andyfalsetta

I learned to stay away from a hot stove by burning my fingers. I guess there are a lot of people who never went through that. Anyway, most of the "professionals" aren't; but that doesn't stop them from charging as if they are. Doah! drawn into commenting on a ten year old thread!

Four Hundred and Seventy Five 1950 dollars!!!! WOW!

These guys ^ know what they are talking about. They have lots more knowledge than me. I can comment though from the perspective of my 500C (forgive me if you already know the following). When you depress the shutter release I believe the mirror is released, the shutter closes, and the auxiliary shutter flaps open while the shutter opens and counts down to close. When you release the shutter button, the auxiliary shutter flaps close but the mirror stays up. When you wind on to the next frame, the film advances and towards the middle of the full stroke, the mirror starts its travel back down to its cocked and ready position. If your mirror is finding its way down after all the other steps have taken place,(upon release of the shutter release button) this IS NOT the way a 500C operates. If in fact a C/M acts the same as a 500C as far as the basic exposure steps are concerned, then as mentioned you have a significant timing issue at play. Just out of curiosity, is the "pre-release" button depressed or stuck?

Nice result from your Contax IIa. This shot with the benches under the trees and the sun peeking through is wonderful!

Second roll through my Pentacon Six, 80mm Biometar, Outside Salmagonis in Montreal (Petits Italie) Ilford 400 processed in Xtol (very contrasty results. Probably should have had it lab-processed rather than doing it myself) Outside McGill University Residences on Sherbrooke Tmax 400 in Xtol

The RF vs reflex article is interesting. I often wonder why no manufacturer (that I am aware of) ever brought to market a camera with hydraulically or pneumatically or even magnetically damped mirror travel. Then again, having worked for one of the major Japanese manufacturers I can attest to how oblivious they were to how people used their products. To illustrate my point, they never even imagined videographers would capitalize on the inherent benefits of an SLR when shooting digital video. The users had developed an entire workflow around the camera and the last people to know about it was the company/Engineers who developed it.

Thanks again Marc. The SLR comparison was very entertaining in that some of those cameras still command the numbers listed in the article. The death of film has been greatly exaggerated.

Thanks for posting Marc. I have been fortunate to have a Linhoff III with three matching lenses and complete kit as shown in the article. I have only had it a short time (a year) and it has been a joy to shoot with. The build quality is great and the format is just amazing in the amount of detail it can capture. When they said the photographs can be better than what you can see with your eyes, they were not kidding. I have found detail in some shots that I simply didn't know was there when I released the shutter. Great selection to post for us.

Thanks for the help. I'm showing your post to my wife!

The 500C I recently purchased (see thread on mirror failing to rise) has an odd smell to it. Its not quite smoke but not quite leather either. It was stored in one of those foam cases and I think the smell came from the foam. Anyway, I can always tell which room in the house I left the camera in. :)

You have some great resources to work with. Not all of us have a local camera shop or friends who are photog teachers. Hope you start getting the results you are hoping for soon. Welcome.

Well the 500C is back together and working fine! All told I probably have eight hours into the body between cleaning, figuring out what goes where and in what order, lubing, redoing a few tasks, etc. The biggest mystery to me was the pre-tensioning of the shutter drive mechanism. The most significant physical feat was winding and inserting the advance/aux shutter "clock spring". No doubt the boys with factory training have a simple tool to make quick work of both of these tasks. I have to admit a couple of things: 1. The 503CW manual Orsetto provided WAS of great help. Initially, the difference between the 503CW and 500C mechanisms seemed too significant but after reviewing it a couple of times,I realized it answered the key questions I had. Thanks Orsetto! 2. The 500C is a wonderful mechanical device (and I'm sure many of the later models are even better). Additionally with my minimal experience repairing my own cameras (Contarex, Contax, Zeiss Ikon ) none of these are as well made and although I have never had my Bronicas apart, I doubt they can compare from a build quality perspective. The tolerances used in the Hasselblad are tight; everything fits together very well with no "coaxing". The materials used are top notch. The plating and coatings on the components are robust - even after 56 years (my body was built in '62) they are in remarkably good condition. Overall, the amount of simplicity built in is remarkable as well. I have not seen this in German cameras, so hat's off to Victor Hasselblad and his team. Hopefully I will shoot a roll of film this weekend and see if all the components are working as they should. Here is a shot of the fully assembled 500C mechanism. A big THANKS again to Orsetto for providing his comments and help. I couldn't have done it without them.

Whoa! That looks more like Hasselblad's booth at a Photo Show than one man's arsenal.

Cleaned up the "mechanism plate" and related parts and am trial fitting them. Just managed to install the coil spring into the film drive gear and I'm calling it a night.

I guess Hasselblad's marketing and advertising expenditures continue to pay dividends long after the product has become obsolete. Truth be told, my purchase was made not because I have experienced anything compelling as a result of using one, but because the Hasselblad just seemed to be such a Holy Grail camera. When I was shooting 35mm the difference between a Canon and a Nikon or a Nikon and a Konica was obvious. The Nikon simply took better photographs. But with the Hasselblad, I'm not sure the difference will be so obvious between it and my Bronicas. But first things first, I've got to get it back together and probably service the lenses that came with it. Thanks again for your moral and material support.

