Wikipedia (1956年発売)

All agree the change fell in 1956; whether SWA bodies were still being finished that year is not stated.

Last
  • 1958 — Hasselblad Historical and English Wikipedia
  • 1957 — Kamerastore; camera-wiki's '1956 - 1957/1959'
  • SWC launched 1959 — Japanese Wikipedia; 1957 per camera-wiki's SWC row

Better supported: 1958

Hasselblad Historical's table is the most consistent source for body years across the line.

Serial ranges
  • SWA from 1001, SW from 2001, SWC from 3001 — a commenter on Dan Cuny's review
  • SW 1001–2999, SWC 3000–15471 and 141001–142111 — Japanese Wikipedia

Neither source states where its figures come from; Nordin's Compendium is the likely origin of both.

Production
  • SWA about 100–500 — Japanese Wikipedia
  • SWA and SW together fewer than 2,000 — Kamerastore

No factory figure is published online for either model.

Family name
  • Supreme Wide Angle — Nordin, Hasselblad Historical, English Wikipedia, dealers
  • Super Wide / SW — Hasselblad's own English instruction book of 28 September 1954 and the Swedish brochure of 1955

English Wikipedia says the expansion of SWA was 'later changed to super wide angle'; where the 'Supreme' wording appears on the camera or in period print is not shown by any source consulted.

What reviewers say

History

The Supreme Wide Angle exists because a lens would not fit. Ludwig Bertele’s 90° Biogon of 1951 — U.S. patent 2,721,499, eight elements in five groups — puts its rear vertex so close to the film that no reflex mirror can swing behind it; Zeiss’s data sheet for the later C version says the Biogon “cannot be used in the Hasselblad 500 C/M” and “is therefore assembled in its own special camera body”. The first production Biogons came in 1954, a 21mm for Contax and the 38mm for Hasselblad (English Wikipedia, Zeiss Biogon), and Hasselblad built a mirrorless box around the 38: a flat body taking the roll-film magazines of the 1600F and 1000F, a clip-on optical finder in the accessory shoe, a Synchro-Compur in the lens. Victor Hasselblad showed it at Photokina in Cologne that autumn — his first visit to the fair, per Dan Cuny — with an unnumbered pre-series batch made for the stand (Leitz Photographica Auction, via filmphotograph.com). The English instruction book on Hasselblad Historical is dated 28 September 1954; Modern Photography ran eight pages on the 1000F and the “Superwide” in December 1954 and found no group of lenses “more uniformly excellent, at all apertures” than Hasselblad’s (Mike Eckman’s Keppler’s Vault).

The 1954 book describes a camera with three separate motions. The winding knob on the right side turns clockwise to a click and advances film and counter; the trigger on the lens barrel is moved clockwise to cock the Compur; the release button sits low on the front face beside its cable socket. Two round signal windows show white when film and shutter are both ready, and the magazine slide has to be out before the release will work. Ten speeds, B and 1 to 1/500, M and X synchronisation by lever, a self-timer set by pulling the catch back and moving the trigger past it. The finder is the camera’s other idea: “a built-in spirit level which can be viewed through a prisma at the same distance as the object you see in the view-finder”, so a hand-held architectural picture can be levelled without a tripod — the book calls the camera “the first wide-angle camera to offer interchangeable roll film magazines and built-in level control”. Depth of field at f/22 runs from 0.65 m to infinity; closest focus is 0.5 m.

The name is less settled than the camera. Nordin, Hasselblad Historical and English Wikipedia call the first version the Supreme Wide Angle and the 1956 revision the Super Wide, and English Wikipedia adds that the expansion of SWA was “later changed to super wide angle”; yet Hasselblad’s own English book of September 1954 says “Hasselblad Super Wide” and “SW” throughout, and the 1955 Swedish brochure (A 528, “Perspektiv som ingen kunde ana…”) says “Hasselblad Superwide”. Where “Supreme” appears — on the camera, in a price list, in a Nordin ledger — no source consulted shows.

The change itself is small and well described. Hasselblad Historical’s table has one line for “SWA & SW, 1954–1958” and notes “SW: 1956 slightly changed lens barrel construction”; Japanese Wikipedia says the shutter and barrel were reinforced; Dan Cuny, who has handled both, says the SW added a metal cylinder connecting the front of the lens to the rear where the SWA had a cutout for the shutter controls, and that the focusing helicoid went from about 180° of turn to just under 360°. Nothing about the body moved. The larger changes waited for the SWC of 1959, which per Japanese Wikipedia combined cocking with the wind and put the release on the top plate — the two things that most quickly separate an SW from an early SWC in a listing. An Italian collector’s page (nocsensei.com) credits the SW with a film-advance interlock; nobody else does, and the 1954 book already claims a double-exposure safeguard, so the claim stays unconfirmed.

Numbers are thin and contradictory. A commenter on Cuny’s review gives series starting at 1001 for the SWA, 2001 for the SW and 3001 for the SWC; Japanese Wikipedia gives the SW as 1001–2999 and the SWC as 3000–15471, with the SWA estimated at 100–500 cameras and no block of its own; Kamerastore puts SWA and SW together under 2,000. One owner’s 1954 camera is “number 72 off the production line” (atomicartcompany.com). Bodies carry the two-letter VHPICTURES year code — a dealer-listed SW reads CTW 2303, CT being 1956 (Q.G. de Bakker) — and the W is the product letter Hasselblad Historical records for SWC and SWC/M bodies up to 1979, here on a camera three years before the SWC. No period price was found in any currency; the 866 g and 108 × 101 × 96 mm on this page are Kamerastore’s measurements of one SW without a magazine.

Open: whether any SWA carries a date code; what “SWA” stood for and where the word Supreme was printed; the true serial blocks and totals, which only Nordin’s Compendium is likely to hold; the list price in kronor or dollars; and whether the SW’s advance was interlocked or merely stronger.

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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

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Sample photo wanted — shot with a Hasselblad SWA / SW (Supreme Wide Angle / Super Wide)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

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Related: Hasselblad 1000F · Hasselblad 1600F · Hasselblad 903SWC · Hasselblad 905SWC · Hasselblad SWC · Hasselblad SWC/M

Lenses for this body: Biogon 38mm f/4.5

Sources (25)

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.