You need to be aware of the minimum distance from the flange surface of the lens to that of the camera when the bellows unit is mounted between the lens and the body. That imposes limits on what you can do. It’s especially limiting with a relatively short focal length lens. If you can tell me the lens you intend to use, I can measure mine and give you some practical information that will help you decide how to proceed.
I’m not home now. But when I am, I will measure the minimum distance when the bellows are fully collapsed. I have the Nikon PB4 and PB6 units, as well as a cheap unit by Soligor or Star-D (I’ll have to check the brand).
I recently wanted to photograph some small prints of 34.5 mm x 27 mm headshots in my Jr. high school yearbook with a 35 mm. I first tried a 50 mm EL Nikkor enlarging lens. But with the bellows fully collapsed, the lens was too far from the camera. The magnification was too great. Only the central part of the subject (about 65% of the yearbook photo) was seen in the finder. I found that using a 4/80 Rodagon was about right. A 90 mm - 105 mm enlarging lens would work too. The lens choice depends on the required magnification and the subject-to-lens distance needed.
If you use a Nikon bellows and want to mount a 39mm Leica-thread enlarging lens to the front of the bellows, you should buy the following adapter. It’s what I use.
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1413323-REG/fotodiox_m39_nikf_lens_mount_adapter_for.html
Enlarging lenses are excellent macro lenses. You can buy a good 6-element 4-group enlarging lens via eBay or Photrio ad relatively cheaply. They’re much cheaper than buying a high-grade macro lens. The results are identical in my experience.
I’ll try to send the minimum flange-to-flange distance with my Nikon bellows units later this afternoon or Wednesday morning. Once that dimension is known, you can determine the minimum magnification with the bellows collapsed. You can also determine the maximum magnification possible.
The setup shown in post #8 is quite expensive and overkill in terms of practical results for only occasional use. The image quality from this would be the same as with a cheap bellows unit and a good 6-element 4-group enlarger lens. I have both, so I’d done the comparison.
I assume that for macro work the camera is on a tripod. You don’t need an expensive double cable release. If you use an enlarger lens, only the release to the camera is used, or you can use the self-timer.
If you use an auto-diaphragm lens, you can use:
1. Two standard release cables.
2. Cable on the front of the bellows unit only (to stop down the aperture) and self-timer on the camera.
Attached are front and obverse scans of 8" x 10" prints of a copper coin about the size of an old U.S, silver dollar. These were photographed on a Nikon bellows unit with a forward-facing 4/80 Rodagon enlarging lens on Kodak T-Max 100.
The scans were made on a Ricoh MP C2503 copier/scanner at my public library—not on a dedicated photo scanner.
