Tokyo-based camera seller Japan Camera Hunter has announced something really special to arrive in their online shop – a replica of the famous Hasselblad SWC that went into space in Nasa’s Gemini programme.
The camera is a replica of the Gemini 9 SWC and is one of the rarest Hasselblad cameras ever made.
Japan Camera Hunter’s Bellamy Hunt said in a blog post that “only 4-5 are known to exist and here is one of them”.
NASA were encouraged to use Hasselblad cameras in space after Mercury astronaut Walter Schirra brought his own example on the Mercury-Atlas-8 mission in 1962.
The modified Hasselblad, bought from a Houston photographic store, became a standard [piece of mission equipment from Gemini 9 in June 1966. One of the cameras was even lost while being used on a spacewalk – becoming Sweden’s first satellite.
Japan Camera Hunter described the cameras as: “A rare replica of the famous SWC camera made for NASA for the Gemini 9 mission (02-06 June 1966) with white lacquered magazine 12 no.CU40017, black Biogon 4.5/38mm no. 2992105, body engraved ‘Replica of modified HASSELBLAD SUPER WIDE C’.”
Hunt told Kosmo Foto: “A client contacted me about the camera as he had seen previous articles about Hasselblad on the site. He is a serious collector and has two of these, hence he wants to sell one.”
He said that he had previously heard about the cameras but this was the first time he had “seen one in the flesh.
“I have only read about them in books and on sites. This is my first.”
He said it was undoubtedly one of the most prized cameras made by Hasselblad, “very close to the actual camera that went to the Moon”.
The camera is currently listed on Japan Camera Hunter’s online shop for $12,500.
The other examples of the camera are believed to be in Smithsonian Museum in the US apart from one owned by a Japanese camera store owner.
Hunt said he has not shot the camera – as tempting as it is: “Haha, no. I do not use cameras without the express permission of the owners and this is a museum piece. I don’t really want to touch it without gloves.”
I'm a New Zealander who has been living in London since the mid-1990s, shooting film seriously since the year 2000. Kosmo Foto was launched in 2012 and has since become a film brand, with the release of my first films Kosmo Foto Mono 35mm (2017) and Kosmo Foto Mono 120 (2019).
I’m doing everything I can to promote film photography in the 21st Century, and help it survive and thrive. If you want to write something for Kosmo Foto, please drop me a line at foto.dowling@gmail.com.
