Bellows Material

[starkec]

Hi all,
Im currently designing my second 4x5 camera. For my first camera I used a layer of rubber coated fabric and a layer of ripstop nylon for the bellows. It works well but is quite thick. What is the recomended material for bellows and where can I purchase it? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

[Pfsor]

Custom Bellows in Britain. They will let you purchase it under one condition - that they will sell it to you already pleated, i.e. made. Not a bad condition, many of us have discovered. Me too. The only things I don't make myself for my cameras are the bellows and the film back (not mentioning the lens, of course). It allows me to construct cameras much better than I otherwise could make. Just a suggestion.

[rdeloe]

Terrific instructions for making a bag bellows here thanks to the miracle of the Internet Time Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/20171219...rkshop/?p=4353


And then there's this: http://www.picto.info/RS_texts/bellows_RS.pdf

[Pfsor]

And then there's this: http://www.picto.info/RS_texts/bellows_RS.pdf

Unfortunately it doesn't answer the OP question. The main problem in home bellows making is always the correct material, not the building procedure. The correct material decides about the bellows usefulness for the camera construction.
Leather, leatherette, canvas - just try to get the right one and you'll see that it is not easy to find it, let alone to find it in the right needed size. As the OP already knows.
Fortunately, Custom Bellows have not that problem and are very good for making just that - custom size bellows.

[rdeloe]

I think that together (as intended) the two links answer the OPs question... The fellow in the first link describes material you can use. In his bellows he sandwiches 2 layers of BK-5 cloth with a layer of black ripstop in between. I'm not promising that material will work with a pleated bellows, but it's bellows material.

[Pfsor]

I think that together (as intended) the two links answer the OPs question... l.

Where did you say you can buy the leather or leatherette useful for bellows construction? That kind of leather is a completely different material than the leather used for making clothes as anybody who tried to build bellows with it knows.

[rdeloe]

Where did you say you can buy the leather or leatherette useful for bellows construction? That kind of leather is a completely different material than the leather used for making clothes as anybody who tried to build bellows with it knows.

pfsor, the OP's question has two parts: "What is the recomended material for bellows and where can I purchase it?"
Part 1: What is the recommended material for bellows?
Part 2: Where can I purchase it?

So if you review my answer again, you will see that I answered Part 1. Leatherette is not the only material that can be used to make bellows. My bellows are not made with leatherette.


I've read lots of your replies. You like fighting with people on Internet forums and you have a desperate need to be right all the time. It's boring.

[Pfsor]

And then there's this: http://www.picto.info/RS_texts/bellows_RS.pdf

And this material you can purchase it where? You forgot the 2nd part of the OP's question. Just tell us where you can buy it, it will do as the OP wants to know.
You don't need to fight, nobody asks you that. Just answer the OP question about the purchase possibility of the material you recommend.

[pepeguitarra]

Blackout Curtain black from Walmart and plastic for the inner pleads instead of paper.

[Pfsor]

Have you used that kind of plastic in bellows?