H5D-60 / X1D repro paintings with HC120

[docholliday]

Hello, nobody to help me for my blue light !
Best regards, Alain (from France)

It's easy to take apart the grip to get to the display. Pull the battery, then remove the screws you see there. The whole grip piece will come off. There is a flexpcb, so be careful with that. Once it's off the camera, you'll see all the screws to take it apart. Oh, there is also a screw under the H5D/X badge on the side. Just pry it off to access the screws. Use something soft, like a toothpick or nylon spudger. If the tape isn't sticky anymore, use something like some 3M 300MP or 200MP to put it back.

Once the screws are out, you can pop the cover off. However, unless you have hot air and microsoldering stuff, you probably won't have much luck fixing the display backlight if the LED is gone in the LCD unit.

[Conner999]

Thanks Doc - your repair expertise is invaluable.

On the zoom. The HC 100 is infamous for a little plastic gear that drives the AF mechanics breaking or stripping - and i's buried quite deep in the lens. I suspect that may be the issue with zoom if you hear the motor engage and nothing happen.

See this thread part way down where someone walks through the repair process:

https://www.getdpi.com/forum/index.php?threads/are-any-of-the-hasselblad-h-lenses-%E2%80%9Cbad%E2%80%9D-or-hc-35mm-review.68874/#post-821494

I'm that guy who tore apart my HC100 and rebuilt the gear train. Actually, I've done in about a dozen of the lenses now, as well as few others. The 35-90 uses a long rod "transmission" like the HC120 does to drive the focus. It is also a small nylon gear, so probably stripped as well. They are all held on by friction (the hole in the gear is smaller than the shaft) which is also the reason the gear eventually splits at the moulding seam or other weak point.

[docholliday]

Thanks Doc - your repair expertise is invaluable.

On the zoom. The HC 100 is infamous for a little plastic gear that drives the AF mechanics breaking or stripping - and i's buried quite deep in the lens. I suspect that may be the issue with zoom if you hear the motor engage and nothing happen.

See this thread part way down where someone walks through the repair process:

https://www.getdpi.com/forum/index.php?threads/are-any-of-the-hasselblad-h-lenses-%E2%80%9Cbad%E2%80%9D-or-hc-35mm-review.68874/#post-821494

I'm that guy who tore apart my HC100 and rebuilt the gear train. Actually, I've done in about a dozen of the lenses now, as well as few others. The 35-90 uses a long rod "transmission" like the HC120 does to drive the focus. It is also a small nylon gear, so probably stripped as well. They are all held on by friction (the hole in the gear is smaller than the shaft) which is also the reason the gear eventually splits at the moulding seam or other weak point.

Glad my efforts could help others! BTW, if you do decide to work on your lens and find it is a broken gear, don't use super glue - it'll just eat up the plastic and is too brittle to hold sufficiently.

[Alex]

.. if you do decide to work on your lens and find it is a broken gear, don't use super glue - it'll just eat up the plastic and is too brittle to hold sufficiently.

Thanks again Doc,
What / which glue would you suggest?

[docholliday]

.. if you do decide to work on your lens and find it is a broken gear, don't use super glue - it'll just eat up the plastic and is too brittle to hold sufficiently.

Thanks again Doc,
What / which glue would you suggest?

A fast cure glue that's fairly thin, strong, and slightly flexible would be best. Don't use generic epoxy - it's way too hard and also generates heat during curing which can distort the gear. I use Loctite 4311, which is a UV cure, and has worked flawlessly for every lens I've rebuilt. You might be able to get away with something like Bondic as a generic "consumer" solution, though I haven't tried it myself. If you do, try to test the glue on something nylon that is similar in material to the gear itself first. Loctite 4310 would work too, but it's thicker than 4311. For Loctite, the surface prep agent 770 can be used to get a stronger bond for the 4311 to low surface energy materials like plastics.

3M and other adhesive companies have their equivalent glues, but I'm not as familiar with their catalog. Don't use any of the CR Laurence UV glues, though. They are for glass-to-glass or metal-to-glass work (like gluing handles to glass shower doors) and won't hold the nylon properly.

The trick is to dispense the adhesive into a small, non-reactive, and disposable container, then use an ultra fine pick or sewing needle to spread just a touch of glue inside the crack. I keep a pile of plastic souffle cups from the grocery store in my lab (those clear plastic cups they send sauce home with your takeout order).

If you look at my pictures on the GetDPI post, you'll see that I have the gear on a toothpick. The ramping of the toothpick in size allows me to slide the gear down onto the toothpick, which slowly and gently spreads the crack apart. I can then use a fine pick (actually, I use an explorer), dip the tip into the dispensed adhesive, and "wipe" a touch into the crack. I then slide the gear up the toothpick so that it'll close up the crack. Leave the gear onto the toothpick - it's a great handle to keep from losing the tiny gear. Apply a bit of pressure with your fingers or carbon-fiber tweezers (don't use metal - it'll mar the plastic, and avoid nylon tweezers - it can get stuck if there's any glue runoff). You can see the excess glue squirt out usually. I use another toothpick, to wipe away as much excess as possible. Then cure the glue.

