Technikardan bellows limits

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Large format photography : One Thread

For the last three or four months, I have been using a Technikardan 4x5. It has far more available movements with a 90mm in place than my prior camera. The documentation with the camera talks about using a bag bellows "the lenses shorter than 90mm."

But when forcing the front standard up, the bellows does get rather scrunched. My question for Technikardan users especially is: are there limits to the bellows tolerance for such forcing? Should I buy a bag bellows just to be safe? My 90mm (a Fujinon f/8) does not have vast coverage and the bag bellows may give more easy movement than I've got coverage anyway. But I don't want to shred the normal bellows.

The normal bellows seems like its made of sturdy stuff and it never gets itself in the field of view.

Thanks,

-- John Hennessy (northbay@directcon.net), October 03, 2000

Answers

John,

I have a TK 45, and my widest lens is a Fuji 90 mm f4.5. I purchased a bag bellows for those occasions when I use rise or fall. I found that although the standard bellows were quite flexible, they still were stiff enough to push the front standard away from whatever position I had it in before sliding the standard up or down more than about 1.5 cm. This was most easily detected when the standards started out being parallel, and ended up with a slight angle between them. I don't want to go to the trouble of checking their angle each time I adjust the focus or position of the lens. Just my laziness, I guess.

Bruce

-- Bruce M. Herman (bherman@gci.net), October 04, 2000.


don't force the normal bellows. they are somewhat delicate and very expensive to replace (>$500). i believe the literature means the normal bellows will compress enough to easily focus a 90, but not necessarily with movements. buy the bag bellows. it is much cheaper than replacing the normal ones and it will allow you all the movements you could want.

-- adam friedberg (asfberg@hotmail.com), October 04, 2000.

Moderation questions? read the FAQ