Bellows question?

[Keith Pitts]

Hi All,

I just bought an 8x10 Korona on ebay and I have a question about the internals of the bellows as it is in the photo. I should have asked this BEFORE but I can be impulsive. The interior does not look black by any interpretation. Is there a way to blacken it? Is it not necessary? Why would it turn from black in the first place. I would be very happy with an answer to any if not all of these questions. Thanks.

Sincerely,

Keith

[IanG]

Whatever was used to blacken the cloth has degraded over the years.

Probably these best solution is get some black dye, I'd dig out my old airbrush and respray the cloth slowly re-blackening the interior.

Ian

[Capocheny]

Hi Keith,

I've seen bellows like that on some of the cameras up at one of the local Photo Imaging schools and they've used them without any issues at all.

My suggestion would be to take the camera out and do a few shots with it. Then, take a look at the resulting negatives/positives to see if there's any problems.

If not... then don't worry about it.

If yes... try the dye route (depending on what the bellows material is made of.)

Good luck

Cheers

[Randy H]

A couple of the old cameras I have, and have had, the interior of the bellows is a light - medium "tan" colour. Never have paid much attention to it. I would agree with Capo. Try it. If there are no issues with them as is, use em as is.
If it ain't broke, it don't need fixin.
I re-furbed a set on one old 4X5 and used liquid boot polish to re-black them. Looked like it was supposed to, but don't know that it made much diff in pics. But then again, when all your pics only come out so-so... :rolleyes:

[wclavey]

I cannot speak specifically for the effect on bellows, but if the extrapolation holds then I offer this advice. I have made and/or modified several reflecting telescopes from a number of optical tube materials. In all cases, covering the interior of the tube with the blackest non-reflective material I could work with, depending on size (often thick pile black felt, but I have used flat back paint over a small flocking material, too) has improved the image contrast. By extrapolation, I would not be surprised if redying the material with a deep black paint or dye did not have the same contrast-improving effect. But of course, I could be wrong...