Lens build quailty?

[vklassen1]

Hello Group
I have been a hassleblad shooter for over twenty years and have several 500/501cm cameras & Zeiss CF/CFE lenses.
As the world went digital, I too, wanted to buy a hasselblad digital system in 2005 but decided to wait until i thought Hasselblad had mastered "the"digital beast. so, fifteen months ago I purchased my dream system = H3DII 39 with 80mm, 120mm, 210mm, 35-90mm, 28mm, HTS1.5 & CF Adapter. Yes, big investment.
My expereince has been amazing with the digital sensor/camera but not with lens build quailty. The 80mm worked well for the first week then stopped functioning but was quickly repaired. Then, my three month old 28mm had a shutter/diaphram half cock in the middle of a shoot, I sent it in for repair and was informed the lens had impact damage!. Now, my baby lives in a pelican case and is coddled, never banged and certainly never dropped...Hmmmm.
Last week my rarey used 120mm experienced the same failure (half cocked diaphram) and lucky for me it's three months past warranty.
I'm waiting for Hasseblad's verdict on this current failure but can already hear the repair service say "impact damage" which will just piss me off.

I am posting here because I have NEVER had a single zeiss lens fail...EVER..and I also have never read any posts about mulitple "H" lens failures.
l would like to know if other shooters are having similar experiences? or is this just my bad luck?
I LOVE my digital Hasseblad but I'm really concered about lens reliability as this is my third failure and these lenses are only 15 months old and not heavily used

Sincerely
Vince 

[mauro risch]

Hi Vince,
I'm on my 3rd H camera now.
H2D, H3D and H3D-II 39.
All I can say is that I have never had any problems with the cameras or the lenses.
Of course I get some lens error msgs sometimes. I turn the camera off, remove the lens, reattach it and that's it.
Ready to go for the next 1000 clicks a day.
I have 50~110 zoom, 35mm, 210, 120, 80 and 28mm, TC1.7x and all the rings. Never had any thing fatal.
I'd probably check the camera body in your case.
I'm not sure about the sharpness and the cut I use to have shooting on my 8x10' Sinar with the Rodenstock and Schneider lenses.
I might say I miss it a bit.  But the way we see things in this digital world have also changed.
I'd say I'm pretty happy with the H series performance and they are definitely the best "Beasts" money can buy.
Hope I've helped creating some more confusion.
Cheers,
Mauro

[rem]

Hi Vince, I had the same problem with the 28mm, the 120mm Vers.II and the 80mm (2x). I don't use it much, I take much care, but yes... After several pictures, with the brand new lenses the shutter hangs anywhere in the middle. A man from Hasselblad told me, they have a lot of problems with the new 120-II. In the moment I have the problem that I cant focus with the TF (H4D) at infinity with the 120mm always and with the 35-90 the most time... I don't know is it the lens or is it the camera... Any ideas?
I love my system also very much, but I'm a bit frustrated that I never have the system everything is working (I bought in the last 12 month the H4D, 80mm, 28mm, 35-90mm, 120mm, HTS 1.5 etc.).
rem

[rem]

Lucky Mauro!!! ;-)

[mauro risch]

Hi Rem,
Could be luck, but I have no series II lenses yet.
Maybe the weather in Australia is more favorable to the Blad gear.
I haven't been shooting much to computer. 80% of the time shooting to card.
How about you guys?

[vklassen1]

Hey Mauro
Sounds like you picked up the golden lenses.
I too have had the lens error message from time to time but nothing that can't be corrected with turning off & re-attaching. I use the 35-90mm about 80% of the time and this lens has many more actuations than the others and is a tank. I really don't think the camera body is to blame here.
Vince

[Alex Maxim]

Hi Vince,

I use 28, 50-110, 100, 120, 150, 1.7x and never had a problem.

Hope it helps.

Alex

[Greg]

So far the only lens to give me problems is the 35.  Clear the error message, remove, reattach, and all seems to be well.  It usually occurs on the first frame, so if I could just remember when I first attach it, I'd fire it off once to eliminate the problem.

Greg

[AKTkunst]

Use the H3DII39 with 28, 50-110 and 120macro (I) three years now, never had a lens error or something similar.

[cemal]

same problem at 24 mm  after few shots

[NickT]

I have a 28, 50-110 80 and 100 and all have been fine apart from the occasional "re-attach lens" message. All at around 60K clicks.

I did once have a shutter fail on a CF 120 macro if that makes anyone feel any better.. I shot 3 rolls of blank film before doing another polaroid

[FotoFan99]

I've also had TF issues with the 120 & 50/110 lenses. I've also had the H4D-40 sensor get very hot and then get a restart camera error message. This is not the Hasselblad I expected and I never had my 500CM and 503CW ever fail after many years of use. That being said, when it works, the images are superb. But I had expected  the quality and reliability that made Hasselblad the best.

[SteveK]

My HC150 had a shutter problem after ~27,000 shots, which is way too young to die 

I got a new shutter for about 750,- EUR. At least the lens counter was reset to 10 exposures :-)