Problems with 120 Macro lens

[studio_madsmonsen]

I was wondering if other users have had problems with the 120 macro. I bought a new kit last year together with the 120 macro lens. Only after a few weeks the lens stopped working, reporting lens failure and I had it replaced. Now a year later, the 120 reported again lens failure while working on location, but it currently works in manual mode. Autofocus does no longer work. I will have to get it sent in for repair.

In addition, at one occasion, the whole body jammed, H3D-II, and it had to be shipped to Denmark for warranty repair. I must admit all these problems have dented my trust in the Hasselblad brand. As stated at the beginning, does anyone else have a lot of issues with the Hasselblad cameras or am I extremely unlucky?

Cheers,
Mads

[Eivind Røhne]

Been a H-digiblade user for almost five years, and I work with and know a couple of others here in Norway as well. We've all had loads of issues, and our cameras got frequent flyer bonus cards to Denmark along time ago, so I think this is something a lot of people just learn to live with on the MFD platform. Pity though...

[Jacephoto]

i had occassional issues with the software but its not the product's fault. I am concerned with the company's direction and if they would take the route like Nikon and Camera to introduce a system every 6 mths or so.... I also wish that they build their gears as robust and as user-friendly in the DSLR format but unfortunately so.

I am trading off the Image Quality for all the other things that they cant achieve. In short, i have learnt to live with the problem.

[Alex Maxim]

does anyone else have a lot of issues with the Hasselblad cameras or am I extremely unlucky?

I might be lucky, but no reliability issues for me and I am not very gentle with the camera and lenses.

[Dustbak]

I am pretty gentle with my equipment but I have had some problems, eg. broken DSP and a broken mirror drive mechanism. Over a period of 4 years of fairly intensive usage, to my standards anyway.

I find H equipment not the sturdiest or most reliable, in comparison I only once needed Nikon support in over 20 years! To say it is giving me problems constantly is going way to far, this is absolutely not the case. It would be great if it had the same reliability track record as my Nikons. All in all, not bad but I would certainly like it improved, as always.

I hate having to send in equipment for repair. It is fairly expensive and I hate making, what feels to me, unnecessary costs. I much rather spend money on other stuff

[KeithL]

Often the problem with forums is just that, they are a conduit for problems. Typically problems are reported while reliability isn't.

As an analogy, had I accepted that the problems reported on the BMW MINI forums were typical I would never have bought into the mark and missed out on what has turned out to be the most reliable - and fun - car I've ever owned.

Sure, there are inevitably problems with any camera system, but it is the nature of the beast that people on forums - hate fora - tend to report problems.

Keith

[filmless]

"Often the problem with forums is just that, they are a conduit for problems. Typically problems are reported while reliability isn't."

I must agree.  I have been a fan of the 120 macro for a long time, I have personally put it through quite a bit (shooting) with no problems whatever. The last place I worked and now my current employer both have rental departments with H systems... neither have had any problems with the 120 macro and we all know how harsh the rental equipment is treated.

If you haven't yet, try to talk one on one with the Hasselblad tech support guys to see if they can find something that has caused your repeated problem, but personally I think you've just had a bit of bad luck.

Tim