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A sad moment in Zeiss history

wbulte

wbulte

Active Member
Please mourn with me the death of this brand new F 350 lens.
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Vandals at Zeiss decided that taking out the lens parts
(for spares?) and wrecking the metal parts (to avoid re-use) made economic sense.

It is truly sad to perform an autopsy on such a nice piece of
craftsmanship. There are a lot of beautifully machined parts inside.
Most miraculously escaped the brute attack with the hammer.

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The 'good' news is that I now have a set of the lens electronics
available. I will post pictures tomorrow.

Wilko
 
This is even more idiotic than what the previous owner of my Hasselblad 1000F Nr. 2 did to the camera's shell bottom.

What pride do the people at Zeiss take in their work when they do things like that. Sad indeed. But I had doubts before...

Ulrik
 
Wilko,

I am a little confused...Zeiss did this to a useable lens?

If it was unuseable, then cannabilising it isn't such a bad idea, although I don't understand the crude bashing on the barrel...

I like recycling (as we all should, as it is how nature works!) and sort of like that my 1971 500C/M body is the transition one marked 500C. That is, Hasselblad didn't send useful stuff to landfill.

But then again, you know what they say about small things...

Nick
 
Wilko

I can hardly believe what you describe .
Why should ZEISS do that to a lens , when it could have been sold ? ? ?
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Well Juergen,

This is the story I was told is behind it. I have seen more lenses who had suffered the same faith. Mind you, this kind of action is not uncommon in companies. I have seen brand new 20" monitors go in the dumpster (when they still cost a fortune) to avoid "competing with a newly released model".

Go figure..

Wilko
 
Jürgen,

The reason is quite simple.
A manufacturer has an obligation to keep spares for a product for a minimum of eight years after the last product is sold.
So they keep spares and a complete item just in case.
From these lenses the glass elements were all removed and probably sold seperately.
When the eight years have past they want to clear what is left.
Now I have all the spares I need for 40/50/60/150/250/350 lenses from
CFE and FE series.
I allready converted two 150 "F" lenses into "FE" models.
If you need a spare part at a friendly price you know where to look for it.

Paul
 
I believe Dr Carl Zeiss himslef used to smash any lenses that did not please hie eye with a small hammer as a form of quality control. Perhaps use of the hammer is actually a time honoured Zeiss tradition!
 
Wolko, I am confused - did you send this lens for a repair? Was the damage deliberate for the reasons others have stated, or was it accidental? Did you just receive it as a source of parts? Surely this was not done to a customer's new lens by Zeiss staff?
 
Hi Simon,

No, this lens was not sent for repair. It was obtained by Paul in its current state as a source for parts. This lens was never sold to a customer, rather it was sacrificed for its lens parts. And the remaining mechanical parts got a couple of hits with the hammer.

Wilko
 
Wilko and Paul

I have big trouble to understand this . They could have given Paul the lens barrel "unhammered" . What would they have lost ? ? ? OK. It has happened and we can not change it , but I just can't understand .
uhoh.gif
 
Hi Juergen,

Paul bought the barrels somewhere (he got more than one). No idea what road these barrels were on before Paul got them in his hands.

Wilko
 
Hi all! Thanks to Paul and his Hasselblad mechanic the electronics of this lens now reside in my 350mm f4 F lens, making it FE. I am so grateful!

Terry
 
Hi Terry,

I was wondering whether the arrival of lens was delayed.
Thanks for reporting it has safely arrived with you.
It was a pleasure to help you upgrade your 350F lens to FE spec.
I wish you many good shots with the 350.

After all a sad moment turns out not to be so sad at all.

Paul
 
Hi Marc. I'm going to try and do some shooting this weekend but as you know, the weather in Michigan sucks this time of year. One of the beautys of this lens is a close focus of 6.3 feet. Think I'll try some black and white with it.
 
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