Followup on CFV Hasselblad Repair Service / US/ Sweden

[elrafo]

Hello There,

I sent my CFV16 for repair through a local certified retailer in Montreal, Canada. They sent the back to the US, but after 3 weeks, Hasseblad US told them that they were not able to fix the BAck ! They had to send it to Sweden for Check and Repair...I guess the materials and pieces needed are only in the HQ repair service ?
Unbelievable...

I already spent 200$ for the customs Taxes and Quote.

Now, the other issue is that 4 more weeks later, my local retailer has still no news from hasseblad service, they didn't get back to him.

If there are any official Hasselblad professionals here, do you know how I could get information or status on my Back, and a final quote ?

Looks like my retailer is unable to get information from the Hasselblad Service. Or he doesn't know how to deal with them.

I can give you the Serial number via PM, and more details about the back...

thanks a Lot .

 

[dave.gt]

Hello There,

I sent my CFV16 for repair through a local certified retailer in Montreal, Canada. They sent the back to the US, but after 3 weeks, Hasseblad US told them that they were not able to fix the BAck ! They had to send it to Sweden for Check and Repair...I guess the materials and pieces needed are only in the HQ repair service ?
Unbelievable...

I already spent 200$ for the customs Taxes and Quote.

Now, the other issue is that 4 more weeks later, my local retailer has still no news from hasseblad service, they didn't get back to him.

If there are any official Hasselblad professionals here, do you know how I could get information or status on my Back, and a final quote ?

Looks like my retailer is unable to get information from the Hasselblad Service. Or he doesn't know how to deal with them.

I can give you the Serial number via PM, and more details about the back...

thanks a Lot .

What kind of repair was needed?

 

[elrafo]

Hello,

It is for an error message : 9022
The back needs to be rebooted all the time...
Date isn't working as well and reset to 01/01/2000 after a couple of minutes...

Thanks

 

[Charles S]

Hello,

It is for an error message : 9022
The back needs to be rebooted all the time...
Date isn't working as well and reset to 01/01/2000 after a couple of minutes...

Thanks

Have you tried tethering it for a while ? I believe that that most of the Hass backs have an internal battery for the clock that charges through the FW connection. I have had a similar problem with an H series back, and I read this about other backs as well. Worth a try.

 

[rmueller]

There are two issues here which are separate
- 9022 seems an issue with the system board and needs repair
- lost date is an issue of the internal battery. Sometimes it helps to leave the back
connected on the FW with the computer on for 24h hours. But since the CFV-16's
have a certain age this might only help for couple days before the date is lost
again.
The lost date is certainly nerving but it doesn't have an impact while the 9022 certainly does. Good luck with the repair, hope you get it fixed soon. Having said that, there seems not too many service people left at HB that know how to fix the CFV-16. Earlier on, HB would send it to Denmark (former Imacon) for repair, not sure what the current status is. We got ours fixed last year by a former employee who retired from HB.
Regards, Ralf

 

[Charles S]

There are two issues here which are separate
- 9022 seems an issue with the system board and needs repair
- lost date is an issue of the internal battery. Sometimes it helps to leave the back
connected on the FW with the computer on for 24h hours. But since the CFV-16's
have a certain age this might only help for couple days before the date is lost
again.
The lost date is certainly nerving but it doesn't have an impact while the 9022 certainly does. Good luck with the repair, hope you get it fixed soon. Having said that, there seems not too many service people left at HB that know how to fix the CFV-16. Earlier on, HB would send it to Denmark (former Imacon) for repair, not sure what the current status is. We got ours fixed last year by a former employee who retired from HB.
Regards, Ralf

I think you mean these guys: http://hasselbladrepair.com/. I had an V96 back repaired by them. Quick turnaround, friendly folks.

 

[elrafo]

There are two issues here which are separate
- 9022 seems an issue with the system board and needs repair
- lost date is an issue of the internal battery. Sometimes it helps to leave the back
connected on the FW with the computer on for 24h hours. But since the CFV-16's
have a certain age this might only help for couple days before the date is lost
again.
The lost date is certainly nerving but it doesn't have an impact while the 9022 certainly does. Good luck with the repair, hope you get it fixed soon. Having said that, there seems not too many service people left at HB that know how to fix the CFV-16. Earlier on, HB would send it to Denmark (former Imacon) for repair, not sure what the current status is. We got ours fixed last year by a former employee who retired from HB.
Regards, Ralf

Hello Ralf,

I have been thetering the back for a long time but the time is still lost. The issue has been lasting for a long time but wasn't an issue for me to take photos. I did a trip in norway and canada with it, worked like charm.
I left the back in the bag for on year before re using it this year, with a swc I just bought (used), then the error message started to appear, more and more, until I just couldn't take any pictures...

I can't believe nobody can repair this 10 years old back... I spent 6k in this used back in 2010, this is to me a non sense. I can get some of my 70 years old cameras fixed but not my digital back even from HB US ?!

I will really consider before spending 10k + USD in an hasseblad back now, if the service can't be done after a couple of years, this is really annoying as I REALLY love to work with my 503 and my SWC.

I suppose the main board needs to be replaced, I will pay for this if this is needed, but I don't understand why I still have no final quote 6 weeks after.

Thanks

 

[tjv]

To be fair, this happens with other brand gear if similar age too. Leica, For example.

