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

Hasselblad SWC/M

Hasselblad · Fixed lens · 56×56mm nominal on 120 (the Zeiss CF data sheet gives 55×55); 6×4.5 via the A16, 4×4 via the A16S, 220 via the A24, 70mm via the Magazine 70, Polaroid via the Magazine 100 · 1980

Also known as: Hasselblad SWC/M · Hasselblad SWCM · Hasselblad SWC M · Hasselblad Super Wide C/M · Hasselblad Superwide C/M · Hasselblad SWC/M Biogon 38mm · Hasselblad SWC/M CF · Hasselblad SWC/M C T* · ハッセルブラッド SWC/M

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
SWC/M with Biogon C T* (Synchro-Compur) · [object Object] Hasselblad V 1980–1982 From 142112 per Japanese Wikipedia (the SWC's second block ends at 142111); Ken Rockwell puts the start 'around UE 141800' — see disputed
Year letters RS (1980), RV (1981), RH (1982); a UE (1979) body with a third letter W is at the SWC/SWC/M boundary 		Not published. Kamerastore states 'at most 2000' for the C-lens SWC/M without naming a source; no factory figure has been found
SWC/M with Biogon CF T* (Prontor CF), body spirit level · [object Object] Hasselblad V 1982–1985 Year letters RH (1982), RP (1983), RI (1984), RC (1985); no block boundaries are published Not published
SWC/M with viewfinder 52036 (spirit level in finder, none on body) Hasselblad V 1985–1988 Year letters RC (1985), RT (1986), RU (1987), RR (1988) Not published
  1. Product numbers from Hasselblad's own U.S. price lists (April 1973, 1 January 1980) and product catalogues (1985, 1987) as scanned by Pacific Rim Camera; year letters from Hasselblad Historical's dating page.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • A fixed 38mm Biogon on a short non-reflex body with the shutter release on top, a time-exposure lock ring around it, and an optical finder in the accessory shoe
  • SWC/M on the body plate; an SWC plate with a raised finder shoe and lowered tripod plate is a factory-converted SWC
  • Against the SWC: finder shoe higher, tripod plate lower, ratcheting crank — the changes that let the Magazine 100 for Polaroid film fit (Wildi 1980; Kamerastore)
  • Against the 903 SWC: same lens and finder on the last bodies, but the 903 has the Palpas anti-reflection interior and the strap lugs moved up (Japanese Wikipedia); the 903 plate says so
  • Generation inside the SWC/M run is read from the lens — C barrel with fluted metal ring and Compur, or CF barrel with rubber rings and Prontor — and from whether the body top plate carries a spirit level

SWC/M with Biogon C T* (Synchro-Compur):

  • Black C-barrel Biogon with fluted metal focusing ring, Synchro-Compur shutter (green V self-timer setting, M/X sync lever), EV cross-coupled speed and aperture rings
  • Series 63 (Series VIII) drop-in filters behind a screw-in retaining ring; lens shade 40282 ø63/38 screws on
  • Body spirit level on the top plate, read through the prism of the metal 52035 finder
  • Finder shoe raised and tripod plate lowered relative to the SWC so a Magazine 100 for Polaroid film clears the body; ratcheting crank
  • T* in red on the front ring — Ken Rockwell says all SWC/M lenses were black and multicoated; a chrome or non-T* lens points to an SWC, or an SWC converted to M specification

SWC/M with Biogon CF T* (Prontor CF), body spirit level:

  • CF-barrel Biogon: rubberised grip rings, focusing scale in feet (orange) and metres, depth-of-field scale, button to cross-couple shutter and aperture rings, all markings printed
  • Bayonet 60 filter and hood mount (the 38–60 square shade); front cap 51643 ø60
  • Prontor CF shutter: X sync only, no self-timer (Ken Rockwell); the red line over 1–4 s means nothing on this body
  • Body still carries the spirit level; finder still the metal 52035 with prism
  • Focus throw about 120° against about 270° on the C lens (Ken Rockwell)

SWC/M with viewfinder 52036 (spirit level in finder, none on body):

  • No spirit level on the body top plate — the level sits in the finder, visible from above and through the eyepiece
  • Finder 52036: plastic housing, rubber eyecup, locking shoe, corner marks for the 16 and 16S formats, a close-up lens at the bottom of the field that reads the CF lens's distance scale
  • Otherwise the 1982 CF camera: Prontor CF, Bay 60, rubber grip rings

