For the seller

Rolleiflex and Hasselblad: why they are wanted

Rolleiflex and Hasselblad are the two names in medium format that almost everyone has heard of, and with reason. Both were built to professional standards, both are still used to make photographs today, and both are collected worldwide. Which ones are most sought after comes down to the exact model, the lens, and how the camera has been kept.

These are also the cameras most often found at the heart of a collection: one or two of them on the shelf, surrounded by the 35mm cameras, the lenses and the accessories that came after. Here is what you are looking at.

Rolleiflex: the twin lens

A Rolleiflex is the classic twin-lens reflex: two lenses above each other, waist-level finder, made in Germany from the 1920s onward. The models with the faster f/2.8 taking lenses and the late models are the most sought after, and the taking lens matters: the same camera was sold with different lenses, and collectors care which one is on it.

Rolleiflex also made simpler models, and other makers built twin-lens cameras in the same shape. Some of those are loved too, but the name on the front and the exact model make a real difference, so note everything engraved on the camera before drawing conclusions.

Hasselblad: the system

A Hasselblad is a system camera: body, lens, film back and finder all separate, all swappable. The 500-series, made for decades with Carl Zeiss lenses, is the one most people have, and it went to the moon in modified form, which has never hurt its reputation.

Because it is a system, the parts matter as much as the body. Extra film backs, finders and above all the Zeiss lenses each count on their own, and a body with its matching lens and back is more interesting than the parts scattered. Keep every cap, hood, back and finder together, including the ones that look like spares.

What to check, without opening anything

  • The glass. Look through the lens toward a bright window. Clear is good; haze, threads or spots are common and matter.
  • The leather and the seams. A camera kept dry and used now and then usually looks it.
  • The slow speeds. If the shutter already fires, one click at a slow speed says a lot. If it does not fire, leave it be; forcing a wound-down camera does damage.
  • The set. Boxes, caps, hoods, straps, manuals, receipts. With these two makers, completeness is taken seriously.

Do not oil, force or open anything, and do not run a film through just to test it for us. Untested is normal, and it only needs saying.

If it is part of a collection

A Rolleiflex or a Hasselblad rarely lives alone. Around it are usually the earlier cameras, the lenses, the meters and the boxes of slides that tell you what it was all for. That whole is what we buy, and the reason the best pieces are on the shelf is the same reason we want the shelf entire.

We look at the collection as a whole, from your photographs and, when it is worth the journey, in person, anywhere in the world. Before anything is sold we record the story of how it was built, and that story goes with every camera to whoever owns it next, with the collector's name on it. Our guide to where to sell a vintage camera collection sets out all the routes honestly, and Pass it on explains ours.

Short answers

How much is a Rolleiflex worth?

It depends on the exact model, the taking lens and the condition, and the differences are large. Note everything engraved on the camera and compare like with like, or tell us about the whole collection and we will look at it together.

Why are Rolleiflex and Hasselblad so sought after?

They were built to professional standards, they are still used to make photographs today, and film photographers and collectors both want them. Demand comes from two sides at once.

Should I sell the Hasselblad separately from the rest?

You can, but the collection is worth more as itself: the best pieces are what make the rest a collection, and most buyers of whole collections will not take one that has been picked through.

Why we keep the story

A collection is not a pile of objects.

It is years of somebody deciding what was worth keeping, and sold off piece by piece that is the first thing to go. So before anything is sold, we sit down with you and record it: how it started, what the best of it was, the piece that got away. That story stays on every object with the collector's name, and goes with it to whoever keeps it next. You get a page where you can see where each piece ended up.

Three ways the story gets recorded

On camera, where it lives. We travel to the collection and film it properly: you talking about how it started, the room and the shelves as they are, the objects in your hands. Wherever in the world the collection happens to be.

On a call. If the collection is sent to us rather than collected, we have the same conversation over a video call and write it up, with one photograph of the shelf as it stood.

In writing. If you would rather not talk at all, answer a handful of questions in your own time and in your own words. It goes on the objects exactly as you wrote it.

It never changes anything else, and you can always say no to it. Some conversations run ten minutes, some an afternoon. Read the collections we have taken on

If it is a whole collection

We buy whole collections, not single pieces: one person takes all of it, and the story is kept with every object. Tell us what you have and a person replies within two days.

How passing it on works, in full

1The collection
What is in it
Pick everything that applies. Something else opens a line to tell us.
Roughly how many pieces
A guess is fine. Nobody has counted.
How would you describe it
There is no wrong answer here, and a lot of ordinary is a normal collection.
One or two sentences. This is the question we care about most.
2Where it is, and how it could reach us
Town and country is enough.
How could it reach us
Unseend is in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Sending and bringing are as welcome as a visit; if it is sent, we pay the freight and insure it.
When does it need to be gone
No hurry is a good answer. It lets us plan a visit properly.
3Condition and photographs
In your own words. Broken, incomplete or untested is fine and is normal; it only needs saying.
Photographs
Three to ten photographs The room and the shelves as they stand. Phone photographs are fine, and a slow walk round on video says more than any of them.Send them to hello@unseend.com
Or attach them to the reply that comes back within two days. Any of them works, and nothing is looked at until a person reads it. Do not clean up first — the shelves as they stand tell us more than a tidy arrangement.
4The number, and the story
A number or a range, whatever you have in mind. You will get an honest answer either way.
Would you tell the story of it
Filmed at the collection wherever it is, on a video call, or written in your own time. It never changes the price.
5How to reach you
The reply comes here, from a person, within two days.
Only if you would rather be called.

Answered within two days, by the person who would come, and by email at every step after that. Nothing you send is shared with anyone, and your photographs are deleted if we do not go ahead.

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