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Specification

Manufacturer description #1

"The System." Now It has electric drive. So you can create where you used to just crank.

People are always saying, "'the system' is more versatile than anything called 'camera'." Well, if you thought that before, you won't believe "the system" now. You see, now there's the Hasselblad 500EL, the first electric motor-driven 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 single lens reflex. And it'll let you do what you've probably never been able to do before. The new 500EL cocks the shutter and advances the film automatically. So you can clickclickclick off a whole series of shots without ever looking up. Or moving a muscle. Without ever losing sight of your subject. Right now you might say "Fine, I want the 500EL. But what am I supposed to do with all the Hasselblad lenses and backs I have?" The answer is simple: use the 500EL as an addition to "the system." It will take any lenses, magazines, or viewfinders, and most accessories the 500C will take. What else can the 500EL do? Well, first of all, you don't have to even be near it when you're clicking off pictures. (There's nothing worse than being tied to your camera when you'd like to be working with your subject.) So by using the 500EL with a special release cord, you can clickclickclick at distances of up to 200 yards. Or by adding the new remote-control Hasselblad radio transmittr, you can clickclickclick from even miles away. And then there's time lapse. By adding a Hasselblad timer to the 500EL you can shoot automatically at intervals anywhere from one second to sixty hours. (With that kind of time-lapse, we dare say there's little you can't do)

Now you know about the 500EL. But it's only part of the story. The rest has to do with interchangeability. The thing that makes "the system" the system.

In the area of lenses, "the system" doesn't have one or two. The number is seven. 50, 80, 120, 120s, 150, 250 and 500mm. Each is Zeiss. Each has a Synchro-Compur shutter. Each is completely interchangeable. And film backs. You get a choice of four. Three for roll film, each in a different format. One for cut film. Each interchangeable. So you can go from color to black and white, indoor to outdoor film mid-roll. Viewfinders, too. "The system" gives you five. (That's four more than most "cameras.") Eye-level prisms, magnifying hoods, the works. All interchangeable. Plus, a truck-full of accessories.

Now, with the addition of the 500EL, we can say, more than ever, "This is a system. Not to be confused with a camera."

Manufacturer description #2

Hasselblad 500 EL - the first electric motor-driven 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 SLR - is a camera far above the ordinary. A reliable electric motor gives the photographer greater freedom to concentrate on picture composition by relieving him of the work of advancing the film and cocking the shutter. He can work faster and more effectively. After exposure, the Hasselblad 500 EL automatically advances the film to the next frame, cocks the shutter and is immediately ready for the next shot.

By means of long release cords, timer or radio control, the Hasselblad 500 EL can be operated remotely. Using the timer, exposures can be made at intervals ranging between two seconds and 60 hours. The camera works day and night without requiring any attention other than loading with film. A radio transmitter can be used to release the camera at even greater distances. In addition to its own special features, the Hasselblad 500 EL exploits all the versatility and interchangeability of the entire Hasselblad system.

Offering fresh and wider photographic scope, the Hasselblad 500 EL sets new standards in modern camera design.

The Hasselblad 500 C, 500 EL and Super Wide C comprise the nucleus of a comprehensive camera system. Characterized by interchangeability and versatility, the Hasselblad system is the master of any photographic subject. Numerous accessories are carefully conceived and skillfully designed to integrate with the camera. High-resolution Carl Zeiss lenses with focal lengths ranging between 38 and 500 mm allow a choice of any desired picture area. Different negative sizes and types of film can be switched in seconds, using the interchangeable film magazines. Extra viewfinders augment the standard focusing hood. Filters provide dramatic picture effects. Close-up accessories permit the photographer to explore unimagined areas of photography.

Examples are endless; Hasselblad has absolutely everything. Hasselblad is therefore the natural choice for demanding professional and enthusiastic amateur alike. Both choose Hasselblad for versatility and virtually unlimited application.

