Rare 33-Year-Old Blue and Gold Hasselblad Camera Appears for Sale
To celebrate its 50th year manufacturing cameras, Hasselblad released a special-edition version of its 503 CX V-System medium-format film camera. The “Golden Blue” camera hit stores in 1991, limited to just 700 units worldwide. Hasselblad fans have the rare opportunity to purchase a used one right now from Park Cameras.
As spotted by Amateur Photographer, the camera comes in its original box — albeit one that shows signs of age after more than 30 years — and ships with an A12 film back, accompanying Planar CF 80mm f/2.8 lens, leather display case, camera strap, and paperwork.
The Hasselblad Golden Blue 503 CX is among the most beautiful cameras ever made. The camera body and matching film back sport a blue leather covering with 24-karat gold trim. The lens is black but includes a 24-karat gold front ring. The camera is individually numbered and its leather display case is also blue.
Park Cameras is asking £5,999 for the camera, which works out to about $7,533 at current exchange rates. It’s a fairly substantial price, although not outside the realm of normalcy given sales data for the camera dating back to 2003.
At CollectiBlend, two dozen recorded sales of the camera show inflation-adjusted prices ranging from just under $3,000 to nearly $9,400. The most recent sale on record was in 2020, when an “A” condition camera sold for just under $4,100.
It is not immediately clear what condition grade the unit at Park Cameras would get, but the included images show a very nice-looking camera. It is number 237 of 700, which probably doesn’t affect its value too much.
As for the Golden Blue Hasselblad’s original launch price, well, that has proven remarkably difficult to track down. A forum user on Photrio, Len Robertson, offered some intel back in 2010. A similar camera, the Hasselblad 500 C/M Chrome, which also came with an A12 magazine and 80mm f/2.8 Carl-Zeiss lens retailed for $1,995 in 1990. Extra A12 backs ran photographers $479 then, and the 50mm and 150mm CF lenses were $1,628 and $1,759, respectively.
In 1991, a Hasselblad 500 Classic Kit was $2,295 at Adorama. The 50mm and 150mm lenses jumped in price, too, reaching prices over $2,100.
If the Golden Blue camera kit was $2,500, which seems reasonable given that it comes with a case, that would be around $5,730 after accounting for inflation. If it were $3,000, that’d be $6,875. And if it was $5,000 brand new, which seems a bit high, that would be nearly $11,460 in today’s dollars.
In any case, the beautiful used Golden Blue Hasselblad kit can be purchased for just over $7,500.
If any readers happen to know what the Golden Blue camera cost when it was brand-new, please let us know. Browsing old scans of Hasselblad catalogs and photography magazine issues has not yet borne fruit.
Image credits: Park Camera
