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Hasselblad 30mm fisheye lens catastrophe!

C

Crypto-Museum

Guest
Hello all: I had a catastrophe, with Hasselblad Zeiss 30mm F3.5 Distagon T* C Fisheye lens circa 1975.

It was dropped from 2' height onto a metal case corner. :mad:The lens shade and front
element hit a glancing blow on the corner of the case.

One shade "petal" bent, severely, but not broken, the front element has a thick mark on the coating, a few inches long, but the glass surface seems to be undamaged.:shocked:

Incredibly the shade damage does not intrude into the image, and the lens seems to work OK!

I attempted to clean it with Digiclean A and B solutions, lens tissue, and lens cleaning
solution. Finally the Lens Pen. Cleaning gave some improvement, but the coating mark does not fully clean off, perhaps the coating is damaged?

Hasselblad or Zeiss service is very costly and might not have the parts anymore.
I am looking for alternatives.

1, Any other suggestions to clean the coating mark?

2, Any USA or EU lens repair firms that you can suggest? (eg EX Hasselblad technician!)

3, Do you think the petal shade (aluminum?) will break if it was straightened?

4. Any source of parts for these old lenses?

MANY THANKS!:toocool:

Kind Regards,
Jon PAUL
Crypto-Museum
 
JoelM

JoelM

Well-known member
First, take some test shots of varying degree, like direct sun, partial sun, close up, far away, stopped down and wide open. You have certainly decreased its value, but perhaps its usefullness has not been lost at all.

Cheers,

Joel
 
M

mmbma

Active member
Agree with Joel. My bet is that these marks will not show up in your pictures at all. A lens needs to be pretty much half shattered before they have a major effect in image. Perhaps you'll lose the ability to shoot into the sun or light source, but who does that on a regular basis?
 
GrahamWelland

GrahamWelland

Subscriber & Workshop Member
The only real issue with front element scratches will be a greater propensity to flare. I have a Schneider 55mm T/S lens for my Rollei that has literally a chunk of paint flake in it that is completely invisible in print. Generally, as mentioned, the lens needs severe damage or objects in it to be visible. (Alas water drops on the front element ALWAYS seem to be visible!).
 
Last edited:
V

vickko

New member
1, Any other suggestions to clean the coating mark?
*** I'd say "ignore it". I bet the coating marks won't make a bit of difference when imaging.

2, Any USA or EU lens repair firms that you can suggest? (eg EX Hasselblad technician!)
*** Try David Odess Hasselblad camera repair, service, and sales by factory trained technician David Odess.

3, Do you think the petal shade (aluminum?) will break if it was straightened?
*** you may be right there. Aluminum doesn't tolerate bending well. And you risk throwing the lens barrel out of round, which could affect the centration of the lenses, which would be more harmful to imaging than the coating defects. But looking at the bent part again, if you could fixture the lens properly, that corner might be able to be bent again, to make it look better.

4. Any source of parts for these old lenses?

Try Hasselblad USA .
 
Douglas Fairbank

Douglas Fairbank

New member
In my experience the lens shade part will straighten out quite well, not as good as new of course. The coating mark is probably there to stay but as others have said, marks on a lens front surface rarely affect the image.
 
C

Crypto-Museum

Guest
Hello all: many thanks for the advise and referrals! :salute:

Most of the lens repair firms I contacted could not do anything, due to lack of parts availability. Zeiss and Hasselblad seemed to want to send me elsewhere. :(

However, I have good news: I needed to test it and have been working with digital MF backs since 2007, not film, so I did not want to use the Hasselblad body.
Instead, I got the 30mm fisheye to work on a Contax 645, with Pahse One IQ180 back, by using the Novoflex CONTHA 645 Hasselblad to Contax 645 adapter. :)

At first, it did not focus at Infinity. I thought it was the drop, or back focus limits when mounted with the adapter, which adds a few mm of lens extension.

Finally I realized that I when I opened the lens to check for damage, (front element of these comes off to allow internal filter change) I did not properly reassemble it! The front element was rotated 30 deg and was not fully seated! After I fixed that, it works fine! This test is at f/11. :clap:

crypto-museum.org/30mmtest.jpg

The small spots in the sky at upper left are dirt on the sensor. Everything is in focus, and the coating flaws seem to have no effect on the image.

Comments appreciated!

With Kind Regards,

Jon
 
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