mooge
Well-known
So I borrowed my friend's hasselblad kit again recently, only to rediscover that the 50mm Distagon's shutter hangs below 1/30, which is kind of a big deal. As any responsible friend would do, I took the lens apart and poured a bunch of lighter fluid in it; and now the shutter works at all speeds.
First of all, there's no point in going at the lens from the lens mount end. Why? Because there isn't much there. and once the bayonet plate is off, there's nothing holding the focusing helicals together. And if you goof up the positioning of the helicals, they're a huge pain in the dong to get back in the right position. So just don't. And besides, if you've ever repaired a leaf shutter, you'll remember that the shutter is opened from the front. So the Distagon will have to be opened from the taking-end of the lens.
First the name plate comes off. It's not the ring with two slots in it; it's just the name ring. I used a lens hood pushing against a rubber glove to unscrew the ring.
Now you'll see that there's a big front group that needs to be removed next. I unscrewed it with some needle-nose pliers. If you're smarter than I am, you might want to look into proper lens spanners -- I checked fleabay a while back and they're not that expensive.
The front group is... big. put it somewhere safe.
Next off is this cup shaped thingy. it comes off with the three black screws.
Note the washers on the underside of the thing.
Now, we can remove the shutter and aperture setting rings.
and we'll arrive here...
... which is as far as I got. May be a good idea to remove the ball bearing for the click stops.
What you're looking at is a silver ring that goes around the shutter; presumably once you remove the ring, you'll have access to the shutter. The ring is held in place with a number of screws; some of which are copper coated. Make note of which ones go where, as they are different. One of the screws is countersunk and the copper coloured screws at 12 and 6 hold in spring bars to press the aperture setting ring against the shutter setting ring. The depth of field preview lever is also somewhere near this silver ring.
I didn't succeed in removing the silver ring because the shutter speed setting ring is stuck in a slot in the silver ring and there is no notch to allow for its removal -- so I have no idea how they put it together in the factory. Maybe the shutter is removed from the rear and then the ring can be freed? I don't know, and it didn't really matter. After a lot of prying and frustration, I noticed that the slow speeds escapement can be seen from the shutter speed selector's slot. So I poured some lighter fluid in the slot and tripped the shutter a few times, and it works now at all speeds. And a week after I did this, it still works, so perhaps this is a legitimate repair method. As long as it works, I'm happy anyways.
As a side note, the compur repair manual has some diagrams covering synchro-compurs in Hasselblads, but there is no note or indication on how to remove the silver ring. Refer to the image below (from this website):
So there you go - how to free the slow speeds escapement of a Distagon 50 without getting proper access to the shutter. Obviously, this won't work if you've got other problems, but hopefully this gives some idea of how the Hasselblad lenses come apart.
and a big thanks to Brett for being awesome and helping me out a lot with this repair. Thanks, Brett! you're cool.
First of all, there's no point in going at the lens from the lens mount end. Why? Because there isn't much there. and once the bayonet plate is off, there's nothing holding the focusing helicals together. And if you goof up the positioning of the helicals, they're a huge pain in the dong to get back in the right position. So just don't. And besides, if you've ever repaired a leaf shutter, you'll remember that the shutter is opened from the front. So the Distagon will have to be opened from the taking-end of the lens.
First the name plate comes off. It's not the ring with two slots in it; it's just the name ring. I used a lens hood pushing against a rubber glove to unscrew the ring.
Now you'll see that there's a big front group that needs to be removed next. I unscrewed it with some needle-nose pliers. If you're smarter than I am, you might want to look into proper lens spanners -- I checked fleabay a while back and they're not that expensive.
The front group is... big. put it somewhere safe.
Next off is this cup shaped thingy. it comes off with the three black screws.
Note the washers on the underside of the thing.
Now, we can remove the shutter and aperture setting rings.
and we'll arrive here...
... which is as far as I got. May be a good idea to remove the ball bearing for the click stops.
What you're looking at is a silver ring that goes around the shutter; presumably once you remove the ring, you'll have access to the shutter. The ring is held in place with a number of screws; some of which are copper coated. Make note of which ones go where, as they are different. One of the screws is countersunk and the copper coloured screws at 12 and 6 hold in spring bars to press the aperture setting ring against the shutter setting ring. The depth of field preview lever is also somewhere near this silver ring.
I didn't succeed in removing the silver ring because the shutter speed setting ring is stuck in a slot in the silver ring and there is no notch to allow for its removal -- so I have no idea how they put it together in the factory. Maybe the shutter is removed from the rear and then the ring can be freed? I don't know, and it didn't really matter. After a lot of prying and frustration, I noticed that the slow speeds escapement can be seen from the shutter speed selector's slot. So I poured some lighter fluid in the slot and tripped the shutter a few times, and it works now at all speeds. And a week after I did this, it still works, so perhaps this is a legitimate repair method. As long as it works, I'm happy anyways.
As a side note, the compur repair manual has some diagrams covering synchro-compurs in Hasselblads, but there is no note or indication on how to remove the silver ring. Refer to the image below (from this website):
So there you go - how to free the slow speeds escapement of a Distagon 50 without getting proper access to the shutter. Obviously, this won't work if you've got other problems, but hopefully this gives some idea of how the Hasselblad lenses come apart.
and a big thanks to Brett for being awesome and helping me out a lot with this repair. Thanks, Brett! you're cool.
Well done for perservering and getting it going again. I'm genuinely pleased it worked out mate.
Cheers
Brett
Cheers
Brett
farlymac
PF McFarland
That brass ring is a retainer that holds it all together. Buy that set of spanners to get it off. Your manual page shows everything after the retainer has been removed, but doesn't show the retainer itself.
PF
PF
mooge
Well-known
hmm... I guess that makes sense. You've done it before, PF? I didn't think there was much underneath the brass ring, and also it looks like it's loctited in because that brass ring holds the front group in place (so I didn't bother trying to remove it - not worth the risk...)
farlymac
PF McFarland
My first look inside a Zeiss/Hasselblad lens, Mooge. But it's similar to the shutter cover lock ring on most leaf shutters I have worked on, just a different construction in that it incorporates the mounting threads for the front group.
Any time you remove lens elements and threaded mounts, you need to mark where they separated from whatever they are removed from, in relationship to Top Dead Center (TDC). This way, when you put things back together, hopefully you will get the threads to start on the proper landing so you aren't fiddling for hours on end with getting the lens back in focus.
PF
Any time you remove lens elements and threaded mounts, you need to mark where they separated from whatever they are removed from, in relationship to Top Dead Center (TDC). This way, when you put things back together, hopefully you will get the threads to start on the proper landing so you aren't fiddling for hours on end with getting the lens back in focus.
PF
mooge
Well-known
Hmm okay... it's just that I had a pretty strong impression that there wasn't anything under the brass ring - there was definitely some sort of thread locking compound, which suggests to me that it's not meant to be removed; and my poking around found that the ring didn't hold much, if anything, to the silver ring. But it doesn't make sense if you have to disassemble the entire lens to get at the shutter.
sounds... reasonable.
sounds... reasonable.
mikemc_photo
Established
You remove the entire assembly with the screws located down on the flange. Yes you do need to strip the lens down to remove the shutter , NOT the focus mount / helicoid. A good tech with the correct tube spanners could pull the shutter in less than 1 hour.