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.
View profile →
slr-medium-format
The 500C/M is the workhorse 6×6 medium-format SLR of the Hasselblad V system. Modular by design: body, lens, film back, and viewfinder are all separate. The leaf shutter sits inside the lens, syncing flash at every speed up to 1/500s. A spring-driven mirror flips up at exposure and stays up until you advance — a quirk that makes the 500C/M sound like nothing else (the famous "ka-CHUNK").
Reference
Recommended film stocks for the — format your camera takes.
C41
Kodak Portra 400 is a professional C-41 color negative film known for flexible exposure latitude, natural skin tones, and fine grain.
View profile →C41
Kodak Portra 160 is a professional C-41 color negative film with fine grain, soft contrast, and natural color.
View profile →C41
Kodak Ektar 100 is a fine-grain C-41 color negative film with saturated color and high sharpness.
View profile →Develop — film
We're growing the lab directory near you. Browse all labs.
Before you buy used
About this camera
The square. Modular, leaf-shuttered, and the camera Apollo 11 left on the moon.
| Field | Value |
|---|
| Format | 120 (12 6×6 frames per A12 back) / also 220, 70mm, 4.5×6 |
| Mount | Hasselblad V (bayonet) |
| Years | 1970–1994 |
| Shutter | 1s – 1/500s, leaf, in each lens |
| Flash sync | All speeds |
| Meter | None (use external or add metering prism) |
| Weight | 1,700 g (body + 80/2.8 + A12) |
| Battery | None |
Direct successor to the 500C (1957–1970). The "M" denotes user-changeable focusing screens — the only major addition. Hasselblad sold the 500C/M alongside the 500EL/M (motor-driven, the moon camera variant) and later the 503CX, 503CW, and 501C/CM. Production ended in 1994 as the V system shifted to 503-series flagships. NASA used a heavily modified 500EL "Data Camera" on Apollo 11; the body was left on the moon and only the film magazines returned to Earth — a famous footnote that became the defining marketing image for Hasselblad.
The 500C/M defined the visual grammar of fashion and editorial photography for half a century. Avedon, Penn, Newton, Lindbergh, Watson, Leibovitz — all shot Hasselblad V. The square format forced commercial photographers to commit to composition; the leaf shutter let them sync flash at any speed (so studio strobes were unrestricted by sync limits). The modular bodies meant you could change film mid-roll by swapping backs, run Polaroid backs for proofing, and rebuild any single component without sending the whole camera in.
Carl Zeiss made all the V-system lenses. Common: Planar 80/2.8 (kit), Distagon 50/4 wide, Sonnar 150/4 portrait, Distagon 60/3.5 wide, Sonnar 250/5.6 tele. C lenses (chrome) → CF lenses (Compur shutter, multicoated) → CFi/CFE (improved). Backs: A12 (12 frames 6×6), A16 (16 frames 4.5×6), A24 (24 frames 220), Polaroid back. Finders: waist-level (default), PME (metering prism), NC-2 (45° prism), CW winder.
BW
Ilford HP5 Plus is a flexible ISO 400 black-and-white film with classic grain and strong push-processing tolerance.
View profile →BW
Kodak Tri-X 400 is a classic black-and-white film known for strong tonality, visible grain, and documentary character.
View profile →