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500 EL Problems...

acearchie

New Member
Hi there,

New to the forums after a lot of searching around for information I thought it would probably be best to ask the pros!

My dad used to be a photographer and he has had his 500 EL in the garage for a long time. I decided to get it out and have a look at it. The mirror was down and when I moved the top dial it sprung up and stuck.

At the time I did not realise that this was an issue. I then successfully attached a lens to the camera but it is now stuck.

After getting out the multimeter I confirmed that the batteries were shot and although there was power in the charger, for some reason, it was not transferring to the camera.

I made myself a make-shift battery from a 9V battery lying around and this confirmed that power was transferred to the camera (when pushing the shutter a noise is heard and a little piece of metal tries to click into the film back, I can only see this when the film back isn't in ofcourse!)

However, I am stuck now and really don't want to have to spend a couple of hundred pounds fixing my dad's camera which essentially I have broken.

I read elsewhere about a guy who had a similar problem and he said that as soon as he reinstated power (his batteries were dead too) the camera unjammed and was usable again.

No such luck for me so any tips of things to try, links to service manuals anything at all would be much appreciated!

Thanks,
 
Good chance you fitted a not cocked lens to the EL body which means the lens did not reach the correct position on the body.

If the camera does a full cycle when it is released you can try to remove the lens after releasing the camera.
Trip the shutter, press the lens release button and turn the lens anti clockwise (seen from the front of the camera).
This is more or less a three or four hands job!

Under no circumstances use excessive force in an attempt to get the lens off.

A camera repair shop with Hasselblad experience should be able to do the job in a couple of minutes.


Please note: a garage is not the place to store Hasselblad gear!


Vic
 
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