Australian Camera – September-October 2019

rguably the

most significant

photograph

of the 20th

century was

recorded 50

years ago on

a specially-

prepared

Hasselblad camera after the Apollo

11 lunar module, named Eagle,

had successfully landed on the

surface of the Moon. The date was,

of course, 20 July 1969, and the

camerausedwastheHasselblad

ElectricDataCameraorHEDC,

specificallymodifiedforlunar

photography– henceitscolloquial

titleofthe“Mooncamera”– and

basedonthe500ELmotordriven

6x6cm rollfilm SLR. It’s also

referred to as the Hasselblad

Data Camera or HDC.

The HEDC body was fitted with

a Zeiss Biogon 60mm f5.6 lens

and a 70mm film magazine which

contained specially-formulated

thin-base Kodak rollfilms – either

Panatomic-X fine-grained ISO 80

B&W negative film or Ektachrome

64 colour transparency stock.

Ektachrome 160 was also used.

The colour films yielded 160 6x6cm

frames per magazine and the

The first man on the Moon 50 years ago

was also, obviously, the first photographer

on the Moon, and he used a camera

specifically designed by Hasselblad to work

in a very challenging new environment.

Hasselblad Celebrates tHe 50tH anniversary Of apOllO 11

Above AND beyoND

MOOnlandinG 5O

th

anniversary

 Based on the 500EL, the Hasselblad

Electric Data Camera (HEDC) was used

exclusively on the lunar surface by

astronaut Neil Armstrong after the

Apollo 11 lander, Eagle, successfully

touched down on the Moon on 20

July 1969. The silver finish was

designed to help stabilise the

camera’s internal temperature.