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The Hasselblad 500 EL is an electric motor-driven 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 SLR camera. The motor is integral with the camera and is powered by one or two rechargeable batteries, each of which lasts for 1,000 exposures on a single charge. With the Hasselblad 500 EL it is possible to choose between five different ways of making an exposure by means of a selector knob. The lens - an 80 mm Zeiss Planar f. 2.8 - features a fully synchronized between-lens shutter, manual and automatic diaphragm, automatic depth-of-field indicators and exposure value scale. The film magazine for 12 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 pictures is intended for standard 120 roll film. A pop-up magnifier incorporated in the focusing hood facilitates accurate focusing on the groundglass which, due to its Fresnell lens, shows a brilliant, sharp-edged image. Lens, magazine and focusing hood are readily exchangeable. Supplied as standard with the Hasselblad 500 EL is recharge unit I for 110/220 volt a.cc operation. This unit is designed for charging one or two batteries in the camera.

Manufacturer description #3

The Hasselblad 500EL is basically a Hasselblad 500C, but it has an electric motor drive built into its base. This motor undertakes the mechanical tasks of advancing the film and cocking the shutter, giving the photographer greater freedom to concentrate on the actual photographic work, focusing and exposing. The motor is powered by one or two rechargeable batteries, each giving 1,000 exposures per charge.

The camera uses the same lenses and shutter, finder and magazine unit as the Model 500C. As it is best used with the magazine giving 70 pictures, it is usually supplied as the 500EL/70.

Manufacturer description #4

In December 1968,a third Hasselblad joined the space program - the electrically-driven 500EL. The event was the flight of Apollo 8. Two 500ELs went along - one with an 80mm lens, the other with a Zeiss Sonnar 250mm lens - plus 7 interchangeable 70mm magazines.

This was the first time that men journeyed from earth to orbit another world. The photographs from this voyage were essential in planning the forthcoming lunar landing.

The Hasselblad 500EL allowed more photographs to be taken with less effort, because no film winding was necessary. After each exposure the 500EL automatically readies itself for the next shot by advancing the film and cocking the shutter.

This Hasselblad is the only electrically-driven 2 1/4" camera on earth. Because of its automatic features, it can be successfully operated from a distance, freeing the photographer from the camera and allowing him to work more with his subject. That's part of the reason why the Hasselblad 500EL/M has won the esteem of advertising and publicity photographers, as well as sports, wildlife, industrial and scientific photographers.

Manufacturer description #5

This is the Hasselblad that took the pictures of the moon.

It looks very much like an earth Hasselblad. To be specific, it looks very much like the electrically driven Hasselblad 500 EL.

The EL looks a bit fancier, of course, because the space Hasselblad was stripped down according to NASA specifications and equipped with larger controls so that an astronaut could operate it while wearing heavy gloves. And you'll also find a hinge here and there on the space Hasselblad that you won't find on the earth EL, because anything that's unattached in a weightless space capsule floats away. But both Hasselblads are brothers under the skin. Which only goes to prove that some things true on earth are just as true 60 miles above the moon.

This came as no great surprise to NASA. By the time Hasselblad was selected for the Apollo 8 mission, it had already brought back hundreds of perfect photographs from earlier space missions, beginning in 1962. And even before that, Hasselblad had proven itself a hundred thousand times over again on earth. Yet despite Hasselblad's complex technical precision, a man who was not a photographer - an astronaut - could use it skillfully.

NASA was not the first to discover this. Scientists, engineers, industrialists, and pilots as well as a multitude of serious amateurs had already adopted Hasselblad for their own specific earthly needs...

Its single lens reflex viewing system, its enlarged format size (2 1/4 square), its eight optically perfect Carl Zeiss automatic lenses (40, 50, 80, 120, 135, 150, 250, and 500mm), and its five different instantly interchangeable film magazines allowing from 12 to 70 exposures on a single magazine load, provided unprecedented versatility and photographic freedom, with the security of total reliability even under the most extreme conditions.

In the case of the electrically driven EL, the film even advances automatically. This was crucial in the Apollo 8 flight. One of the two space Hasselblads, equipped with an 80mm lens, a transistorized timer which tripped the camera, and aimed directly at the surface of the moon, automatically photographed a picture every 20 seconds for three of the 10 revolutions around the moon. Similar automatic set-ups have been employed on earth with equally successful results.

But one may not need an electrically driven Hasselblad. In that case, there are two other Hasselblads, the standard 500C and the Super Wide C with a 38mm, 90° angle of view Zeiss Biogon f/4.5 lens.

Both have been "spaced tested" in the earlier Mercury and Gemini flights, and in July of 1966 one of the NASA Astronauts accidentally sent a Super Wide C into orbit around the earth.