The other benefit of using a UV glue is that it'll fluoresce when hit with UV. That way, you can see any overflowing glue and scrape it out of the gear track after curing to be sure it won't interfere with the meshing gear(s).

[Alex]

Thanks Doc, this will be of great help in time to come.

Alex

[ALAIN]

Oh ! Incredible all these tips! Thank you !
Well, if I summarize:
- blue lamp: it is enough to be careful; but not on that arrived at the led, I can intervene ...
- Autofocus of the 35-90: I will wait for the HB estimate and I will then see to try to stick the little miracle gear if HB is to expensive...
- FireWire connector of my 60ccd back: there, I prefer not to touch anything until I have more information... And yes, it works very well, so ...
Happy odds and ends,
Alain (from France)

[ALAIN]

No no no: that's not all !!!
I am going to have an HC150 whose diaphragm no longer works!
It can come from many things, capacitors ...
But, is) it possible to open the beast without disturbing the optical part ... It's scary, but the HB repair is more expensive than the price of a used lens that works, why not try if I am helped a little;)

[ALAIN]

Thank you very much for these technical details.

I will get my 150mm with the shutter blocked and my 35-90 with autofocus blocked probably next week.
I'm a little afraid to open all this, and I will be reassured if I could know a little about the method or if I could see some tutorials of this kind of disassembly ...

Thanks in advance,
Alain (from France)

[docholliday]

Thank you very much for these technical details.

I will get my 150mm with the shutter blocked and my 35-90 with autofocus blocked probably next week.
I'm a little afraid to open all this, and I will be reassured if I could know a little about the method or if I could see some tutorials of this kind of disassembly ...

Thanks in advance,
Alain (from France)

The first question I'd ask of you is: do you have the tools to work on optics? You're going to need lens spanners, (real) tweezers that don't flex, carbon-fibre or nylon tipped tweezers, some large rubber/silicone stoppers, and cloth gloves + finger cots. The reason for the spanners and real tweezers, such as Erem or Lindstrom, is that one slip and you are marring the optics. You have to also have a really clean environment and fingerprint/oil protection. It's not hard to take apart the HC150 to get to the shutter assembly, but the glass is large and has very little edge protection.

You're also going to need good screwdrivers, mostly 0000 and 000 for the smallest, that don't slip and get a good grip on the screws. Many of them are held by threadlocker. You can round the head of the screw very easily. Wiha or Xcelite drivers here, none of those "hobby store 'jewelers'" specials.

You basically use the lens spanner(s) to remove the ring around the front element, then rubber stoppers the size of the whole element to help unscrew the groups. Once you get it out, you turn it over, take off the back, remove the focus assembly, and ribbon cable. Then, from the front, unscrew and thread out the whole shutter assembly. That sounds easy, but there's a lot of little steps, screws, and other tiny items - which is what the firm gripping (no flexing) tweezers and non-marring nylon/carbon-fiber tweezers are for.

Putting it back together is the reverse. Be careful not to touch any elements, clean any/all dust, torque the screws properly, and re-apply the proper threadlocker to the screws.

All of this needs done in a filtered air environment. You can make one out of sealed plastic tubs, but it's hard to see inside clearly. You'll be surprised how much (invisible) dust in the air happens to settle on the innards of the lens when it's apart!

[ALAIN]

Thank you very much for the very specific very useful elements.

I have almost all the tools and even a little laminar flow ... all of this coming from my distant past in the quality control of a company specializing in electromagnetic components for aeronautical and space destinations.
On the other hand, I have no real travel experience at the bottom of a lense;) and your recommendations urge me to be very careful.

I will think about the question:
- perhaps keep the 35-90 as it is with its auto-focus blocked, and only use it in manual focus (it will depend on the price of the repair estimate),
- maybe also keep the 150mm with its shutter blocked, and only use it at full aperture on an X1D ...

Here are two paths of wisdom, a little less exciting as always ...

Beautiful pictures to all,
Alain (from France)

[docholliday]

Thank you very much for the very specific very useful elements.

I have almost all the tools and even a little laminar flow ... all of this coming from my distant past in the quality control of a company specializing in electromagnetic components for aeronautical and space destinations.
On the other hand, I have no real travel experience at the bottom of a lense;) and your recommendations urge me to be very careful.

I will think about the question:
- perhaps keep the 35-90 as it is with its auto-focus blocked, and only use it in manual focus (it will depend on the price of the repair estimate),
- maybe also keep the 150mm with its shutter blocked, and only use it at full aperture on an X1D ...