Serial-range notes

Two letters + six digits (RS142xxx …)
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): RS = 80, RV = 81, RH = 82, RP = 83, RI = 84, RC = 85, RT = 86, RU = 87, RR = 88 (Hasselblad Historical, Q.G. de Bakker).
Three letters ending W (…UEW…)
Up to 1979 a W was appended to the code on SWC and SWC/M cameras as a product-type letter; the year is still the first two letters. A UEW body is a 1979 camera — the last SWCs or the first SWC/Ms, depending on which launch date is accepted (Hasselblad Historical).
141001–142111 / 142112 onward
Japanese and Swedish Wikipedia give the SWC two blocks, 3000–15471 (Swedish: 15417) and 141001–142111, and start the SWC/M at 142112. Ken Rockwell puts the SWC/M's start 'around UE 141800', inside the SWC's second block. Neither cites its source; Nordin's tables are the likely origin of the Wikipedia figures and have not been consulted directly.
Lens serial (7 digits, on the front ring)
Zeiss serials carry no date; they can be placed only against Nordin's serial-to-year tables (Hasselblad Historical). The red-ink date code Zeiss stamped inside rear mounts is not reachable on a fixed lens without dismantling.

Specifications

Format
56×56mm nominal on 120 (the Zeiss CF data sheet gives 55×55); 6×4.5 via the A16, 4×4 via the A16S, 220 via the A24, 70mm via the Magazine 70, Polaroid via the Magazine 100 · 12 on 120 (A12); 16 at 6×4.5 (A16); 24 on 220 (A24) exposures
Finder
Direct-view optical finder 52035, removable, in the accessory shoe; all-metal, with a prism on the left that reflects the body's spirit level into the eyepiece · none — the 1985 instruction book says the finder takes in a slightly larger field than the lens: about 6 in more at the top, 3 in more at each side, at any distance parallax correction · no rangefinder image
Shutter
none in body — a non-reflex camera, so no mirror and no auxiliary flaps; exposure by the leaf shutter in the fixed Biogon: Synchro-Compur to 1982, Prontor CF after · 1s–1/500, B; a time-exposure lock (O/T) around the top-mounted release holds the button in for T · flash sync all speeds (leaf shutter); X and M on the Synchro-Compur lens, X only on the Prontor CF
Film advance
Fold-out crank on the left of the body; one full turn advances the film and cocks the lens shutter. On the SWC/M the crank ratchets, so with a Polaroid magazine fitted — which blocks a full turn — it is pumped up and down until it stops (1985 instruction book)
Back
interchangeable magazines — A12, A16, A16S, A24, Magazine 70, DM-100/200 data magazine, Magazine 100 for Polaroid film, sheet-film adapter 41017; the Polaroid 80 does not fit (1985 instruction book). Focusing screen adapter 41025 in place of the magazine
Meter
none
Motor drive
Not compatible — No winder coupling on any Superwide body; a motorised Superwide exists only as the MKWE photogrammetric camera
Weight
960 g
Dimensions
about 125 × 111 × 109 (body with lens, no finder — Kamerastore); Ken Rockwell measures the near-identical 903 SWC at 113 tall × 112 wide × 126 deep without finder mm
Country
Sweden (body); lens made in West Germany by Carl Zeiss, Oberkochen
Original price
US$2,085.00 body with lens, no finder or magazine (chrome, 10049); US$2,100.00 black (10197); US$2,895.00 / US$2,925.00 with A12 and finder (10030 / 10189) — Victor Hasselblad Inc. suggested retail effective 1 January 1980, where the camera is still listed as 'Super-Wide C' under the product numbers the SWC/M with C lens carried (today $7,940)
Accessories
Viewfinder SWC/M 52035 (metal, prism for the body level) with masks 42048 (A16) and 42056 (A16S); viewfinder SWC/M 52036 (plastic, built-in level, locking shoe) from about 1985 · Focusing screen adapter 41025 — fits in place of the magazine, takes any Hasselblad focusing hood or prism; later adapters 41057 and 41050 named on the Zeiss CF and CFi sheets · Magazine 100 for Polaroid film (30198) — the accessory the M modification exists for; the Polaroid 80 does not fit · Magazines A12, A16, A16S, A24, Magazine 70, DM-100/200, sheet-film adapter 41017 · Lens shade 40282 ø63/38 and Series 63 (Series VIII) filters with retaining ring for the C lens; Bay 60 filters and the 38–60 square shade for the CF lens · Front lens cap 51643 ø60, rear protective cover 51063, neck strap 49018 — supplied with the body · Tripod quick-coupling 45128

