In response to the following message: "In making a tapered bellows, what would the difficulty be in making the first 8 to 12 inches of the bellows with 1/2 inch folds and the rest ( 60 inches ) with a 1 inch fold. The problem I am having is that the lensboard will barley cover some of my bigger lenses. Add this to the fold which is to be glued to a panel identical to the lens board and there is no room for the big lenses.. ... John Cremati"
I've noticed on some of the older wooden 8x10s that there are narrower folds towards the rear, where the bellows enters the rear standard. I assume this is to make it easier for the bellows to fold into the standard, and to keep the folds from interfering with the image. I've tried this myself. It worked out okay. I used the fold-width computation methods outlined in Kurt Motweiler's Deardorff bellows construction data posts, just made two separate sets of calculations for the same bellows dimensions. You just have to be careful how you start the change-over; make sure you diagram it out for yourself, and clearly mark that point on all your strip sticks if you use them, so you don't get mixed up as to where the narrower strips should start. If you don't have them all start at the same point along the length of the bellows, the result could be pretty amazing (not a good thing....). I don't see why this couldn't work at any point in the bellows, front or rear or in the middle, if you plan it carefully and place all the strips accurately, which you have to do anyway to avoid some of the phenomena I've noted in some of the bellows I've built! (Phenomena like the bellows acting like a big spring; or ending up looking like a big twisty tunnel; or the aptly named "dog's lunch"....) Sounds like it would work out better if you could increase the size of the opening at the lens end of the bellows, but I'll bet you already thought of that and ruled it out because of other factors in the way the camera is constructed. Hope this helps. --mh _______________________________________________ Cameramakers mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://rosebud.opusis.com/mailman/listinfo/cameramakers