Thank you for your initial reply and your offer to provide the manual. Everything you wrote was accurate and sound advice. In my case I have a mental deficiency that encourages me to jump into intimidating situations. Don't mistake my impulse to disassemble something as evidence I can get it back together. We'll see :) Seriously, my first job was with IBM fixing their Selectric typewriters. These devices launch over 100 parts in sequence when a single keybutton is pushed. At the time I didn't realize it but that experience would serve me well with my hobbies later in life.

Thanks Orsetto for the reply. The previous silence was killing me :) Interestingly, when working on old cameras,(especially European ones (hello Zeiss, Pentacon, Hasselblad, Exacta, etc.; I'm talking to you) solidified/petrified/no-longer-lubified grease is usually the culprit. In this case it is the absolute absence of any lubricant which is causing the mirror to stay immobile upon shutter release. Not sure if the guy who assembled mine originally had had a bad weekend or not but someone forgot to lube the bellcrank that operates the mirror! It is suffering from the effects of Rightfully Unwanted Surface Tarnish (RUST) I searched the web and found nothing on this problem. There were a few videos and tutorials on problems like "how to get your 503cw out of the case" or what to do with a sticky 500C auxiliary shutter, but none on mirror issues. There is nothing written in forums on this either; trust me, I looked. Bottom line is that inside the body, there is a single screw holding a cover over the mirror bellcrank and its pivot assembly. The challenge is getting at the screw due to the angle of attack being restricted by the lack of any way to reach it without a special fine bladed 90 degree screwdriver. Those with a little ingenuity will figure out a way to loosen that screw; its not impossible. Once the screw and cover are off, you can service the mirror bellcrank and pivot to your heart's delight without disturbing anything. It can be removed from inside the body once you remove the retaining screw on the other side of the mechanism (the screw holding the center gear). In my case, not knowing what we know now, I came at it from the other side and completely disassembled the drivetrain. My pinvise holding a needle is pointing at the offending mirror bellcrank pivot. So now I have a hell of an assembly job ahead of me with nothing helpful to go on other than photos I took along the way. Wish me luck. Worst case another body is cheap and I now know as much as I need to to service one. In the meantime though, it will be interesting to go through the reassembly process I'm sure and now there is something in the archives to help the next guy. One thing though, if you have a service manual on a 500C, I would appreciate a look at it so I can get mine back together sooner.

I just took delivery of a "bargain" 500C and believe there is a problem with it. (yes I know the most expensive Hasselblad or Mercedes is a cheap one) :) I removed the back and when I fire the shutter release, nothing happens. I would expect the mirror to flip up and the blinds to open (maybe in reverse order) but they do not. I can manually lift the mirror and at that point if I fire the shutter the blinds open. When I run the winding knob through its rotation the mirror will return and the blinds close but I am back at the point where the mirror does not raise when the shutter release is depressed. Any suggestions on how to resolve this other than to turn it over to a repair service? I have the skills to repair cameras and intricate mechanical devices but no experience with a Hasselblad. Thanks

I think the S2 makes almost as much noise advancing the film and cocking the shutter. LOL.

I don't own a Pentax 6x7 but do have a Pentacon Six TL. There is a lot to like about shooting with these over sized SLRs. I have Bronicas too but the size and design format of this type of SLR (Hassie included) just isn't as easy to shoot with IMO. Holding it with both hands versus using one hand to balance it isn't as comfortable to me. And a Speed Grip is nice but everything starts getting bigger with the grip on the camera and you're still holding it the same way (again IMO).

Sweet! I have an F and an F2 and just love them both. (But the F2 is so much more "civilized") :)

Erko, What did you shoot this with?

I've gotten very sharp results from my Super Ikonta 532/16 at speeds like 1/25th and 50th (which amazes me because I don't have this kind of consistent luck with a 35mm using similar speeds. If your shake is due to the motion involved in depressing the shutter, maybe you can reduce this by getting more acquainted with the range of motion the shutter button goes through and get used to taking up the slack first before letting the shutter fly when its time to expose the shot. Just a thought. These folders have a lot of moving parts before you get the motion from the top of the camera to the actual shutter release on the shutter. Adopting a technique that reduces the play between the various parts in the release mechanism might help. These are great cameras and the leaf shutters generate very little vibration. As mentioned above, since these are such portable cameras, carrying a tripod defeats the purpose. Of course a tripod makes it all so much better but sometimes its not feasible to carry one.

Very nice result!

Rick, well finally I have a working P6. I described a little of my journey in this thread and included a couple of shots from the test roll. Shutter curtain tension - measured as "CMP" The viewfinder is bright and its easy to get used to the different location of some controls (focus ring and shutter release more specifically). Being all metal (the only plastic I found was a mount for the flash contacts up on the shutter mechanism) its hefty but I am used to an S2a Bronica so the difference is minor. I find shooting with a heavier camera helps stabilize things more readilyand the "35mmSLR on steroids" format is very easy to hold. I find it isn't a whole heck of a lot larger than the largest 35mms such as the Contarex. . The P6 I have has the spiked film feed roller so frame overlap isn't an issue. In fact I have the opposite issue which is increasing frame spacing as the roll is used up. I couldn't get 11 exposures on the roll because of this plus I have to get back inside the camera to get the frame indicator to work correctly. It stops at 10 right now so the end of the roll becomes a guessing game until I fix this. But overall, I see myself using this camera quite often and look forward to one day achieving results half as good as the ones you get with your Kiev. Andy