clear film hassy

I was wondering if this has ever happened to other hassy users it has

never happened to me before. Luckily it wasn't a job only a vacation.

I was in the west indies shooting on vacation with my hassy a 500cm

using an old 80c lens. I have a couple rolls which came out fine one

rolls which is totaly clear except for one frame which is fine, and

several rolls which are completly clear, all the edge kodak blah blah

info is there but other wise totally clear as if the lens cap was on.

i'm thinking the lens wasn't opening but the mirror was because it

sounded normal during use.

 

doug

yep. rented a 503CW and CFE 80mm and happened to notice when doing something with the film magazine removed that the shutter never opened. luckily, I caught it early on and only lost one roll of film. I must have been impressed, since I went on to buy a complete 503CW system despite my inauspicious introduction to Hasselblad.

I doubt very much that it was the lens not opening, although it could possibly be. rather, I wonder if the film advanced in the back?????

 

Kevin

why not the lens/shutter? check it and see. if not the lens, then where did all that wonderful vacation light go to? if the film wasn't advancing, the one properly exposed frame would have been multiple-exposed. and if the lens and film magazine appear to be working correctly, seriously reconsider your film loading method. perhaps there was a common failure mode related to a particular aperture or shutter duration.

I think that it was the lens more than the back since one role had a probably exposed neg that was at frame 4. I've been shooting polaroids today and have not been able to recreate the problem. Tommorow I'm going to shoot a couple rolls of film and see what I get. Maybe it was some kind of voodoo curse?

 

doug

Doug,

 

Have you perhaps used old, non-automatic film backs? If so, note that you only need to pull out the dark slide a tiny bit to unblock the release. It will still cover the entire film, producing blanks, and not stick out enough for you to notice it is still inserted.

Many, many, many times I have seen broken shutter springs that will unexpose all

frames. Sounds like it's working but ixsnay on the otophay. The solo exposed frame on

the one roll is the last frame before the spring broke. Everything after that is clear.

It's easy to test. Take the back off the body and fire the shutter at 1/4 second or

longer while looking at a light from behind. Do you see 1/4 second? If you do, I'm nuts

(wrong) about the spring, (this time) if you don't see 1/4 second, busted spring. When

you wind the shutter off camera you can easily tell there is very reduced tension and

releasing it makes this sickeningly weak click. Try it. Pesky thing that shutter spring.

Let me know what you find out. I got twenty bucks on a bad mainspring. Any takers??

 

Peter, PR Camera Repair Flagstaff, AZ

Intermittent shutter??!! Changed my mind. I now have 40 bucks on voodoo curse.

 

Peter, PR Camera Repair Flagstaff, AZ

The mainspring on my old "C" 150 Sonnar goes about once a year; the last time was on a wedding! Thank god for back-up equipment, but the real problem, as you experienced, is when it's happening and you are not aware, and you just continue shooting! I guess the digital world, with its little confirmation post-view LCD screens, can really have their advantages at times (just gotta raise the $30,000 for the digital back!)

Thanks for all the help so far I've been shooting today and everything is fine so far. I talked to a guy at a hassy repair place here in chicago and he says he has seen this intermitant shutter problem on old c lens. He thinks the shutter needs recalibration, i guess in theory the old lens should be serviced every year, I 've had this lens for probably 5 years and never serviced it, and who knows how long since it's last service. according to the repair guy it's only going to get worse so I guess I'll have it serviced and hope it breaks the voodoo curse. I also talked to a friend who had the same thing happen on his old 150 c lens about a year ago and apparently this service did fix it.

 

doug