Reasonable price for new 4x5 Bellows

[Lenny Eiger]

One more reasonable price thread... I have this little Wista 4x5. It's really light, the bellows is made of a paper. The person who owned it before me didn't care about how she closed it up so the bellows is all folded wrong and sort of mangled. I think its light leak - free, which I could easily test, but I'd like to get the bellows replaced with something light, maybe one step up from paper. (It's glued on, as well.) However, it isn't my main camera, which is an Ebony.

One fellow did give me a price, for a bellows and gluing it in, about $150, however, that seemed a bit steep. Maybe I'm wrong... Maybe I should get a bellows and glue it myself?

What's reasonable? What do you folks recommend?

Thanks,

Lenny

[Ari]

I think $150 for new 4x5 bellows and the extra work is a pretty good price.
The Chinese bellows makers will charge slightly more for just the bellows.
The important consideration is quality and strength of the material used; if it seems cheap or flimsy, keep walking.

[vinny]

Rudy at ecbuyonline2008 charges about $100 for just the bellows. Cutting/mountig bellows is nerveracking work. $150 is cheap.

[evan clarke]

Price a 4x5 Arca bellows!!!

[hoffner]

It's a very good price.

[Bob Salomon]

Reasonable is not only what they charge for the bellows and what the installation cost is. the big thing is how long will the new bellows last? As the Wista distributor we have sold surprisingly few replacement bellows over the 15 or so years that we have been carrying Wista. Now, how long will that "reasonable" bellows last? You have to assume that the camera it is installed on will not only be used lightly once a month.

[Leszek Vogt]

I probably overpaid by going with bellows from UK, but I went with several opinions (about quality) from this forum. What I didn't wanted to do is to trouble-shoot (over and over) reasonably priced bellows. That's it in the nutshell.

Les

[Tin Can]

Very little, handmade, new and obscure is under $150. I had 11x14 bellows made in USA and mounted for slightly twice that. Consider USA bellows makers also.

Nobody is quick, seems all want 6 weeks. I think of these things as winter projects.

[Lenny Eiger]

Thanks, everyone...

Lenny

[BetterSense]

150 or 200 for just the bellows is about the going rate.