Using an Arca long bellows as all-around

[Frank Petronio]

Before plunking down gobs of cash (or, ummm... credit card debt) for an Arca-Swiss long 70cm bellows, would experienced Arca users have any qualms about using only the long bellows with lenses 180mm or longer; and the leather bag bellows for shorter lenses? I hate to have to carry THREE bellows! But at what point does the long bellows "bunch up" and interfere with making movements?

Also, how thick is the beast when stored? My regular 40cm bellows is about 1.5 inches I'd guess. Will the 70cm be about 2.5 inches?

The good and bad thing about these "system" cameras is that I am rapidly accumulating enough extra stuff to build a second camera...

[neil poulsen]

My Arca Swiss standard bellows was left somewhere in New England, so I opted to purchase the long bellows and have the extra length. I also have the wide-angle leather bag bellows. The two work well together. My lenses jump from a 180mm to a 250mm. The bag bellows works just fine for all my lenses up to the 180mm lens. If I put on my 250mm or 355mm lens, then I swap the bellows. No problems. I've not tried the bag bellows with a 210mm, but it's supposed to work. I doubt that it would work that well for closeups. (On a 210mm.)

The only thing I miss about not having the standard bellows is it's decreased size, versus that of the long 700mm bellows. The long bellows is a little bulky to transport, which can also make it more vulnerable to impact. I keep the long bellows in the small, cubic, postal box that a lot of people use for shipping EBay items. The long bellows fits fine, except that the box is a little too tall. So, I cut it down and invert it in my backpack so that the (stronger) bottom of the box shields the bellows from impact.

[Scott Atkinson]

I use the Arca short/long bellows combination, too, though mine are the tapered 4x5 to 6x9 type. I have one bellows slot in my Super-Trekker pack, and the bellows that's not on the camera goes there, in a ziplock...they both take up a similar amount of space. I use the bag bellows up to 180, then switch over. I started with the standard single bellows, but quickly went short/long--the standard is OK on the short end (at least without extensive movements) but not great on the long--it will just stretch out to cover my 450 Fuji at infinity, but it doesn't like it. If you don't use long lenses--over 300mm or so--and don't use large movements with super-short lenses (they won't really cover, anyhow) you might be fine with the single, standard bellows.

[Jim Bancroft]

Hi Frank-

I have an A/S f metric with the std (nominal 40cm) synthetic bellows. I have all my lenses mounted on Technica boards and use the Linhof to Arca adapter board which is slightly recessed. My lenses with this configuration range from a 47mm SA XL to a 720mm Tele Nikkor. For the longer lenses I use a 25cm extension rail.

I'd keep the long bellows and extension rail(s) packed separately and only put it on the camera if I expected to exceed the aprox 480mm full extension of the std bellows.

jim

Jim Bancroft

[Frank Petronio]

I've been tempted by the teles - I used to use a 270 Rotelar with a Linhof that did excellent - and a 360 Tele Arton or Rotelar would be the nuts, especially for portraits. Right now I am using a 300/5.6 Sinaron (gotta great deal, small cleaning marks) and loving finally having something long for 4x5 - would like to go longer, but hate the idea of slow process lenses, especially for people photography. Darn, those Nikon Teles are expensive though...