Hasselblad Lens Fail

[calindustries]

I have a HCD 35-90 with just over 12,000 actuations. Shutter just failed, stuck blade, way overexposed shots. What's my next step? It's out of warranty being over a year old as far as I can tell. I've hears some pretty mixed reviews about dealing with Hasselbron.... I'm in NYC. Does anyone have any first hand experience on who to deal with and what to expect?? I've hear upwards of $1200 to repair an H shutter and this is crazy on a lens with such few shots that has been BABIED....

[Juanito]

Well that just sucks.  Hasselblad's service though is excellent. Just call the HQ in New Jersey and get the details on how to send it in. I don't know that a local shop might be able to fix it, but you might look into it to see if you can save a few dollars. Just shipping that tank of a lens is going to cost some money so it may be worth it to see if it can be serviced locally.

John

[calindustries]

I don't mind a little for shipping. Hell, I'll drive it out to New Jersey. What I'm not thrilled about is having to have a shutter serviced for what could be quite a bit of money when the lens is only about a month out of 1 year warranty and the shot count is about 1/8th of warranty limits. I haven't even paid the damn thing off yet....

[Steve Hendrix]

I don't mind a little for shipping. Hell, I'll drive it out to New Jersey. What I'm not thrilled about is having to have a shutter serviced for what could be quite a bit of money when the lens is only about a month out of 1 year warranty and the shot count is about 1/8th of warranty limits. I haven't even paid the damn thing off yet....

Craig -

If your lens is really only a month out of warranty, then your dealer should be able to support the argument for lenience or waiver on the repair fees.

If you haven't asked them yet, you should.


Steve Hendrix
CI

[calindustries]

Thanks for the heads up on that Steve. I just contacted them (Leica Store NYC), and they were open to try to help me negotiate with Hasselblad in NJ. Next step is I'll go drop it off with Hasselblad and hope for the best!

-Craig

[calindustries]

Well just got the initial estimate from HasslebladBron in NJ......



$1720 to fix the shutter.....


Left a message with them to discuss further and see what can be done based on the fact this lens was JUST out of warranty and had only 1/8th of the warranty limit for actuations.....


We'll see......

The new Phase looks nice.....


 

[Gel]

Well just got the initial estimate from HasslebladBron in NJ......



$1720 to fix the shutter.....

This is exactly why I sold my Hasselblad and got a 645z. My time of spending thousands on a medium format system are over.

[calindustries]

This is exactly why I sold my Hasselblad and got a 645z. My time of spending thousands on a medium format system are over.

Nice write up on your site. The 2 things I need that 645z system to do to make sense for me is proper leaf shutter sync and C1 Tethering or it won't fit my workflow. It's why I opted for the Credo back over the H back. I would have done the Phase camera as the Phase LS lenses are really nice, but the DF was the deal breaker. Maybe that's changed now with the XF, don't know, probably not a financial option at this point though.

[BobShaw]

Just get it fixed and move on. You have the best camera system. It is usually best to discuss the one month issue with the distributer. That has worked for me rather than rant here.

[LKaven]

So they have come down to about $800 dollars to fix this lens.

Craig, I would escalate the case and push them further.

It sounds as though their first attempt at settlement involves eating the cost of the labor as overhead, and making you pay for the part.  I would not let up.  I'd try several things from (1) asking to explicitly escalate the case, (2) writing to the president of H-USA directly, and (3) reaching out to the manufacturer in Sweden while copying H-USA on the correspondence. 

Even Nikon USA will fix things out of warranty at their discretion.

[gigdagefg]

I have all of the HC lenses except the 35-90mm and the 24mm. I am told the the 35-90mm is one of the best lenses in the group because of the sharpness and the obvious versatility. I have also had maintenance issues with a few of the lenses more quickly than I might have expected; also not thrilled about the costs associated with the failures.
On the other side of the equation, the rendering of all of these lenses is remarkable along with the true focus feature. In your case 12,000 actuations in a year equates to .066 cents per use...not the worst situation for the heavy usage you require.
Medium format, unfortunately, takes a heavier toll on the wallet than a DSLR, although some of my Nikon lenses have been also out for repair shortly after the expiration of my warranty.
For what it's worth, no one at Nikon was willing to lower my bill.
The turn around recently on a focus repair issue on my 100mm lens was only ten days including the communication of my estimate
All in all not too terrible
Stanley