One central circle in an otherwise clear field; masks 42048 and 42056 for the A16 and A16S formats. Replaced by the 52036 (own spirit level) on the last bodies — see the swcm-newfinder variant. For critical focusing the focusing screen adapter 41025 replaces the magazine and accepts any Hasselblad hood or prism.

Where sources disagree

First
  • 1980 — Hasselblad Historical's model table; Wildi, The Hasselblad Manual (1980): 'SWC/M cameras introduced in 1980'; Kamerastore; German and Swedish Wikipedia
  • 1979 — Ken Rockwell ('1979 ~ 1982: SWC/M'); Gary Ayton; Sunrise Camera; one of Japanese Wikipedia's two dates
  • February 1980 — Japanese Wikipedia's other date, attributed to its principal reference

Better supported: 1980

A 1979 announcement with 1980 deliveries would reconcile the two; no consulted source says so. The 1 January 1980 U.S. dealer list still names the camera 'Super-Wide C'.

Last
  • 1988 — Hasselblad Historical; English, German and Swedish Wikipedia; the 903 SWC is dated 1988–2001
  • 1989 — camera-wiki.org; Ken Rockwell, who starts the 903 SWC in 1989; Blue Moon Camera

Better supported: 1988

CF lens introduced on the SWC/M
  • 1982 — Hasselblad Historical; Ken Rockwell (Photokina 1982); Kamerastore; Swedish Wikipedia
  • 1983 — Japanese Wikipedia; Akagi Koichi

Better supported: 1982

First
  • 1985 — Hasselblad Historical; German Wikipedia; Kamerastore
  • 1986 — Ken Rockwell

Better supported: 1985

Hasselblad's 1985 product catalogue still supplies the 52035 finder and lists the CF camera as 10050/10198; the 1987 catalogue supplies the 52036 under 10051/10199. A Victor Hasselblad Inc. newsletter copyrighted 1988 announces the finder to U.S. dealers, so U.S. deliveries may have lagged.

First SWC/M serial
  • 142112 — Japanese Wikipedia (SWC second block 141001–142111)
  • about UE 141800 — Ken Rockwell

Neither names a source. If Rockwell is right the SWC/M began inside the block Wikipedia assigns to the SWC; a factory conversion programme for SWCs makes the boundary softer still.

Weight (grams)
  • 960 g — Hasselblad's 1985 and 1987 catalogues, '2 lb 2 oz', body with lens and finder
  • 867 g — Kamerastore, body only
  • 941 g with finder / 871 g without — Ken Rockwell's measurements of a 903 SWC, the same body casting

Better supported: 960

The figures describe different configurations rather than contradicting one another.

What reviewers say

History

The M stands for a magazine. Wildi’s 1980 edition of The Hasselblad Manual explains what the SWC could not do: on Superwide bodies “up to 1980” neither Polaroid magazine would fit, because the tripod plate stood a little too high behind the body for the magazine’s lower catches and the winding crank protruded past the back, so a service centre had to shim the plate and shave the crank. “The SWC/M cameras introduced in 1980 have included the necessary shimming and a different winding crank.” Kamerastore describes the same change from the outside — finder shoe raised, quick-release base lowered, crank altered — and the 1985 instruction book shows what the crank now does: with the Magazine 100 for Polaroid film attached a full turn is impossible, so the ratcheting crank is pumped “up and down until it stops”. The Polaroid 80 still does not fit. Japanese Wikipedia adds that service stations converted existing SWCs on request, so bodies with an SWC plate and M-specification mechanics exist.

