My Canham 8x10 has stinky bellows!

[Jonathan Barlow]

My all-metal Canham 8x10 (Great camera, by the way!) is about 15 years old and the original bellows, although great looking and working fine, have a horrible chemical smell that won't go away. Has anyone else experienced this with bellows from Canham?

http://jonathanbarlow.com/canham.jpg

[Andrew O'Neill]

Nope, but mine suffers from serious sag. My first camera (8x10 LW) had a nice, stiff bellows. That camera got stolen and the replacement has serious sag. Never noticed a bad smell from either. Spritz it with some febreze.... just kidding. Did you contact Keith about that? He's very approachable.

[RichardRitter]

Yes I have seem and smelled bellows like yours. The best I have figured out is it may be mold, mildew Plus the age of the bellow.

Try setting the camera up in a sunny spot for a few hours with the bellows opened up. Also try alcohol on it. first try a small area.

Best way to get rid of the smell is a new bellow.

If it is mold and mildew it could/will effect your other equipment.

[Steve Goldstein]

A used 4x5 I purchased some years had a cloth-lined leather bellows with a distinct mildew odor. This persisted after I cleaned the exterior with Lexol (a leather conditioner/cleaner available in the US). Thanks to another hobby I have a small can of Chlorocresol, a chlorinated phenol used as a fungicide, so I thought I'd try it before I looked into replacing the bellows.

I set up the camera, replacing the lensboard and back with pieces of corrugated cardboard. I put a few crystals of chlorocresol, well under a gram, in a 35mm film can and carefully set it inside the set-up bellows, then closed things up for a week. Afterwards I opened up the back, removed the remaining chlorocresol, and left the camera in a sunny spot and open to the air for a few days. The mildew smell was completely gone and there was no residual odor of chlorocresol either. This was several years ago, and I've had no subsequent mildew problem with this camera.

[Jonathan Barlow]

Thanks for your comments. It's more of a chemical odor that would likely kill mold, not result from it. The camera & bellows are perfectly clean and look new, and have always been stored in a climate-controlled space. I'm thinking it has to do with the synthetic material from which the bellows are constructed, kind of like the stinky Toyo film holder issue.

[John Kasaian]

Eat Gilroy Garlic fries before photographing.
It won't do anything for your bellows but you won't notice the odor :rolleyes:

[AtlantaTerry]

On another thread people are complaining about the stench of Toyo sheet film holders. Maybe both are related to the plastics or glues being used.

[kazzam]

I think it's the type of material. I bought a 5x4 Canham that has a sort of chemical smell coming from the bellows too - it's not a mouldy smell. I think it's the material personally. I've had mine out to air with the bellows extended and it seems to make a difference.