Hasselblad 500C1957

History

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.

Why It Matters

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.

Lenses & Accessories

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.

Sample Photographers / Notable Use

• Richard Avedon — used Hasselblad V-system throughout his editorial and portrait career, beginning with early 500C bodies.
• Irving Penn — lifelong Hasselblad user; the 500C was his primary tool for fashion, portrait, and still-life work from the late 1950s.
• Eve Arnold — Magnum photographer who used Hasselblad medium format for intimate documentary work.
• NASA — modified 500C bodies (with focal-plane film magazines removed and adapted for space conditions) flew on early Gemini missions before the 500EL arrived for Apollo.

References

• Camera-Wiki: Hasselblad 500C
• Wikipedia: Hasselblad 500 series