New WP Camera! Can I Iron The Bellows?

[Richard K.]

Just picked up this beauty for a song (Ob-La-Di). All it needs is a bit of bellows work. Do you think I can just iron them back into coherent pleatedness? Please click on the thumb nail! :D

[Bill_1856]

The original "Bag Bellows?"

[Oren Grad]

It's the spontaneous and unrehearsed look. :)

(Hmm, maybe it would fit with the "destruction" theme...)

[Kino]

No need; just run over your lens with the car a few times and you'll adjust the optical path to match the bellows...

[Jim Noel]

Get a new bellows!

[Carsten Wolff]

Just seal all gaps and blow through the lensboard hole.....

[BarryS]

Fill 'em with helium--they'll puff out and the camera will be lighter.

[Scott Schroeder]

I think it looks like this (http://www.woodandbrass.co.uk/illustrations/0041_2.jpg).
Where it used to look like this (http://www.woodandbrass.co.uk/illustrations/0041_13.jpg)
A little way down the page here (http://www.woodandbrass.co.uk/).

[Richard K.]

Naw, that's a completely different camera! For one thing mine faces right whereas their's faces left!

Nice detective work Scott! ;)

[BarryS]

Haha--busted! I thought that looked familiar since I've been living on Wood and Brass the last few days.

[Scott Schroeder]

I could never forget that camera.
I had to go find where I saw it.....
:)

[Kuzano]

That the bellows look like after every movement no matter how slight just creates another focus problem somewhere else on the ground glass. You just holler "Oh shit" and grab the bellows right in the middle and twist.....HARD!!!

Wanna see a closet full of those?

[drh151]

OMG!! I have no idea what you should do, but those are the gnarliest bellows I have ever seen! :eek: If you succeed, please post the story.

[Oren Grad]

I think it looks like this (http://www.woodandbrass.co.uk/illustrations/0041_2.jpg).
Where it used to look like this (http://www.woodandbrass.co.uk/illustrations/0041_13.jpg)
A little way down the page here (http://www.woodandbrass.co.uk/).

Richard and Scott, thanks - not only a good chuckle, but that's a terrific companion to the indispensable "Field Cameras of the United States" site.

[Wimpler]

I was about to offer to make you a nice new bellows for free, but seems like it has been fixed up ;) I guess you make a damn nice bellows yourself?

[W K Longcor]

BUT __ It is beyond my comprehension as to HOW could anyone have gotten a bellows into THAT condition in the first place. I can understand some wringles. Even a total collapse if something fell on it. Really bad if something fell on it while in storage and stayed there for years -- but his looks like it was crumpled again and again - on purpose! WOW!!! And, even if it was done purposefully -- how did that much damage get done to the bellows without turning the wood to kindling?:eek:

[Len Eselson]

I think it will iron out fine. Just use plenty of starch. :D
Len Eselson

[Richard K.]

I think it will iron out fine. Just use plenty of starch. :D
Len Eselson

Finally, somebody's that taking me seriously....

[Gordon Moat]

I think that might vignette with some lenses . . . most lenses . . . possibly all lenses.

I started a thread on Bellows Manufacturers recently. Many of the responses indicated a few companies that make bellows. You might want to glance through that, and see if any of those places might be able to help you. I recently contacted Camera Bellows in the UK, though I have not heard back from them yet.

Ciao!

Gordon Moat Photography (http://www.gordonmoat.com)

[EuGene Smith]

Is that what the teens mean when they say something is "gnarly"?

[Richard K.]

Is that what the teens mean when they say something is "gnarly"?

Teens from the 60s....:D

[Lachlan 717]

When I want to stop looking like these bellows, I take Viagra...

[Kuzano]

Is that what the teens mean when they say something is "gnarly"?

Actually, Gnarly is pretty much the same as "Bodulate" in my day as a teen.