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are available to sustain the programme.
VICTOR Hasselblad was a
Swedish optical engineer
and photographer, born in
Gothenburg in 1906. In
1940, during the Second
World War, he was asked by
his government if he could
manufacture an accurate
copy of an aerial camera
recovered from a German
reconnaissance aircraft that
had crashed in Sweden. It is
not known exactly what that
camera was, but it is likely to
have been like a Luftwaffe
Handkammer, a handheld aerial
camera that used 80mm fi lm.
Hasselblad’s famous reply was:
‘No, but I can make a better one.’
The result was the HK-7 camera,
which featured interchangeable
lenses, shot 7x9cm negatives on
80mm-wide perforated fi lm and,
unlike later refl ex cameras, had a
direct vision viewfi nder mounted
on top of the body. It was the
fi rst of several military cameras
produced by Hasselblad for
the Swedish
Air Force.In 1945, Hasselblad turned his
attention to civilian cameras. The
fi rst model he produced, in 1948,
was the 1600F, so named for
its high top shutter speed of
1/1,600sec. The camera
comprised a body to which could
be attached an impressive range
of interchangeable lenses, fi lm
backs and a variety of viewing
systems. It set the tone for a
long-running range of cameras
known for their simplicity of
use, versatility, trim dimensions,
quality imaging and reliability.
The 1600F was followed by
the 1000F in 1953, with a top
shutter speed of 1/1,000sec.
Both cameras used focal plane
shutters, but with the launch of
the Hasselblad 500 C, there
came a shift to leaf shutters in
the lenses. That was the camera
that was modifi ed for Walter
Schirra to take into space for
the fi rst time. So began the
legendary partnership between
Hasselblad and NASA.Hasselblad:
a brief history
500 EL, fi rst launched in 1965,
was basically a 500C with a
housing added to accept an
electric motor drive and the
NiCd batteries that drove it.
The fi rst use of the 500 EL
was during the Apollo 8 mission
when astronaut William Anders
photographed the now famous
‘Earthrise’ picture that showed
the Earth rising above the moon’s
horizon as the spacecraft orbited
the moon. Three missions and less
than a year later, the Hasselblad
500 EL became the fi rst camera
on the moon.For the Apollo 11 mission, three
astronauts went to the moon:
Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and
Michael Collins, who stayed in the
orbiting command module while
Armstrong and Aldrin descended
to the surface in the Eagle landing
module. Three Hasselblad 500 EL
cameras were taken along on
the mission. One stayed in the
command module, where Collins
used it to shoot his own version
of Earthrise. Two travelled in the
landing module, one of which
remained inside, while the
other was taken onto theHow the Hasselblad
500 EL became the
Data Camera that
went to the moon© HASSELBL AD
© GETT Y IMAGESThe 1600F was
Hasselblad’s first
civilian cameraThe HK-7, Hasselblad’s first cameraHow the 1600F
broke down into
its modules© HASSELBL AD