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The Hasselblad 1000f is a slightly modified version of the 1600f, the first camera made by Victor Hasselblad in Sweden.
It's hard to believe that this camera is from the same era as other cameras made in the early 1950's. It's a different breed both in terms of how it's made and how it works. First of all, its a single lens reflex camera. In the 1950's SLR's were relatively rare - but SLRs completely took over for press and professional work in the 1960's - and I'm sure that the Hasselblad 1000f was a major inspiration for the transition.
The 1000f is also an incredibly ergonomic design. The evidence of how great the design is lies in the fact that the basic Hasselblad design hasn't changed in the past 50 years - and during that time the Hasselblad has remained the most respected medium format camera in the world.
The 1000f is a very simple camera to use - in part because it is a very complicated camera mechanically - although you don't see any of that complexity on the surface. The wonderful things about it are you view and focus through the taking lens, the film backs are interchangeable, the lenses are interchangeable, and it has a waist-level viewfinder or an optional pentaprism finder. It's a highly versatile system camera and yet it's also very small and light.
It also has an automatic frame counter and mechanical safety mechanisms to protect the user from accidentally shooting with the dark slide in place and against removing the film magazine without the dark slide in place.
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