Before the release of the Hasselblad 500C, Victor Hasselblad worked for the Swedish military. After some successful camera designs, he experimented with commercial cameras like the 1000F and 1600F.

Released between 1949 and 1957, these cameras were plagued by reliability issues but proved the need for a small, modular medium format system and Hasselblad’s propensity for design.

These early cameras used a different bayonet mount and could accept lenses from Kodak and Carl Zeiss. This included the first retrofocus wide angle lens made for medium format cameras, the Zeiss 50mm f5.6 Distagon. These early Hasselblad cameras laid the groundwork for Hasselblad’s continued dominance of the medium format space and showed the potential of a modular 120 system.