Question about Custom Bellows

[Michael Roberts]

Does anyone happen to know if Custom Bellows offers any choices of materials or colors for their bellows? I ask, they send a quote, but they don't (so far) answer questions posed in emails....

Thanks for any info you can provide.
Michael

[Pete Watkins]

Custom Bellows are a great little company. The management do travel to meet customers and they're not always available to answer e-mails.
I had a set of fantastic red bellows made by them for my 1926 5x7 Ansco just before last Christmas. A great product at a good price.
I believe that they do blue bellows as well as red and black but I don't know what sizes they're prepared to go up to.
Be patient and I'm sure that they'll get back to you.
Pete.

[Jim Fitzgerald]

Michael, yes they are a bit slow to respond. They are all making bellows and they will get back to you. They were right on time with my 14x17 bellows and the quality is excellent. Black bellows is light and compresses very nice.

[Michael Kadillak]

They should be able to get back with you shortly Michael and they have a wide range of options for you to consider in your purchase. They are the best.

Remember that they produce the lightweight synthetic bellows material that Keith Canham puts on his line of metal field cameras so that is an option. It is amazing and I had them make a 50" bellows for me out of it. As is usually the case you need to find the solution to your specific requirements. Adding a color layer to the outside of the standard material bellows can improve the esthetics and "cool" factor, but if the length of the bellows is long this can add a "sag" factor that would have to be dealt with. I am sure that they can give you relative weight factors of your alternatives. They will also add bellows rings at pleat intervals at your request.

[GPS]

I have recently received several custom made bellows from them. Yes, they use different materials (remember, the choice also depends on the type of requested bellows) and yes, emails are answered with some relatively acceptable delays. The quality of bellows is better than anything I had from sources different than them.

[Michael Roberts]

Thanks guys!

[IanG]

Remember that the UK Photographic trade show "Focus on Imaging" was this week, in the past they had a stand there.

Ian

[Michael Roberts]

Got a reply this morning with the info I requested. Cheers.

[rknewcomb]

Well, what did they say about colors?

[Michael Roberts]

Michael
For the 10x8 i can make it in either a plastic coated nylon (red/black) or black cotton, but the 11x14 must be in cotton
thanks
keith