Auxiliary Shutter Error

I had set up a fairly rough table top set to evaluate some image ideas. The topic for camera club was contre jour (shooting into the light). This was a chance to try the new LED lights instead of the trusty old strobes. Things were progressing well and I was using the Hasselblad H3D 39 II tethered to my older MacBook Pro. After trying a few lighting positions and subjects I pushed the shutter cable release once again and the Blad made a very disconcerting noise. A quick look at the status window on the hand grip showed the awful message “auxiliary shutter error” . Holy cow Batman, that can’t be good I thought! Immediately I removed the digital back and was greeted by the sight in the image above. Not pretty at all. This camera is without doubt my absolute favourite. I purchased it in 2010 to use as the main weapon in my studio photographing mostly custom automobiles and it has been faultless for over 10 years. I immediately called CR Kennedy’s in Melbourne to get an idea of the possible wallet damage and given that it is a Hasselblad was pleasantly surprised by the quote for an auxiliary shutter drive replacement at $850.00. So off to Kennedy’s tomorrow with fingers crossed it can be repaired as an auxiliary drive replacement.

UPDATE: Sadly the camera could not be fixed locally and had to be sent to Sweden. This has been quoted at about $1600 AUD to replace the assembly, recalibrate the focus and clean and replace the IR filter which all sounds pretty good. A lot for a 10 - 12 year old camera but it is still an awesome piece of kit and fantastic to have the factory do the repairs. Stay tuned for more!