 

[rmueller]

I certainly understand your frustration. HB was going through difficult times since 2010, not only for their customers but also for their employees. HB seems still a bit thin on customer support side, hear that from my HB dealer as well and at this point, they prioritize X1D and H6D returns.

It is what it is, not satisfactory of course given the cost of the back when you made the purchase. Alternative would be a HB repair shop that is run by a former HB employee, we have few of them here in Europe, not sure about Canada/US though.

Hope you get a fix soon, still like the quality of images coming out of the good old CFV.

Best Regards,
Ralf

Hello Ralf,

I have been thetering the back for a long time but the time is still lost. The issue has been lasting for a long time but wasn't an issue for me to take photos. I did a trip in norway and canada with it, worked like charm.
I left the back in the bag for on year before re using it this year, with a swc I just bought (used), then the error message started to appear, more and more, until I just couldn't take any pictures...

I can't believe nobody can repair this 10 years old back... I spent 6k in this used back in 2010, this is to me a non sense. I can get some of my 70 years old cameras fixed but not my digital back even from HB US ?!

I will really consider before spending 10k + USD in an hasseblad back now, if the service can't be done after a couple of years, this is really annoying as I REALLY love to work with my 503 and my SWC.

I suppose the main board needs to be replaced, I will pay for this if this is needed, but I don't understand why I still have no final quote 6 weeks after.

Thanks

 

[sog1927]

I can't believe nobody can repair this 10 years old back... I spent 6k in this used back in 2010, this is to me a non sense. I can get some of my 70 years old cameras fixed but not my digital back even from HB US ?!

I can understand why you're frustrated and angry, but I think we're going to see more of this as time goes on. We're talking about what is essentially a very specialized piece of computer hardware manufactured a decade ago by a small company that's gone through a couple of ownership changes and multiple reorganizations in the meantime. It's almost certain that many of the third-party components in it have not been manufactured for quite some time and are no longer available - once HB's parts inventory is exhausted, the only way to obtain them may be to cannibalize used CFVs that have been traded in. Limited service intervals are a fact of life in the computer industry - for example, Apple will not service "vintage" (>5 year-old) hardware at all, except in jurisdictions which legally require them to do so (Turkey, France(I think), and the State of California): see https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201624.

Springs and gears are a lot easier to come by than low-volume, specialized ICs that require a chip fab to manufacture. It's hard to swallow, particularly if you're used to using older film cameras (I have two Leica IIIfs that belonged to my grandfather, a Nikon F that's about to turn 50, a 500 C/M that's over 40, a 503 C/W, and Technika IV of indeterminate age - all of which work perfectly), but this is the way things are now. I also have a Leica S006 body (which I use as a "compact" digital travel body for my V-series lenses) - and judging from some of the experiences I've read about on the Leica forums, I expect it to be a very pretty doorstop if anything ever goes wrong with it.

That doesn't excuse the poor communication. It may be that they can't give you an estimate until they find out whether they can acquire the parts (or perhaps there's only one guy left who services obsolete V-series digital backs and he's so backlogged he hasn't had time to look at your back yet), but they should at least update you.

 

[Bernard]

do you know how I could get information or status on my Back, and a final quote ?

Hasselblad USA Service has always been exceptionally good to me. Have you tried phoning or emailing them directly? Here's their contact info (from the hasselbaldusa web site):

Hasselblad Bron Inc: – Service Center

1080A Garden State Road
Union, NJ 07083
USA

Phone +1-800-367-6434
Fax +1-973-227-1063
[email protected]


I would not be concerned about the fact that your back was sent to Sweden. That's standard procedure for some equipment. It will not cost you extra, and it will not add much time to the turnaround.

I usually skip the dealer for post-warranty work. They do the same things you would: ship the package to New jersey, and follow-up via email/telephone. Best to deal with Hasselblad directly.

 

[tcdeveau]

In addition to contacting Hasselblad Service, you may also try to contact your Hasselblad regional rep if you haven't done so as well. Contact info for the reps can be found on Hasselblad USA's site, at least at the bottom of the CPO PDF that they keep up to date.

Another thing to keep in mind when gear has to go to the mothership in Sweden to be repaired is they often take a very long (by US standards anyway) holiday in the summer. My H4D-40 went to Sweden once, and I forgot exactly how long it took to get back (I think it was over a month), but Swedish holiday factored in to the time it took to get it back. Obviously there was no communication during that time either from Sweden because they were on holiday.

Best of luck with the repair. This is honestly something I worry about these days. As someone else mentioned above, as cameras become more electronic with more specialized electronics, this is going to adversely affect their repairability. I just invested quite a bit in the X1D (which is currently at Hasselblad USA getting its scroll wheels repaired) and lenses. I hope 10 years + from now the system can be serviced, but only time will tell....

 

[tjv]

My H4D-40 went to Sweden once, and I forgot exactly how long it took to get back (I think it was over a month), but Swedish holiday factored in to the time it took to get it back.

Only over a month? Leica once took 11 months to fix one of my lenses – a bog standard 50mm Summicron-M – and six months to repair an M8. Next to that, these Hasselblad service turnaround times seem positively instantaneous! :ROTFL:

 

[JK12]

Well then I'll certainly never purchase a digital Leica