Grandagon-N 75mm f/4.5 (ArcBody)
Rodenstock · Hasselblad V · 1997 · Grandagon-N (quasi-symmetrical wide-angle)
Also known as: Rodenstock Grandagon-N 75mm f/4.5 · Grandagon-N 75mm · Hasselblad ArcBody 75mm
Variants & identification
| Variant | Mount | Years | Serial ranges | Production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hasselblad ArcBody mount · Manually cocked leaf shutter, 1s–1/500 and B, flash sync at all speeds | Hasselblad ArcBody (its own bayonet — not the V-system lens mount) | 1997–2001 | 8UER13565 — the only ArcBody 75mm serial on public record, from the outfit sold at Leitz Photographica auction 28; its ER date code reads 1998 | — |
- Rodenstock published a serial list of its own. The table issued by Rodenstock Photo Optics — later Qioptiq Photonics — gives the highest serial number reached in each year: 11,358,165 at the end of 1996, then 11,407,513 for 1997, 11,468,541 for 1998, 11,521,123 for 1999, 11,588,264 for 2000 and 11,649,679 for 2001. It dates the large-format Grandagon-N in its Copal shutter; no ArcBody-mounted example has been recorded carrying a number from it, so the table is set down here for the optical cell rather than for this lens.
- No serial block and no production total has been published for the ArcBody lenses in either mount. What is recorded above is one dated outfit and a documented coding scheme, not a list.
How to tell them apart
- The optical cell is Rodenstock's large-format lens of the same name; what is particular to the ArcBody version is the mount, the helical and the shutter
Hasselblad ArcBody mount:
- Hasselblad catalogue number 27075; engraved Rodenstock, not Zeiss
- Built-in leaf shutter with its own cocking lever, speed ring, open/close preview lever and flash terminal — the ArcBody body has no shutter of its own
- Helical focusing ring on the lens mount, with a depth-of-field scale beside it
- Always used with the Extension tube 26 ArcBody, which Hasselblad's manual treats as part of the lens
Serial-range notes
- the two letters that follow the 8U prefix
- The rule for dating one. These lenses are numbered by Hasselblad, not by Rodenstock: the serial reads as a product-type prefix, then two letters that encode the year, then a five-digit sequence — 8UER13565. The letters are decoded with Hasselblad's key word VHPICTURES, in which V is 1, H 2, P 3, I 4, C 5, T 6, U 7, R 8, E 9 and S 0. ER is therefore 98, and that lens was made in 1998. Applied across the four years the ArcBody was sold, the codes read EU for 1997, ER for 1998, EE for 1999, SS for 2000 and SV for 2001.
- the 8U prefix
- The prefix identifies the focal length, not the date. The one outfit whose three lenses are recorded together carries 8U on the 75mm, 8S on the 35mm and 8T on the 45mm, all with the same ER year code. Hasselblad Historical describes the prefix added to serial numbers from 1990 onward as a product-type code that tells the owner nothing.
- 8UER13565
- A Grandagon-N 4.5/75mm carrying this number sold at Leitz Photographica auction 28, in a near-mint ArcBody outfit whose body, 452ER1248, the auction house dated to 1998. The 35mm (8SER13052) and the 45mm (8TER10168) in the same case share the ER code.
Specifications
- Formula
- Grandagon-N (quasi-symmetrical wide-angle)
- Construction
- 8 elements / 4 groups
- Aperture range
- f/4.5–f/45
- Shutter
- Copal-type leaf shutter in the lens, 1s–1/500 and B
- Min. focus
- 0.9 m
- Weight
- 440 g
- Filter
- 67 mm
- Country
- Germany
What reviewers say
- Michael Reichmann (Luminous Landscape), ArcBody with all three Rodenstocks (blog) — Exceptional optics with coverage to spare for the ArcBody's movements, in a kit small enough to scout handheld before the tripod comes out. The mandatory centre filter turns ISO 100 into 25 and puts wind into the foliage, the finder does not sit at 90°, and he dislikes focusing cloths and upside-down ground glass.
Optical formula — Grandagon-N (quasi-symmetrical wide-angle)
History
The longest of the three ArcBody lenses, and the only one drawn from Rodenstock’s Grandagon-N line rather than the apochromatic Apo-Grandagon series — a distinction Rodenstock draws itself, since the Apo-Grandagons use extra-low-dispersion glass and this does not. It is eight elements in four groups like the others, quasi-symmetric about the shutter, with a conspicuously large and deeply curved front shell.
Its image circle is 195mm, more than twice the diagonal of the frame it covers, so it is the lens on which the ArcBody’s movements are least constrained: Rodenstock’s shift table for 6×7 runs to 63mm, far past anything the body can reach. The angle of view is 105° at f/22, and the recommended working apertures are f/16 to f/22 rather than the f/8 to f/11 of the wider two.
One detail is not optional. Hasselblad’s manual states that the Extension tube 26, although removable, is intended to be an integral part of this lens and must always be attached when it is used; the troubleshooting page lists a missing tube as the reason a 75mm will not produce a sharp image. The lens also ships with its own shade, a stray-light protection slide, and correction slides of 10° and 20° in place of the small, medium and large slides supplied with the other two.
Rodenstock’s figure of 440g is for the large-format cell with a Copal 0 shutter. As with its siblings, Hasselblad published no ArcBody-specific weight, no price and no production total, and the lens is found today mostly in the complete kits it was sold in.
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 wanted — shot with a Grandagon-N 75mm f/4.5 (ArcBody)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).
Live listings
- Rodenstock Grandagon-N 4,5/75 MC PP 01S Großbildobjektiv - 75mm F/4.5 Lens
- Rodenstock 75mm f4.5 Grandagon-N MC Copal 0 Lens #221
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Listings updated 2026-09-05. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.