Bellows sag: anyone else having this issue?

[Bosaiya]

I have nine feet of bellows on my main 4x5" macro camera. Since it's a monorail I support the bellows from below with inverted spring-clamps, like the kind used for holding pieces of wood together while the glue dries. The clamp goes around the rail and the handles make a V that the bellows rest on.

For my shorter macro cameras without a monorail I support from below with empty film boxes, pieces of cloth, or whatever is handy.

I use those black metal paper clamps discussed above to hold together sections of bellows on my 6x8cm macro camera. An old curtain is wrapped around one camera where the bellows don't match up correctly, the excess is tucked underneath to prop it up.

You can get as fancy or ghetto as you please. The negatives don't seem to care.

[ljsegil]

Wedgie.
LJS

[Richard M. Coda]

I've found this to be more of a problem as I get older. I've just turned the last corner before 50.... Oh, this is about "bellows" sag. Sorry!

On my Arca I have a simple device, designed by Rod Klukas at Photomark, which clamps on to the rail and is adjustable (upwards) to support the bellows when it's racked out.

[Ari]

My solution is similar to a few posted above: I folded the first two pleats (topside) of the bellows closest to the lensboard, and with the lens removed, taped these folded pleats to the lensboard using two thin, small strips of aluminum tape.
By the time it stops working I'll either be rich enough to afford a new bellows, or I'll be dead.

[Brian Ellis]

I carried an empty 4x5 film box around and placed it under the bellows of my 8x10 Deardorff to keep the bellows from sagging when extended beyond about 300mm. Not particularly elegant but the empty box weighed almost nothing and it was simple to place and remove it.

[Diane Maher]

I put my Lee Multi Filter holder pouch (the one which holds 10 filters)/lens hood pouch underneath the bellows. They support the bellows and also stabilize the camera when the wind picks up.

[John Kasaian]

Make a little tent out of the card stock salvaged from a film box to prop up the bottom of your bellows.

DWhatever you do, don't go to a pharmacy and ask for viagra by telling the pharmacist it is really for your large format camera.

[Gary L. Quay]

For my venerable Calumet C-1, I shove an old Rubik's cube between the bellows and the bed.

--Gary

[Bruce Barlow]

Neither Alice nor Norma have the screw that Mr. Bowen describes, but a big rubber band will loop around the two front standards without pulling back too much. When not in use, the black clip fits on the axle between the front uprights.

[otzi]

For my venerable Calumet C-1, I shove an old Rubik's cube between the bellows and the bed.

--Gary

Sounds like someone accustomed to waiting for the light.