11 researched events, 1841 to present. Each is dated as its sources date it and carries the references it rests on.
Read the Hasselblad company history →
Fritz Viktor Hasselblad founded F.W. Hasselblad & Co in Gothenburg in 1841 as a general trading company. The family moved into photographic imports in the 1880s and became the Swedish distributor for George Eastman’s products. Hasselblad Fotografiska AB was separated as a dedicated photographic business in 1908. Victor Hasselblad, born in 1906, learned the trade through the family business and international work before opening Victor Foto with Erna Hasselblad in Gothenburg in 1937.
Victor Foto processed, copied, and enlarged photographs and developed a camera workshop. Erna Hasselblad was a business partner, board member, and operational figure whose contribution has been understated in older accounts. Swedish Air Force interest in an improved aerial reconnaissance camera gave Victor’s workshop the commission that turned repair and retail experience into camera manufacture.
Under the name Ross AB, Victor’s team put the handheld HK-7 aerial camera into serial production in 1941 and followed it with the larger fixed SKa4. Hasselblad’s official history records 240 HK-7 units from 1941 to 1943 and 342 military cameras of all types delivered from 1941 to 1945. Interchangeable magazines and compact mechanical packaging developed for the military work informed the postwar civilian project.
Hasselblad presented its first civilian modular 6×6 single-lens reflex camera in New York on 6 October 1948. Initially called simply the Hasselblad and later named 1600F, it used a focal-plane shutter and interchangeable Kodak lenses, magazines, and viewfinders. Early mechanisms were delicate, and the 1000F followed with a slower top shutter speed and extensive mechanical revisions. The fixed-lens Supreme Wide Angle added a second route into the system through the Zeiss Biogon concept before the 500 series.
The First Hasselblad Consumer Camera · A Concise Tabulated History of Hasselblad Camera Models
The 500C of 1957 replaced the body’s focal-plane shutter with a leaf shutter in each lens, enabling flash synchronization at every speed. Carl Zeiss engineered and manufactured the V-system optics to Hasselblad requirements and also engineered the shutters used in those lenses. The 500C/M, motorized EL cameras, SWC family, and extensive backs and finders expanded the same modular logic. Hasselblad reports about 76,700 500C bodies made from 1957 to 1970.
Hasselblad 500 Series · The evolution of Hasselblad lenses · A Concise Tabulated History of Hasselblad Camera Models
Walter Schirra carried a modified 500C on Mercury-Atlas 8 in 1962. NASA and its contractors progressively altered Hasselblad bodies, magazines, finishes, lubricants, controls, and lenses for Gemini and Apollo. Apollo 11 carried three 500EL cameras; the lunar-surface data camera used a reseau plate and Zeiss Biogon 60mm f/5.6. Hasselblad and the Hasselblad Foundation describe the formal relationship as continuing until 2003.
Astronaut Still Photography During Apollo · Hasselblad in Space · The Hasselblad Camera
Hasselblad returned to focal-plane shutters with the 2000 series in 1977 and refined the idea in the electronically metered 200 series. The 500 line continued alongside it, gaining interchangeable screens, through-the-lens off-the-film flash metering, improved mirrors, and motor-drive options. Ownership passed from Victor and Erna Hasselblad to the investment company Säfveån in the late 1970s, but surviving accounts disagree whether the decisive sale should be dated 1976 or 1978.
The Hasselblad Camera · A Concise Tabulated History of Hasselblad Camera Models
The XPan, introduced in 1998, was a joint Hasselblad-Fujifilm project sold in Japan as the Fujifilm TX-1. It exposed either 24×36mm or 24×65mm frames on the same 35mm film and used dedicated Fujinon-built lenses. In 2002 the jointly developed H1 established a new 6×4.5 autofocus platform for film and digital backs. The H system used an electronic databus and HC lenses made by Fujinon rather than the Zeiss mechanical lens family of the V system.
Hasselblad XPan · Development of the FUJIFILM TX-1 Dual-Format Camera · Hasselblad Releases Autofocus 6×4.5cm Camera System · Hasselblad H2 User Manual
Shriro Sweden, then Hasselblad’s holding company, acquired the Danish scanner and digital-back company Imacon in 2004 and combined the businesses. Imacon founder Christian Poulsen became chief executive. The merger joined Hasselblad’s camera platform to digital backs, Flextight scanners, software, and later integrated H cameras. Hasselblad’s own technical journal described H-lens development as a collaboration: Swedish engineers increasingly shaped optical design and made the shutter and diaphragm assemblies in Gothenburg, while Fujinon refined designs, ground the glass, and completed lens assembly in Japan.
The evolution of Hasselblad lenses · Hasselblad and Imacon Merge to Take on the Professional Digital Market
Ventizz Capital Fund IV acquired Hasselblad in 2011. A 2012 Sony partnership produced the Lunar and related cameras built around Sony platforms, an attempt to enter smaller-format consumer segments through exterior design and materials rather than a new Hasselblad imaging architecture. Hasselblad ended production of the 503CW in 2013, closing manufacture of the classic V-system camera line. DJI acquired a strategic minority stake and a board seat in 2015. The X1D-50c of 2016 then established a compact mirrorless medium-format X system with Swedish-designed XCD leaf-shutter lenses.
Hasselblad Set for Growth Under New European Owners · Hasselblad and DJI Form Strategic Partnership · The First Digital Compact Mirrorless Medium Format Camera · Hasselblad X System Lenses · Hasselblad Ends the V Series · Hasselblad and Sony in Partnership to Enrich Product Offerings
Industry reporting in 2017 said DJI had increased its holding to a majority stake, but no public Hasselblad or DJI release located in this research confirms the percentage change. Hasselblad continued the X system, introduced the X2D generation in 2022, and connected current digital capture to legacy bodies through the 907X and CFV backs. Dealer-reported official notice ended new H-system orders in 2023. Victor Hasselblad AB remains the legal entity in Gothenburg and continues to market medium-format cameras and lenses.
DJI Acquires Majority Stake in Hasselblad · Hasselblad Unveils the 907X & CFV 100C · Hasselblad Privacy Policy · Hasselblad Has Discontinued the H-Series Medium Format DSLRs
