Hasselblad finishing quality (not as in the past )

[sergio caetano]

The first image is the external lower side of my old 500 CM , it is perfect.

The second is my 503 CW ; see the white substance coming from a component that didn’t exist in 500 CM. I suppose it is from the glue used.

The third is my 501 C after I have tried to clean the same white substance leaking , here during my cleaning some parts of this component have broken.


Did somebody already have this problem ?

Thanks

 

[itsdoable]

That white substance is the black plastic base (and feet) oxidizing. Plastics contains plastisizers and stabilizers, and the quality of the plastic (longevity) depends on these ingredients. It is almost impossible to tell the quality of a new piece of plastic until it's aged a few years. Thus it has been difficult for manufactures to perform good QA on these items. Hasselblad had longevity issues with these parts, but my only body with the plastic feet are still in good shape (obviously a good batch). They are not the only ones to had these issues, there are a lot of manufactured items that have one plastic part that is always broken - one of the reasons plastics have a bad rap.

 

[sergio caetano]

Itsdoable
Thanks for your answer.
The truth is that may 500cm was made in Gotemborg. The other two must be made in some place in Asia.

 

[sergio caetano]

Just for knowledge ; this was the answer from Hasselblad :
Beatrice.Dobirta (Hasselblad)

May 7, 2020, 12:55:29 PM GMT+2

Dear Sergio Caetano,

Thank you for contacting Hasselblad Customer Support.

Unfortunately, we are not able to replace this part due to the lack of spare parts, but we suggest you contact one of our partners in Germany, Ulf Kuehn, who is specialized in Hasselblad legacy lenses and cameras. Matbe he has a solution.

Hasselblad Vertriebsgesellschaft mbH
An der Strusbek 32
22926 Ahrensburg, Deutschland/Germany
+49 4102 491 36
ulf.kuehn@hasselblad.com

We hope this is of help to you.

Best regards,

Hasselblad Customer Support

Hasselblad.com

 

[etn]

Itsdoable
Thanks for your answer.
The truth is that may 500cm was made in Gotemborg. The other two must be made in some place in Asia.

?? First time I hear this. To my knowledge all 500-series bodies were made in Sweden. If someone has evidence of the opposite, please provide.

 

[GLS]

?? First time I hear this. To my knowledge all 500-series bodies were made in Sweden. If someone has evidence of the opposite, please provide.

They were all made in Sweden. I think the OP was just being flippant.

I have a 501CM that's about 20 years old and it doesn't have this problem. Possibly the OP just got unlucky with the batch of plastic that was used for that particular foot, or possibly it was caused by an adverse reaction to storage conditions (very high humidity for example).