My tapered bellows don't compress enough either, and they are leather and presumably therefore original. The instructions in That Book are unclear to me.
My tapered bellows don't compress enough either, and they are leather and presumably therefore original. The instructions in That Book are unclear to me.
Maybe I got lucky, but the tapered set I bought used on eBay (japanese seller) compress enough to get the front standard a little closer than parallel. I suspect that this is primarily an "old bellows" issue. I have an old 8x10 bellows that, at most, compress to about 8 inches. When I see similar bellows new online, they seem to compress a whole lot more. So, previously, I replaced bellows when pinholes started appearing, now I'm thinking of just replacing all my old bellows. Its not cheap, but most of my photography is in the field, so in addition to weight, ability to pack into a compact portable package is a must.
My experience with 4x5 bellows for a Sinar Norma has been that an OEM older tapered bellows closed the most, but the one I had had so many pinholes to render it unusable. As for newer square bellows, I have had many and they could roughly be classified into three levels/thicknesses of closing. The one that closed the most compact had "newer" OEM frames at both ends but its bellows of questionable origin, definitely not up to the quality of Custom Bellows in the UK... it eventually pretty much self-destructed.
I have two original Norma tapered bellows, both in superb condition, and very compressible to the degree a Custom Bellows product might not be. Don't take that wrong, I've had wonderful service from Custom, and their product is excellent, just a little different. But I don't think I'd ever trust a thin cheap Chinese synthetic substitute.
Custom Bellows made Sinars bellows for the company in the first place. Great service and nice blokes.
Pete.
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