C41
Kodak Portra 400
Kodak Portra 400 is a professional C-41 color negative film known for flexible exposure latitude, natural skin tones, and fine grain.
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The Hasselblad 500C (1957) is the founding model of the Hasselblad V system — the modular 6×6 medium-format SLR platform that remained in continuous production for nearly five decades. Designed by Victor Hasselblad and his engineering team in Gothenburg, Sweden, the 500C introduced the now-iconic combination of a light-tight body that accepts interchangeable film backs and interchangeable lenses with leaf shutters built into each optic rather than into the camera body. This architecture gives the 500C flash synchronisation at every shutter speed from 1 second to 1/500s — an advantage over focal-plane SLRs of the era that synced only at 1/60s or slower.
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C41
Kodak Portra 400 is a professional C-41 color negative film known for flexible exposure latitude, natural skin tones, and fine grain.
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Kodak Portra 160 is a professional C-41 color negative film with fine grain, soft contrast, and natural color.
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Kodak Ektar 100 is a fine-grain C-41 color negative film with saturated color and high sharpness.
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About this camera
The camera that defined modular medium-format photography — the 500C launched the V system in 1957 and set the standard every subsequent 6×6 SLR was measured against.
| Field | Value |
|---|
| Format | 120 / 220 film (6×6 cm, 12/24 frames) |
| Mount | Hasselblad V bayonet |
| Years | 1957–1970 |
| Shutter | Leaf shutter in lens: 1s – 1/500s + B |
| Flash sync | All speeds (leaf shutter) |
| Meter | None built-in |
| Modes | Manual |
| Finder | Waist-level (fixed); prism optional |
| Weight | ~1,450 g (body only, without back) |
| Battery | None required |
Victor Hasselblad had been supplying aerial cameras to the Swedish military since the 1940s. The 500C was his bid to apply that modular, rugged engineering to commercial and professional studio photography. When it launched at Photokina 1957, the 500C replaced the earlier 1000F and 1600F — which used focal-plane shutters prone to reliability problems — with a simpler, more reliable architecture: the shutter lives in the lens, the body is purely a light-tight housing and mechanical linkage.
Carl Zeiss supplied the initial lens range from Oberkochen: the Planar 80mm f/2.8, Distagon 60mm f/5.6, Sonnar 150mm f/4, and Tele-Tessar 250mm f/5.6. All lenses carried the Compur leaf shutter mechanism and Zeiss T* anti-reflection coating (added to production lenses from the mid-1970s). The Planar 80/2.8 became the definitive Hasselblad portrait lens — one of the most influential camera lenses of the 20th century.
The 500C was succeeded in 1970 by the 500C/M, which added the interchangeable focusing screen system to allow users to swap between split-prism, microprism, and plain ground-glass screens.
The 500C established every design convention that subsequent 6×6 SLRs — including the Bronica EC, Rollei SL66, and Mamiya 500 series — either adopted or reacted against. Its modular architecture (interchangeable lens, body, back) was widely copied because it solved a genuine problem: professional photographers needed to change film types quickly, use a variety of focal lengths, and trust the camera to not fail during a paid assignment.
For contemporary users, the 500C is the most affordable entry point into the Hasselblad V system. Its primary limitation relative to the 500C/M is the non-interchangeable focusing screen — 500C screens are ground-glass only, without the split-prism aid of later Acute-Matte versions. However, all V-system lenses, film backs, and accessories fit the 500C identically, making the entire V ecosystem accessible on a 500C body.
Hasselblad V bayonet mount. All V-system lenses with integral Compur leaf shutter fit: Zeiss Distagon 40mm f/4, Distagon 50mm f/4, Planar 80mm f/2.8 (standard), Planar 100mm f/3.5, Sonnar 150mm f/4, Sonnar 180mm f/4, Tele-Tessar 250mm f/5.6, 350mm f/5.6, 500mm f/8. Accessories: A12 (120/12-frame), A16 (120/16-frame 4.5×6), A24 (220/24-frame) film backs; Polaroid back; 45° prism finder; waist-level finder; extension tubes; bellows; Kindermann tripod head.
BW
Ilford HP5 Plus is a flexible ISO 400 black-and-white film with classic grain and strong push-processing tolerance.
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Kodak Tri-X 400 is a classic black-and-white film known for strong tonality, visible grain, and documentary character.
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