"ecbuyonline" Sinar 8x10 Bellows

[Cletus]

Amadeus - Thank you for the info! So if I understand what you're saying about the differences, it is only the actual size of the rear mounting frame? I wouldn't have thought it would be Sinar's method of mounting, which is pretty much the same 'groove with locking bar" for standards, backs, lensboards, etc. As long as it's only the size (difference between the Sinar Met. and non-Met. back bellows), I can verify the size from ecbyonline.

In fact, here is the size they gave me for the back frame of their standard "Sinar P2" bellows, which is pictured on their site attached to a metering back. They're saying the dimensions of the rear frame of their bellows is 324 x 324mms, or 12.75"x 12.75". Does that sound like the correct size for the metered back?

Thanks a lot for helping with this question, I'd really like to order a set of these, but as mentioned earlier in this post, I don't want to order all the way from China only to get the wrong thing.

[Frank Petronio]

Your old leaky bellows has good frames that are very valuable - with them you can send off for a custombellows.uk bellows and get exactly what you need done perfectly, as in doing it the right way.... Use the Chinese ones in the meantime and then sell them or keep as a spare.

[Cletus]

Frank - yep! Never even occurred to me to try that. I'm familiar with Camerabellows.com and have heard many good things about them. I was also a bit loth to just toss my old ones, but I didn't realize they might be still good for something. Like sticking a new bellows in between 'em!

Thanks for the tip!

[Cletus]

Oops - I mean "custombellows.com", not Camerabellows....

[Frank Petronio]

When I shot an 8x10 Sinar I found a cheap leaky set of bellows for precisely that reason. Of course waiting for someone to offer some beat-up 8x10 bellows for sale was, umm, challenging.

I am not a big fan-boy for Sinar, I think they made some dumb design decisions over the years - the metering back especially. That's an expensive mistake for a lot of people. The best thing about Sinar is that there are so many parts and pieces available in the US, it makes it easier to fix or build whatever you want.

[Cletus]

I sure do agree with you on the metering back issue! I can definitely see why that would be useful for a commercial photog shooting chromes all day, but otherwise a waste of material. I wish I could find an F2/P2 non-metering 8x10 back, but I'm not sure that even exists, or could be got for less than $2K if it did!

I'm still pretty new to Sinar and I do like that "all the parts and pieces" are plentiful and fairly universal between cameras, of course with the EXCEPTION of the high-dollar bellows I need! Other than the fact that parts are easy and cheap to get though, I don't know of any reason to choose Sinar over an Arca or Linhof. Maybe the simple fact that I've never really seen or used anything else keeps me blissfully ignorant of the advantages of some other systems out there!

Anyway, I've emailed custombellows for a quote and we'll see what they say. After shipping back and forth from the UK and buying a set of "cheap" $200 Chinese bellows for the interim, it might end up making more fiscal sense to just find a set of OEMs and be done with it.

[Cletus]

Or try to repair the set I have? Anybody ever tried the bellows repair kit from Bostick & Sullivan, or others? (or the judicious use of some gaffer's tape?!)

[pbryld]

I also had a good experience with them. I bought bellows for a 2D.

[Cletus]

Pbryld - you had a good experience from whom? ecbuyonline, or Custombellows.com?

[Peter De Smidt]

Custombellows.com is great, as in the same quality as OEM bellows.

Regarding repairing bellows, this comes up quite often. Some will claim patching works well, and it can, especially if the hole wasn't cause by old age. (If it was caused by old age, you're about to have a whole bunch more.) The problem is that LF photography is a very resource intensive operation, and that's even if you ignore the cost of the materials. Do you really want a shoot ruined because a fix didn't work? A first rate bellows should last for decades, and so springing for inexpensive bellows may be a good deal in the short run, but I doubt it's a good one in the long run.