Hasselblad’s own paperwork shows how little the factory treated this as a new model. The U.S. suggested-retail list of April 1973 and the dealer list effective 1 January 1980 both sell the “Super-Wide C” under product numbers 10049 (chrome, body with lens, no finder or magazine) and 10197 (black), and the 1985 product catalogue, by then listing the CF camera as 10050/10198, refers back to “the old SWC/M camera models 10049/10197”. The January 1980 prices were $2,085.00 and $2,100.00 for the bare bodies, $2,895.00 and $2,925.00 with A12 and finder. New numbers came only with the CF lens and again with the new finder: the 1987 catalogue lists 10051 chrome and 10199 black, supplied with viewfinder 52036. Kamerastore’s “Type I / Type II” labels map onto that sequence, except that its 10199 listing is marked Type I while being supplied with the 52036 — the catalogue puts 10199 on the new-finder body.

The lens is the reason the body exists. Zeiss’s C-generation data sheet (Cat. No. 104117, printed X/73) gives the Biogon f/4.5 38 mm as 8 elements in 5 components, 38.6 mm actual focal length, 90° across the diagonal, 0.3 m close focus and 560 g, and says the short back focal distance means it “cannot be used in the Hasselblad 500 C/M – 500 EL/M” and is “therefore assembled in its own special camera body”. The CF sheet (10 48 67) puts a number on it: the last vertex sits 18.8 mm from the film. Hasselblad Historical dates the CF barrel on the SWC/M to 1982, the year Ken Rockwell has the Prontor-shuttered CF line shown at Photokina; Japanese Wikipedia and Akagi Koichi say 1983. What changed was the mount, not the glass — the CF sheet repeats the C sheet’s 8/5 construction and 38.6 mm; the recomputation for lead-free glass belongs to the 905 SWC’s CFi lens of 2001. On the camera the CF meant a Prontor shutter with X sync only and no self-timer where the Synchro-Compur had M sync and a V setting, rubber grip rings and a cross-coupling button (1985 catalogue), Bay 60 filters in place of the Series 63 drop-ins, printed rather than engraved scales, and a focus throw Rockwell gives as about 120° against about 270°.

The finder is the other identification point. The 52035 is an all-metal direct-view finder whose left-hand prism reflects the level set into the body’s top plate; the 1985 manual notes it takes in a little more than the lens at any distance, about 6 in extra at the top and 3 in at each side. The 52036 that replaced it has a plastic housing, a locking shoe, its own spirit level readable from above or through the eyepiece, format corners for the 16 and 16S magazines, and a close-up lens at the foot of the field that reads the CF lens’s distance scale (Victor Hasselblad Inc.’s 1988 newsletter notes it cannot read a C lens, whose scale sits elsewhere). Once the level lived in the finder it was dropped from the body — from 1985 per Hasselblad Historical, 1986 per Rockwell. The catalogues bracket the change without settling it: the 1985 catalogue still ships the 52035 with every SWC/M, the 1987 catalogue ships the 52036 and says it “will gradually replace” the old one, and the 1988 U.S. newsletter is still introducing it.

Dating a body is easy; placing it in the run is not. The two letters before the serial give the year by Hasselblad Historical’s VHPICTURES key — RS for 1980 through RR for 1988 — and until 1979 a third letter W marked the Superwide line, so a UEW body sits at the SWC/SWC/M boundary. Japanese and Swedish Wikipedia give the SWC two blocks, 3000–15471 (Swedish: 15417) and 141001–142111, and start the SWC/M at 142112; Rockwell puts the start “around UE 141800”, inside the second SWC block. Neither names a source, and Nordin’s tables, the likely origin, have not been consulted directly. No production total is published for any SWC/M version; Kamerastore’s “at most 2000” for the C-lens camera is the only figure in circulation and is unattributed.

What remains open is most of the chronology’s edges: whether the camera was announced in 1979 or 1980; whether it ended in 1988, as Hasselblad Historical and the 903’s own 1988 date imply, or 1989, as camera-wiki and Rockwell have it; whether the CF lens arrived in 1982 or 1983; and in which year the level left the body. The catalogues, price lists and instruction book cited here fix the order of the changes and the product numbers that went with them; Nordin’s two compendia are where the years and the serial boundary would be settled, and neither has been read for this entry.

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/M
Hasselblad SWC/M — erik gould from Pawtucket RI, United States, 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/M? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $3,500 across 13 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $2,800–$3,600). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 2 days: unchanged from $3,500.

By day
DateMedianMiddle halfListings
2026-09-11$3,500$2,800–$3,60013
2026-09-06$3,500$2,800–$3,60015

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.

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

Lenses for this body: Biogon 38mm f/4.5 · Distagon 40mm f/4

Sources (27)

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.