Custom Bellows! Superb service, superb quality.
Custom Bellows! Superb service, superb quality.
Lachlan.
You miss 100% of the shots you never take. -- Wayne Gretzky
thank you all.
I just had a 4X5 Toyo bellows made for me by Dynatect
http://www.dynatect.com/.
http://www.dynatect.com/protective-c...folded-bellows
The quality and design are superb, as was the customer service. This is the best work, actually even better, than I have seen since Western Bellows closed. All this comes at a price, but for some critical workers it can be money well-spent.
I have also rebuilt several Toyos with bellows from Rudy, who has been well-recommended here many times. His products have extremely good quality and workmanship and you can't beat the price - well, yes you can by buying directly from him rather than on the big auction site.
https://www.boyaetone.com/index.php/en/
https://www.boyaetone.com/index.php/...ws/results,7-6
Thanks Neal for this link, do you mind telling us what sort of price range your new bellows for your toyo fell into? Looks like an interesting option for people here in the US.
Had a bad experience with both manufactures you mention. Dynatect makes industrial bellows - their material was so thick that the bellows I got were of no use for a camera. Besides, they sent it to a wrong country and the dimension was wrong too. Somebody on a post office noticed the wrong country not matching my town and it came to me anyway. I wanted to send the bellows back but was offered it for they had no use for it. Nevertheless, I needed to look elsewhere for the bellows I needed.
Western Bellows a similar story. The material was too thick and the bellows hard to press. Complete waist of money.
Once I got bellows from Custom Bellows I never looked back at any other options. Just my mileage.
Dynatect is a large company that makes all types of industrial covers and bellows, most of which are stock items. However, all their camera bellows are custom made.
Light tight bellows for photographic, camera or imaging equipment
http://www.dynatect.com/protective-c...apered-bellows
Ask for Cindy Marlosek at Dynatect and she will put you in touch with the right department.
Toyo folded bellows are made from one layer of a thin fabric material covered with a black coating. The coating cracks first on the corners, creating pin holes, then later starts peeling all over. Because it is only a single layer of fabric, the Toyo bellows is very thin. A more traditional design uses two layers of fabric with cardboard stiffeners in between. This was the approach taken by Western Bellows and with the bellows supplied by Rudy (which I think come from Shen Hao). These bellows are about 50% thicker than stock Toyo bellows. In order to mount Rudy's bellows to the current Toyo plastic frames with the original screws, the screw holes in the frames must be carefully countersunk or the screws will not bite.
Dynatect uses two layers of Nylon with stiffeners made from thin PVC. The PVC stiffeners are not folded along their full length as is done with cardboard, but are skeletonized and joined by narrow tabs. Because no card board is used, the bellows are completely waterproof and fold more compactly than Rudy's. Dynatect bellows are also only slightly thicker than the Toyos and mount easily to Toyo frames with the original screws and countersinking the frame holes is not required.
I found another US supplier of industrial bellows which is actually a Japan-based company whose founder started making bellows for the photo industry. Nabell http://nabell.com/?_vsrefdom=adwords...FdRyfgods-cAuA has a product line like Dynatect's and both companies use the same order forms and manufacture to the ISO 9001 standard. As with Dynatect, camera bellows are a custom item with them. I think that they would supply exactly the same product I obtained from Dynatect, but Nabell's price was slightly higher and lead time was longer.
Dynatect supplied me with the 16" Toyo 45G bellows for $238 plus $18 shipping. Rudy charged $90 delivered.
We have been informed by Mr. Arturo Rivero at Dynatect that their website links have changed. Here are the updated links:
https://dynatect.com/
https://dynatect.com/product/protect...olded-bellows/
Rick "we report, you decide" Denney
+1 For Custom Bellows.
Just had my 12x20 Korona bellows replaced. The price was reasonable, the craftsmanship and service were superior.
Can the members which bought bellows shed some light on the fabric used:
so is the fabric the bellows are made of more
a. like the old Russian leather, i.e. very thin leather?
b. more like linen? or
c. more like nylon?
Guess the fabric is not so important if you use a modern LF platecamera, but for members restoring an old one, the kind of fabric matters more
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