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

Hasselblad SWC

Hasselblad · Fixed lens · 56.5×56.5mm nominal on 120 (12 exposures with the 12/A12 magazine); 16 exposures of 6×4.5 with the 16/A16 magazine, 16 "superslide" frames with the 16S, 24 exposures on 220 with the A24, and 70mm perforated film with Magazine 70 — the same magazines as the 500C. · 1959

via machine translation — corrections welcome

Known as “Superwide”, “the SWC”

Also known as: Hasselblad Super Wide C · Hasselblad Superwide C · Hasselblad SWC · Hasselblad SWC Biogon 38mm · Hasselblad Super Wide C Biogon 4.5/38 · ハッセルブラッド SWC · ハッセルブラッドSWC ビオゴン · Hasselblad SWC chrome · Hasselblad SWC black · Hasselblad SWC T*

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
SWC, chrome-barrel C Biogon Hasselblad V 1959–1969 3000 onward, two date letters plus a W (e.g. CEW = 1959)¹ Not published. Japanese Wikipedia gives the SWC body serials as 3000–15471 and 141001–142111 for the whole 1959–79 run, with no split by barrel colour
SWC, black-barrel C Biogon (no T*) Hasselblad V 1969–1973 — Not published; a short transitional run, and sources do not agree on when it began
SWC, C T* Biogon Hasselblad V 1973–1979 — Not published
SWC, NASA-modified (Gemini IX-A to XII, Apollo 9) Hasselblad V 1966–1969 — Unknown. One uncited Spanish-language account gives 25 cameras built 1966–69 with serials TRW 8560–8590; no primary source for that figure was found
  1. Serial blocks from the Japanese Wikipedia list of Hasselblad cameras; the CEW 3003 body is a US dealer listing, not a published register.
  2. Weight and body dimensions are a dealer's spec table (Kamerastore) for a chrome body with lens; Zeiss gives the lens alone as 560 g, and a US owner weighs a black body with A12 and finder at 2 lb 14.4 oz (about 1,315 g). Hasselblad's own manual prints no weight.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • No mirror box: a shallow body about 60 mm deep between lens and magazine, with the Biogon's 38mm rear vertex 34.5 mm from the film
  • Release button on the top plate beside the finder shoe — the SW of 1956–58 fired from the lens barrel
  • Folding crank on the right side that both winds and cocks; the SWA/SW had a knob and a separate cocking action
  • Circular spirit level let into the top plate, viewed through a prism in the shoe-mounted finder
  • Quick-coupling tripod shoe with 1/4 in and 3/8 in threads, usable as a flat base for tabletop long exposures
  • Serial with a W third letter (e.g. CEW, TRW) — the superwide product code used until 1979
  • Listing trap: dealers write SWC for SWC/M and 903 bodies too; an SWC proper has a Synchro-Compur C lens with EV interlock and Series 63 filters, and cannot take a Polaroid back unless converted

SWC, chrome-barrel C Biogon:

  • Satin-chrome lens barrel with black engraved scales, 'Synchro-Compur' on the shutter ring, no T* mark
  • Exposure-value interlock: red EV scale 3–18, released by a catch on the barrel; shutter speeds and apertures on linear, coupled scales
  • Series 63 (Series VIII) drop-in filters behind a screw-on retaining ring — no filter thread
  • Single-coated glass: pale, straw-coloured reflections rather than the deep magenta-green of T*

SWC, black-barrel C Biogon (no T*):

  • Black-anodised barrel with white and orange scales, otherwise the same Synchro-Compur C mount as the chrome lens
  • No T* on the front ring; single-coated glass
  • Series 63 drop-in filters, as on the chrome lens

SWC, C T* Biogon:

  • Red T* after 'Biogon' on the front ring; black barrel
  • Multicoated glass with strongly coloured reflections
  • Still a Synchro-Compur C mount with the EV interlock — the CF barrel arrived only with the SWC/M in 1982
  • Body date code still carries the W suffix through 1979 (Hasselblad Historical)

SWC, NASA-modified (Gemini IX-A to XII, Apollo 9):

  • Optical finder removed; a fold-up frame finder on the shoe so the camera could be sighted with a helmet visor down
  • Oversized shutter-release button and winding crank, and tabs on the focusing and speed/aperture rings, for pressurised gloves
  • 70mm perforated-film magazine, modified for about 200 frames on thin-base film
  • Replicas made later are engraved 'Replica of modified HASSELBLAD SUPER WIDE C'

Serial-range notes

3000–15471, 141001–142111
The SWC blocks given by Japanese Wikipedia, which starts the SWC/M at 142112. The SW of 1956–58 ran 1001–2999, so the SWC continued the sequence. The jump to 141001 is unexplained in any source found.
CEW…, TSW…, UPW…
Body serials carry two date letters from VHPICTURES (V=1 H=2 P=3 I=4 C=5 T=6 U=7 R=8 E=9 S=0), so CE = 1959 and TS = 1960; Hasselblad Historical says a third letter W was appended on SWC and SWC/M bodies up to 1979. The lens is dated separately: a red-ink stamp inside the rear mount, digits YY(Y)MM with year = code + 1957, gives the month the Biogon left Oberkochen, and is often the only way to place a body whose serial plate has worn.

