I recently purchased a Deardorff 8x10 front swing camera with a new bellows. When using the camera for the first time I made a photograph of a building with the lens panel raised to its top position, the camera tilted up about 15 degress, and the front and back tilted forward to bring them parallel to the front of the building. I was using a 400mm lens. I discovered that I have a severe bellows sag problem in that configuration. I lose about an inch off the bottom of the photograph. Holding the bellows up as far as I can with my hand from the bottom reduced but didn't eliminate the problem.
Is this something that is just endemic to Deardorff cameras when used in this configuration or is this particular bellows perhaps too flexible? I can't tell what material it is but it feels like it might be leather. I owned a previous Deardorff that had an old (maybe original) but much heavier bellows and didn't encounter the problem though the longest lens I commonly used with that camera was 330mm.
The seller has very kindly offered to return the purchase price. If the problem is with this particular bellows then I'll take him up on the offer and look for something else. OTOH, if this is something all Deardorff owners experience regardless of the bellows material then I'll just live with it and try to come up with a work-around.
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