Feature or failure? Control slop in "C" setting of 200 series Hassy shutter ring

MikeSeb

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Jun 12, 2005
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Denver, CO
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Shooting today for the first time with a Hasselblad 203FE and 80 CFE lens. I shot in both focal-plane and leaf-shutter modes, trying things out and checking for problems.

Every FP shot was flawless (at least technically ). But I noticed a problem with the leaf-shutter mode shots; several frames were blank--no exposure reached the film.

I fiddled with things a bit, and noticed that when I place the body's shutter speed ring in "C" position to use the lens' shutter, I can either rotate the ring to place the C directly over the index; or I can rotate it a bit farther in that direction, to the end of the ring's travel, just past C. There's a click or bump when I do so, nothing that seems wrong or forced. But unless the ring is set past C, at the limit of its travel, I get a variety of error messages in the finder. If I'm in A exposure mode I see "Set" and the metered shutter speed. If I'm in M exposure mode, I see "- c -" only. I did this intentionally with a second test roll, and I'm fairly certain this correlated with the blank frames. With the ring all the way over past C, no problems.

This is obviously not a huge deal; the camera seems to work fine. But it struck me as odd. Is this apparent control slop "normal", or should I beware and return to seller?

Thanks gang.
 
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