Specifications

Format
56.5×56.5mm nominal on 120 (12 exposures with the 12/A12 magazine); 16 exposures of 6×4.5 with the 16/A16 magazine, 16 "superslide" frames with the 16S, 24 exposures on 220 with the A24, and 70mm perforated film with Magazine 70 — the same magazines as the 500C.
Finder
Removable optical viewfinder in the accessory shoe, matching the Biogon's 90° field; a spirit level on the camera top is read through a prism in the finder · none — the finder is not corrected; the manual warns that anything but a level camera produces converging verticals parallax correction · no rangefinder image
Shutter
Synchro-Compur leaf shutter in the lens; cocked by the winding crank · B, 1–1/500 s, with a green EV extension to 60 s for timed exposures on B; a T catch holds the shutter open · flash sync M and X at all speeds (leaf shutter), selector lever on the shutter · self-timer
Film advance
Folding rapid-wind crank; one turn advances the film and cocks the shutter, with a double-exposure lock — the first superwide to do so
Back
Interchangeable magazines shared with the 500C — 12, 16 and 16S at launch, then A12, A16, A16S, A24 and Magazine 70; the Polaroid back needed the SWC/M's modified body
Meter
None
Motor drive
Not compatible
Weight
834 g
Dimensions
125 × 110 × 103 (body with lens, without magazine or finder); about 152 mm deep with an A12 fitted mm
Country
Sweden
Original price
US list, May 1962: $590.00 for the Superwide C with 38mm Biogon, $640.00 complete with viewfinder, viewfinder alone $57.75; March 1964 $650/$700; March 1965 $700/$750; April 1973 $1,226.00 chrome with A12 and finder (10030), $926.00 body alone (10049), black body $1,259.00 (10189) (today $6,130)
Accessories
Optical viewfinder 52035 with spirit-level prism, and masks for the 16-exposure formats · Series 63 (Series VIII) drop-in filters — Y-1.5, G-3, O-4, R-6 and Polarizer C — with filter retaining ring 50350 and front cap 50385 · Ground-glass adapter and focusing hood in place of the magazine, for critical focus · Hasselblad tripod quick-coupling for the shoe on the base · Triton underwater case for SWC (1964 list) and the later Hasselblad underwater housing with front section 57010, SWC film-advance adapter 57126, shutter-release adapter 57142 and frame-finder clamp (1968 catalogue) · Everready case 503 for SW/SWC · Magazines 12, 16, 16S; A12, A16, A16S, A24; Magazine 70

Sold separately at launch: the 1962–65 US price lists offer the camera with and without viewfinder, the finder alone at $57.75 to $60. Masks for 16-exposure framing were catalogued. The 1968 catalogue also lists a frame viewfinder with clamp for the underwater housing, and the NASA cameras used a frame finder in place of the optical one. Focusing is by scale only; a ground-glass adapter and focusing hood in place of the magazine allow critical focus on a tripod.

Where sources disagree

First
  • 1959 — Hasselblad Historical, Japanese Wikipedia, Kamerastore, Hayata Camera Lab
  • 1957 — camera-wiki.org, which dates the SWC 1957–1980

Better supported: 1959

An early body carries the date code CEW (1959); camera-wiki also has the SW ending in 1957, so its dates look shifted rather than independently sourced.

First
  • 1969 — Hasselblad Historical's table ('from 1969 with black C lens')
  • 1972 — Japanese Wikipedia (黒鏡胴 1972); Emulsive's C-lens guide ('sometime in 1972', with silver T* lenses still made in 1973)

The 1969 date is carried here because it is the ground-truth table this catalogue follows, but three sources against one make 1972 at least as likely; the red-ink Zeiss date stamp inside a given lens settles it for that camera.

Last
  • 1979 — Hasselblad Historical (SWC 1959–1979, SWC/M 1980–1988); the W product letter ends in 1979
  • 1980 — camera-wiki.org and Japanese Wikipedia's alternative ('1979–1980, sources vary') for the SWC/M start

Better supported: 1979

Production
  • 25 cameras, serials TRW 8560–8590, 1966–69 — one Spanish-language blog, uncited
  • No figure — NASA's Apollo Experience Report, the NASM catalogue and Japan Camera Hunter give none

TR decodes to 1968, which cannot cover cameras flown in June 1966; the figure is recorded, not endorsed.

What reviewers say

History

The SWC exists because of a number on the Zeiss data sheet: the Biogon’s last lens vertex sits 34.5 mm from the film, and the sheet for the C lens (Cat. No. 104117) says plainly that “because of the extremely short distance of the last lens vertex from the film plane” the lens “cannot be used in the Hasselblad 500 C/M – 500 EL/M” and “is therefore assembled in its own special camera body, the Superwide C”. The later CF sheet gives the back focal distance as 18.8 mm. Ludwig Bertele’s near-symmetrical eight-element, five-group design covers 90° on the diagonal — 72° on the side — with distortion the C sheet’s curve keeps within a few tenths of a per cent, which is what a retrofocus lens of the period could not do. Hasselblad had sold the lens in a mirrorless body since the Supreme Wide Angle of 1954; the SWC of 1959 is the third body around it and the one that fixed the pattern for the next 47 years.

