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Hasselblad 500C/M shutter problem

Matt5791

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Anyone experienced this one.

Particularly on long exposures (say 1/15 +) I have found that the shutter on my 500C/M (80mm planar) in not opening when the shutter release is depressed, but instead when I start to release pressure with my finger and as the read doors close! - thereby resulting in huge underexposure as the read doors cut short the exposure.

Anyone got any ideas here?

Thanks, Matt.
 

Claire Senft

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Sounds as if the camera/lens needs servicing. Probably nothing that $200.00 would fix.
 

BrianShaw

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Okay Matt... I just left/deleted a dumb response. Now that I re-read your post I see that you've already done what I suggested. Maybe Claire is right!
 

MikeK

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Quick test. Set the shutter - trip the pre-release. Does the rear shutter curtain stay open? You can test this without a back being attached. If it does stay open then you do need a repair but you can use the pre-release mode for long exposures until you are ready to send you camera in for repair.

By the way someone posted a link to a 500C/M and 500 ELM at http://www.shampoo.ca/tmp/hasselblad-usr-manual.pdf. You might find that helpful

Mike
 

mikebarger

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I've had real good luck using David Odess for Hasselblad repair. He has a website.

Mike
 

sjperry

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Have you tried this with other lenses? Sounds like it could be a shutter problem in the lens, although they are usually very reliable. Could be timing in the body too. If the problem occurs with a different lens, then it must in the body timing.
 

TheFlyingCamera

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Definitely test the pre-release of the mirror/body doors before tripping the shutter. You can test this with the film back off to watch the body doors. If the body doors do not stay open, or only open partially, you probably need a new air bladder in the body that controls the body doors. This is an EXPENSIVE repair because they basically have to disassemble the camera to do it. I know; I had this happen to an older 500 C that I had. I would have referred you to the guy I used to use in Baltimore, but from what I understand he's out of the business these days.
 

John Koehrer

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You got snookered by your guy in Baltimore. There's no "air bladder" in a 500 series body. If the light trap was out of synch it's because it loosened on the shaft it rotates on.
Disassembly of the body is no big deal, 6 or 8 screws & the chassis drops out of the housing & just about everything is accessible on the outside of the chassis.
 

TheFlyingCamera

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It wasn't out-of-sync. The doors wouldn't stay open when the shutter button was depressed. Regardless of the presence of an air bladder in the body or not, people DO charge a lot of money to loosen those six screws. I don't know if his problem is the same as the one I had, but the camera I had was just really old (a 1960s vintage body that had been previously owned by at least two different wedding photographers) so it had a lot of internal wear. Fortunately, I didn't have to fix the body problem myself, as the guy who bought it from me was the one who took it in to get the estimate (and no, I didn't stiff him with it - he bought it knowing it had an issue).
 

mikebarger

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I don't know all the differences, but the 57, 58, 59 bodies are different animals than the 1960 and later bodies.

Dave Odess advised against these first three years as many parts are not available. 1960 on is fine.

Mike
 

John Koehrer

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Forgive me if I was out of line with my comment about being "snookered" I used to work for a fellow who seemed to be able to justify higher prices by repeating gibberish often and frequently.
The Hasselblad(500's) are probably the most simply designed camera around.
Usually problems are focused on wear of the one or two plastic(resin) parts in the camera or from being forced once one of these parts had worn & gone out of time(sequence).
It is just amazing how many people will think to themselves "maybe if I just turn a little bit more"
 
OP
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Matt5791

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Thanks for the help everyone.

This problem is intermittant when I depress the shutter release the rear doors open and 9 times out of 10 the shutter operates as it should.

Then it will manfunction several times. The rear doors open and the shutter stays closed until I release the pressure on the shutter release - and then of course the rear doors close too, cutting short the exposure.

I have found that then this happens if I just release the pressure with my finger very carefully I can circumvent the problem - the shutter operates and then I can release pressure fully.

Obviously I need to send it for service, the pain is that I am using it a lot at the moment and there is not a 2 or 3 week window to get it done.

I may buy a back up second 500C/M anyway so this might get me out of trouble.

Matt
 
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Matt5791

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Just testing it again - the problem seems to occur more with the back attached?!

and with the back off if I fire the shutter with my thumb exerting a mild amount of pressure on the bit of metal which protrudes out of the back of the body and pushes something in the magazine - this seems to provoke the problem

interesting

Oh no - now it seems to have developed another problem - the iris diaphram closes down to its set f-stop after I have wound the camera on - it just slowly closes down!

Matt
 

John Koehrer

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Matt5791
The sequence should be:
depress release button
shutter should close(pre exposure)& stops down diaphragm
light traps should open
shutter times out & closes
pressure released from rel. button
light traps should close.

It sounds as thought the problem may be in the shutter need a CLA.

Remove the back & use the prerelease button to open the blinds then watch the shutter as it functions use 1/15 or 1/8 so it's easy to see.

From this position the shutter should
1) close
2) open for the duration of the exposure and close again.

The fact that the diaphragm will close slowly suggests that the light traps are closed before the shutter actually begins the exposure.
 

tomtom83

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Hi All,
I hvae just got my first Hasselblad 500 c/m with 80 CF lens and this is the problem:
The above sequence fails. Light traps close before lens shutter. I have done a test with pre-release, result:
Shutter doesn't open until I release the shutter button.

Any suggestions on what's wrong with it?
 
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