interior of 553 elx

[frank_bunnik]

Just curious, what kind of metarial is the inside (left and right

side) of the 553 elx of or should be made of. In mine it is

different from my 503 CX.

[ulrik]

Hasselblad has improved the light absorbing characteristics of the camera interior over the years. I once compared a 500 C/M fom around 1970 with mine from 1984 and they were quite different. At one time the change was also accompanied by marketing and therefore the new material got a name: "Palpas". This is what should be inside your 553 ELX. Hope your's is in good condition, had that stuff in my 2003 FCW and it had a couple of cracks.

 

Ulrik

[q.g._de_bakker]

Palpas is in every camera that has a "3" in the type-number, so in both 553 and 503.<br>But i believe they changed the stuff since they began using it, probably because of the problems Ulrik mentions.

[BernardMiller]

<p>An old thread, but as it may be of interest to some, let me add my own bit of information:</p>

<p>I don't think the 553ELX came with the Palpas interior--at least certainly not all of them did.</p>

<p>My 553ELX is simply matte black painted metal inside. And I queried David Odess about this (while inquiring about another matter) and his reply was: </p>

 

<blockquote>

<p>I have serviced many 553 ELX camera bodies, and I don't remember ever seeing one with the Palpas material on the inner walls of the camera body. I suppose it is possible that some of the 553 ELXs did have the Palpas material on the inner walls of later production models, but I'm just not sure. The camera bodies that do have the Palpas material on the inner walls, like [the] 503 CX, have a slightly different cover on the right hand, inner wall. It would be impossible to remove the Palpas material from the inner walls of the camera body without destroying the thin, aluminum cover that the Palpas material was attached to. So you can rest assured that your camera body never did have the Palpas material on the inner walls.</p>

</blockquote>

<p> So, hopefully, this will settle it for anyone else who may be curious about this particular model.</p>