What changed in 1959 is the camera, not the glass. Hasselblad Historical’s table gives the SW of 1956–58 a strengthened barrel and nothing else; the SWC moved the release from the lens to a button on the top plate, replaced the winding knob with a folding crank that both advances the film and cocks the shutter, and put the Biogon in a Synchro-Compur C barrel of the same design as the 500C lenses — exposure-value interlock, coupled linear speed and aperture scales, V-X-M lever, automatic depth-of-field indicators. The instruction manual describes all of this, plus a T catch for long exposures on B, a green EV extension to 60 seconds, and a quick-coupling tripod shoe the manual suggests standing flat on a table for indoor work. The 1968 catalogue sells the camera as 10030 — body 10049, magazine A12 and optical finder 52035 — or as the bare body with cap, strap, cable hook, Series 63 filter ring and rear cover. Filters are Series 63 (Series VIII) discs dropped behind a retaining ring, because the lens has no thread; the manual also notes that the extreme angle rules out a lens hood.

The finder is the camera’s known weakness and its own small mechanism. It sits in the accessory shoe, matches the Biogon’s field, and carries a prism through which the spirit level on the top plate is read while composing; the manual warns that any departure from vertical “will result” in distortion, and every reviewer found the same. It was an extra: the May 1962 American price list has the Superwide C with 38mm Biogon at $590.00, $640.00 “complete w/ Viewfinder”, and the finder alone at $57.75; March 1964 gives $650 and $700, March 1965 $700 and $750. By April 1973 the chrome outfit with A12 and finder was $1,226.00, the body alone $926.00, and a black-finish body (10189) $1,259.00 — the earliest catalogued black body found here, though not necessarily its introduction.

Two decades of production produced three lens finishes and one dispute. Hasselblad Historical has the silver C lens from 1959, black from 1969 and T* multicoating from 1973. Japanese Wikipedia puts the black barrel at 1972, and Emulsive’s guide to the C lenses agrees, adding that silver-barrel T* lenses were also made in 1973 before black became permanent; the black non-T* lens is therefore a transitional run of one to four years, depending on the source. The Zeiss C sheet itself carries an October 1973 print code and no T* in its title. The body can be dated independently: Hasselblad Historical explains the two-letter VHPICTURES year code and says a W was appended on SWC and SWC/M bodies up to 1979, so an early camera reads CEW (1959) and a late one carries the W with a 1970s pair; the lens carries its own red-ink Zeiss stamp inside the rear mount. Japanese Wikipedia gives the SWC serial blocks as 3000–15471 and 141001–142111, continuing from the SW’s 1001–2999 and handing over to the SWC/M at 142112; nothing found explains the jump.

The SWC also went to orbit. NASA’s Apollo Experience Report on photographic equipment says the “70-millimeter Hasselblad super-wide-angle camera with 38-millimeter lens” was introduced for Gemini IX “to fulfill the wide-angle photographic requirements of EVA” and to widen synoptic terrain coverage, and that some of the most widely published Gemini photography came from it; its equipment table lists a 70mm “Hasselblad SWA” with a 38mm lens again for Apollo 9 in March 1969. The cameras lost their optical finders for a fold-up frame sight, gained oversized release and crank, and carried modified 70mm magazines; Michael Collins released one during his Gemini X spacewalk, and the National Air and Space Museum holds a super-wide body “of the type used by the Gemini astronauts” transferred from NASA in 1969. A Spanish-language blog gives 25 cameras with serials TRW 8560–8590, but TR decodes to 1968 and the account cites nothing, so the figure is recorded rather than trusted.

Hasselblad Historical ends the SWC in 1979 and starts the SWC/M — a body modified to take the Polaroid back — in 1980; camera-wiki has 1957–1980 for the SWC and Japanese Wikipedia allows 1979 for the SWC/M. Open questions: total SWC production, which no source publishes; the true year of the black barrel; when the black body finish was introduced; the number and serials of the NASA cameras; and whether, as one account claims and others deny, a superwide flew inside the Apollo 11 lunar module.

Expand Collapse

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 SWC
Fjallsárlón, Iceland — shot on a Hasselblad SWC (Laurent Gauthier) — laurent gauthier from Rennes, France, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
Sample photo taken with the Hasselblad SWC
Shot on a Hasselblad SWC (Jelle) — Jelle from The Netherlands, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

More sample photos elsewhere

These photographers keep all rights to their work — enjoy it at the source.

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

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $2,800 across 4 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $180–$2,800). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 2 days: unchanged from $2,800.

By day
DateMedianMiddle halfListings
2026-09-11$2,800$180–$2,8004
2026-09-06$2,800$2,700–$2,8005

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Listings updated 2026-09-11. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Related: Hasselblad SWA / SW (Supreme Wide Angle / Super Wide) · Hasselblad SWC/M · Hasselblad 903SWC · Hasselblad 905SWC · Hasselblad 500C

Lenses for this body: Biogon 38mm f/4.5

Sources (30)

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.