Ebony Bellows Warning

[Ed Richards]

I have been using an Ebony 45SU for a few years and have shot about 1000 sheets with it. I have noticed a couple of issues with the bellows that I wanted to pass on to new Ebony users. These both stem from Ebony's efforts to keep the camera small. The result is that the bellows are barely larger than the 5x5 necessary to rotate the back.

1) with the wide angle bellows, it is easy get a fold of the bellows in the lens light path. You really need to pull the back off and make sure the bellows is clear. Sinar solves this with a more resilient bellows material that stays out of the way.

2) the universal/normal bellows is asymmetrical. If you use fall or significant tilt, it will cut off the image. The solution is to rotate the bellows 180 degrees, then put it back for rise. A pain which I often forget to do. You can see if you look hard, but I still miss it.

Otherwise, I love the camera. But having to attend to this makes it less pleasant to use the camera, and is easily forgotten. If you do not use significant movements you will probably not have these problems.

[mandoman7]

I've had the same problem on occasion with a Chamonix 45n-1. Something that I regarded as not a big problem in light of the versatility that's provided by a bellows that will handle lenses from 50 to 400+. Is is another thing to check, however, of which there are already enough in the LF shooting procedure.

[timparkin]

I've had the same problem on occasion with a Chamonix 45n-1. Something that I regarded as not a big problem in light of the versatility that's provided by a bellows that will handle lenses from 50 to 400+. Is is another thing to check, however, of which there are already enough in the LF shooting procedure.

I have the Chamonix and 45SU and both can suffer but very rarely - I don't use ultra-wides that often though - the widest is usually 110XL. The only real problem I've had is when trying to do a side to side panorama by shifting the rear standard.

It's always good practice to check the ground glass when stopped down to reveal these things - not always as easy as it sounds though.

My colleague has a Chamonix 45N2 which appears to have a bellows that is more susceptible to collapsing in and has a 'baggier' universal thing...

Tim