Here are two paths of wisdom, a little less exciting as always ...

Beautiful pictures to all,
Alain (from France)

Since you have the tools, especially a "cleanroom" environment, I'd say to go for it and try to fix it! I have a small glovebox as well as laminar flow here at home. It is good enough to service lenses all day long!

The way I always look at those broken lenses: "I really can't make it any worse". If they want too much, try to fix it yourself. If it doesn't work out, you can always put it back together, send it to HB, and "have them fix it"...nothing ventured, nothing gained.

You'll be surprised how easy they are to fix. There's no advanced components in them. The biggest issue I see with people trying to fix them is 1) lack of microwork skills, 2) lack of (good) proper tools - not the hobbyist grade crap that causes more damage than good, and 3) lack of clean environment.

Start with the 150 - it's much easier. the 35-90 does have some extra gear alignments and stuff due to the extra moving lens groups. Just be careful of those ribbon cables as they can tear easily (and don't set the optical elements down face first on a table...been there, done that when not paying attention!). Keep the area clean, use your phone or another camera to take pictures of each section before disassembly, and store the screws well organized & labeled. Oh, and don't leave the screws on a table...the puffs of air from cleaning the elements before re-installation tend to make them disappear!

[ALAIN]

Thanks again for all the tips and very interesting experiences.
After some difficulties in achieving the manual focus (sharp photos from time to time, this seems to be due to chance !!!), I carried out a check, the result of which seems to explain my problems:
I photographed a tape measure tilted at 30 degrees and placed about 2 meters away. I carefully focused with a magnifying glass x10 on the frosted surface (checked with the standard viewfinder) on the 30cm inscription (focus made at full aperture of the HC120 and photo taken at F11).
The focus on the photo is shifted to the 36cm inscription !!!
Since the focusing from the frosted glass and the viewfinder were identical, I suspect a bad calibration of the target part (frosted / mirror ...).
Of course, with this CCD, we cannot use the live-view and we can only trust this reflex sight.
I would like to know if this problem is known and if there is a method to calibrate this.
Thank you in advance for your experiences and beautiful images to all.
Alain (from France)

[docholliday]

Thanks again for all the tips and very interesting experiences.
After some difficulties in achieving the manual focus (sharp photos from time to time, this seems to be due to chance !!!), I carried out a check, the result of which seems to explain my problems:
I photographed a tape measure tilted at 30 degrees and placed about 2 meters away. I carefully focused with a magnifying glass x10 on the frosted surface (checked with the standard viewfinder) on the 30cm inscription (focus made at full aperture of the HC120 and photo taken at F11).
The focus on the photo is shifted to the 36cm inscription !!!
Since the focusing from the frosted glass and the viewfinder were identical, I suspect a bad calibration of the target part (frosted / mirror ...).
Of course, with this CCD, we cannot use the live-view and we can only trust this reflex sight.
I would like to know if this problem is known and if there is a method to calibrate this.
Thank you in advance for your experiences and beautiful images to all.
Alain (from France)

There's two reasons/ways that focus can be off. Either the focus screen is out of alignment or the auto focus is out of calibration. Focus on a parallel surface with thin lines, use only the AF to get a lock and take a shot. Look at that picture on a computer - is it sharp? If so, it's the focus screen out of alignment. If not, try again a few times and see if the AF is locking right. If it's consistently off on each picture you see on the computer, the AF needs calibration. There's trimpots to do that inside the body. If the AF pictures are sharp, but the focus screen isn't, then the screen needs aligned.

It's actually very easy and common to do. If you take off the prism and look around the edges of the focusing screen, you'll see 4 little screws. Those screws raise/lower that corner of the focusing screen. I just recalibrated mine a few months ago.

The way I do it is to use an LCD monitor with a picture with lots of simple lines on a white background. It'll generate a lot of moire on the focus screen when sharpest in focus. Set the camera on a tripod, as parallel to the screen as possible, at a distance 5-10x the focal length of the lens. Take a loupe and look at the focus screen. Manually focus the lens until you see the most moire and remember what it looks like. If you don't get moire at all, you're too close/far or the pattern you are using won't generate moire. Try another pattern.

I've attached the file that I use for calibration. Open it up full screen with as little text as possible. I use Internet Explorer (yes, that old thing) by drag-n-dropping it into the browser, then hitting F11 for full screen. This ring file that I found years ago will moire like crazy.

Now de-focus the lens and hit the auto-focus. Wait until it locks. Don't touch anything on the lens and loupe the focus screen. If the moire is weak or non-existant, you can move the screws to shift the screen up/down until you do get the max moire. If you get more moire on one side of the screen than the other, be sure your camera is centered and parallel to the screen before adjusting the screws on the other side.

[ALAIN]

Fantastic !!! I try tomorrow !!! Thank you !!!