The success of the designs and cameras, and the money they generated, helped Victor’s company to expand. Development continued, new designs were invented. At every step of the way Victor took advantage of his large contact network and his own experience as a photographer, incorporating the input and advice he received.
In 1957 Hasselblad followed the success of his first cameras with a new revolutionary product, the Hasselblad 500C. This sensational camera had lenses with a central leaf shutters and flash synch on all shutter speeds. Then came the Hasselblad SWA in 1954, followed by the wide angle Hasselblad SWC (1957), and the motor operated Hasselblad 500 EL (1965). These cameras formed the base of the Hasselblad system for many years. The basic philosophy behind the system – its modularity, versatility, and reliability – has guided the Hasselblad product line for over fifty years. The Hasselblad approach has been copied and emulated by many, but never equaled. The Hasselblad name became synonymous with the utmost in camera reliability and image quality.
This reputation was surely an influencing factor when a young NASA astronaut took the first Hasselblad into space in 1962. This journey was the beginning of a long and mutually beneficial collaboration with the world’s largest space agency. Hasselblad in space
In 1969 the Hasselblad space saga continued with Apollo 11, and the first images of man on the moon and of earth from the moon captured by Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin Jr., with a Hasselblad 500EL/70. There are perhaps no images in the history of photography more famous and more influential than those taken with Hasselblads in space. And true to form, Victor and his engineers used the advances and product developments that arose from the space cameras to add groundbreaking features and functions to the cameras they sold here on earth. The world had been his development lab before; and now the lab got bigger still.
