Anba/Nagaoka paper camera bellows materials???

[Christopher Perez]

Folks,

I'm about to replace the old paper bellows that came on a pre-Anba era camera. I would like to make the bellows out of paper.

Anyone know what paper was used? How Anba/Nagaoka bellows get to be light tight? A quick look through the local art supply revealed nothing in the way of light tight papers.

Ideas? Suggestions?

[Kerry L. Thalmann]

Chris,

It's been a few years since I sold my little Anba-Ikeda, but I seem to recall the bellows was lined with a black silk-like fabric. I suspect it was the lining, not the outer covering that made the bellows light tight.

As an alternative, I suggest one of the lightweight bellows from Camera Bellows in England. These are made from a single layer of flexible synthetic material with no internal stiffeners. This makes these bellows much more flexible than traditional multi-layer bellows that have an outer covering, the stiffeners and then a fabric inner liner. This is the same wonderfabric Keith Canham uses for the bellows on his DLC models. It is also the same material from which I had the bellows fabricated for my 7x17 Franken-ARCA. Being a single layer, a bellows of this type should easily collapse sufficiently to fold inside of your camera - and they are flexible enough to provide greater movements for wide angles than the original bellows.

Kerry

[John Kasaian]

The Stagi concertinas have paper bellows, I wonder.....???