Before I describe the problem, I know that many here themselves wouldn't dare open their Hasselblad and will say, "Send it to an expert!" I may eventually do that, but saying that doesn't help. Before I do that I'd like to get some input from those who may know a bit more about these cameras than I do.
In a former life I was a jet mechanic, so do have some mechanical skills.
The camera is a 500C/M made in the mid-1980s. I purchased the body from an online auction knowing that the rear shutter (flaps) didn't close all the way after releasing the shutter button. They close nice and tight when winding the camera. I took the camera out of the shell, cleaned, and lubricated the "clockwork," and now only the lower flap doesn't completely close. I suspect that the flat coil spring underneath a round plate on the right side of the camera is weak, or there may be something beneath that causing too much friction. But since the flaps close tight when the camera is wound, and they open completely and do not sag when firing the camera, I can live with this. My other C/M body does the exact same thing and I've never had a problem with blank film. This problem does not seem to affect the function of the camera. Am I wrong?
Anyway, I took the camera out today to test it. Put a new roll of film in and went on a short hike in the hills above Albuquerque. I used a known good lens (80mm CF Planar), and a new to me A-12 film magazine which appeared to function perfectly. The magazine was made sometime in the 1990s.
It was a sunny day and almost all the exposures were made at 1/250-sec at f/16 - aside from the sunny 16 rule, this exposure agreed with my exposure meter.
Back at the darkroom an hour later I pulled the roll out of the fixer and 8 out of the 12 exposures were just missing. Spacing appeared to be good, and the empty exposures were random throughout the roll. (And no, I didn't even have a lens cap with me.)
Anyone have an idea what this might be? I took the back off and fired the shutter numerous times while looking through the back. Each time I could see the brief blink of the shutter opening and closing. Tried this at all shutter speeds and it seems to work. If the rear flaps were "lazy" there would at least be part of an image in the film, but there isn't. The images that were exposed look absolutely perfect.
In a former life I was a jet mechanic, so do have some mechanical skills.
The camera is a 500C/M made in the mid-1980s. I purchased the body from an online auction knowing that the rear shutter (flaps) didn't close all the way after releasing the shutter button. They close nice and tight when winding the camera. I took the camera out of the shell, cleaned, and lubricated the "clockwork," and now only the lower flap doesn't completely close. I suspect that the flat coil spring underneath a round plate on the right side of the camera is weak, or there may be something beneath that causing too much friction. But since the flaps close tight when the camera is wound, and they open completely and do not sag when firing the camera, I can live with this. My other C/M body does the exact same thing and I've never had a problem with blank film. This problem does not seem to affect the function of the camera. Am I wrong?
Anyway, I took the camera out today to test it. Put a new roll of film in and went on a short hike in the hills above Albuquerque. I used a known good lens (80mm CF Planar), and a new to me A-12 film magazine which appeared to function perfectly. The magazine was made sometime in the 1990s.
It was a sunny day and almost all the exposures were made at 1/250-sec at f/16 - aside from the sunny 16 rule, this exposure agreed with my exposure meter.
Back at the darkroom an hour later I pulled the roll out of the fixer and 8 out of the 12 exposures were just missing. Spacing appeared to be good, and the empty exposures were random throughout the roll. (And no, I didn't even have a lens cap with me.)
Anyone have an idea what this might be? I took the back off and fired the shutter numerous times while looking through the back. Each time I could see the brief blink of the shutter opening and closing. Tried this at all shutter speeds and it seems to work. If the rear flaps were "lazy" there would at least be part of an image in the film, but there isn't. The images that were exposed look absolutely perfect.