hasselblad zeis 80mm T* shutter problem

I bought a 500cm with the zeis 80 T* planar lens. The first 2 shots I took with it were fine. The rest of the shots (~5 rolls worth) came out -totally- unexposed, not just underexposed. <P>

 

So I took off the back and set the shutter to Bulb and looked through the body as I fired the shutter. I see absolutely no light at all.<P>

 

The lens was made in 82 and doesn't 'look' very used. Does any body have any idea what might have caused this, what the problem is mechanically, and how often this sort of problems occurs? I'm hoping that this sort of failure is a once in a lifetime deal. The shop agreed to repair it without any hassle. But if it has happened once, I'd be interested in knowing how often I can expect this.<P>

 

Also: I'm very curious about the mechanics inside the lens. What sort of mechanism does it use to time the exposure?

It sounds to me like a spring broke inside the lens. I have been told by repairmen that the main spring is likely to break. Maybe this happened to your lens. The only problem I havehad with that lens was with the flash sync contacts. The lens stopped flashing and this was the problem.

I have the same model lens about the same age as yours and recently discovered the same problem but only at f/22 on bulb. The rear shutter opens and as it closes the the lens shutter opens and closes. I only get an exposure of the light bulbs and windows. It works fine at the other f-stops. I haven't sent it for repair yet.

Main spring failure will generally result in the the firing of the same exposure at all speed settings with no flash connection. The lens timing is set up into several different sections, B being one of them. Observe the shutter action at long speeds such as 1 second. There is a slow speed gear train that should run on exposures of 1 to 1/15 does it? The final section is from 1/30 to 1/500. These are best observed by releasing the mirror, pointing the lens at a light source and looking throuh the back of the camera at the time of exposure to see if the shutter is opening. Some lens problems also involve delayed firing, after the shutter button is released, but you would get an exposure after the delay.

The large percentage problems with these lenses invlove old lubrication that has become 'sticky', especially lenses that haven't been fired for a long time. This is usually quite obvious when firing at 1 second. Also try stopping down the lens diaphram, it should jump down to the selected f-stop without delay. It a fairly simple operation for a tech to remove the old lubrication and replace it.