Cannot remove lens from 500 EL/M Body

[silvioH]

Dear Medium Format Forum Members

I have a Hasselblad 500 EL/M body and cannot remove the lens because the camera is released and not wound up. Since I currently have no battery for the body I ask if there is a manual way to rewind the shutter again and remove the lens.

Thanks for your help

best regards

Silvio

 

[Wasp]

There is no way to wind the 500 EL/M manually that I know of. It is a bad idea to even try, as told in this story.

Donkeypuss's Wonderful World of Technology › Hasselblad 500 EL/M Adventures

Luckily, there is a cheap work around. Do you have the charger? You can take off the plug from that and attach it to a 9 volt (PM9) battery. The DC motor in the camera is fine wit a few extra Volts. The original battery may be 6V but it will work with up to 12V. If you don't have the charger, just obtain a 5 DIN 270 degree plug.

I can confirm that thus hack works. I used it on my own 500 EL/M after I got it. The original batteries were completely dead and I wanted to confirm that the camera was still good.

Note that it is very important to get the polarity right. If you get it wrong the motor will turn in the wrong direction and that will probably end in tears. I plugged in the charger and used a voltmeter to work it out. If you not have a charger or voltmeter, a service manual will help. I found this one. It is infested with ads but the answer seems to be on page 77.



These are the parts you will need, apart from the battery. You will also need a soldering iron and solder.

This is a far better solution - one that I use myself these days.

 

[silvioH]

Thanks alot for the detailed answer! This helps!