Hasselblad 500C/M

Produced from 1970 to 1994, the 500C/M is a modular medium format SLR using 120 or 220 film. Its interchangeable magazines, focusing screens, and Carl Zeiss lenses made it the standard camera in professional studio and location photography for three decades.

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Artists who use this(7)

Yousuf Karsh

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Karsh used the Hasselblad 500C/M alongside his large-format cameras for location and travel portraiture where a view camera was impractical. His use of Hasselblad equipment is documented in multiple interviews and in the collection of the Karsh estate.

Mary Ellen Mark

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Mark used the Hasselblad for her studio and formal portrait work alongside her documentary Leica practice. Her use of both systems is documented in her published interviews.

David Bailey

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Bailey used Hasselblad medium format cameras for his fashion and portrait work at British Vogue from the 1960s onward. His use of Hasselblad is documented in multiple interviews and in his autobiography.

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Last updated March 20, 2026

Richard Avedon

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Avedon used Hasselblad medium format cameras throughout his studio practice; his method of making multiple exposures across a single sitting — the contact sheets of which he used as compositional tools — relied on the Hasselblad's square format and the physical size of the 6×6 negative. Documented in "Evidence 1944–1994" (1994) and in accounts of his studio practice at his West 58th Street studio.

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