Camera fell on the floor from the tripod head at 1.5m high

[mauro risch]

Shooting a few executives yesterday, when the H3DII fell on the floor. The only thing broken was the bubble level(spirit level) on top of the viewfinder. Big splash of the green liquid.
Everything else is OK but I can see the back is a bit loose and definitely affecting the focus plan. What would you guys recommend me to do? I'm depressed because I've never let any of my gear
fall in 25yrs of photography before. Would you send it to Denmark? I'm in Melbourne, Australia. Any suggestions to a broken hearted Hasselblad owner?
Cheers,

Mauro Risch

[Dustbak]

Get a RMA number and send it off. Make it a good opportunity to have it checked/cleaned as well. Even though there might be not much wrong with it, the thought it might will distract you too much. At least, for me it works this way.

I know the feeling, I have dropped a body last year as well. The lens appears to be bend, just 1mm. Images appear not to be suffering but the thought it might be out of shape is eating me and the joy of using this particular lens has suffered.

Goodluck!

[Derek Jecxz]

I'm always worried about this, but you should have insurance that covers accidents like this. Do as Ray suggests.  Good luck.

Kind regards,
Derek

[mauro risch]

Dear Derek and Dust,

Thanks for your replies. It is really a scary thing. I've spent a couple of days testing the BLAD. I think I know a lot more about the whole camera than ever new before.
The screws around the body, 5 or 6, were all very loose. I've tightened them up. Full cleaning and a lot of focus checking. It seems like the camera is a real war tank.
No apparent damage. Just my dignity was affected, in front of the client. I can live with that. I'll probably do some more work with my beautiful H3DII-39, as I fly to sydney tonight and
plan a holiday trip for her to Denmark, in the weeks to come.
Thanks again for the support.
Cheers,

Mauro

[enikone]

Aouch.
Know the feeling.
My H3D31 sat on the tripod when the tripod fell after the studiomanager passed by and did not noticed there was a chord connected from the camera to the computer.
An this was my first shoot after I just purchased the camera.
The lenshood was totally screwed up, but it guess this saved the rest somehow.
The viewfinder fell off aswell.
Everything worked and works fine as it seems. Yes the backpiece is a liiitle bit loose also...but just slightly.
But what bothers me most is that I got an ugly scratch on the body just above the battery grip.

How the hell can one fix that?
You can't...right?

Anyhow im planning to send it in just to check it, and im anyway in a big need of clean up the sensor.

Hope it turns out well for you.

[mauro risch]

Thanks mate.
Just came back from an extensive photoshoot and it seems like nothing ever happened. 2500 shots.
The H3dII is really a horse. A thoroughbred. I'll hold this one until I get the money for the H4D-50.
Good luck to you too.

Mauro

[Barry Goyette]

Must be the month. My h3d-31 took a header off the tripod (somehow the RRS clamp wasn't locked down) last week...5 feet to the concrete...body, viewfinder, back, and ground glass all ended up at separate corners of the studio..

Big chunk of plastic missing from the grip near the thumb wheel, sensor cover cracked in multiple places....shutter curtain was sagging..back is a little wiggly on the camera (luckily there was no lens attached when it happened)...put it all back together, and except for the wet collodian-like artifacts from the broken sensor glass...works like a charm. Got a demo H4d-50 to test while it's in the shop...so I guess all is not so bad.

Barry