Chinese 4X5 Bellows on eBay

Paul Sorensen · Feb 7, 2011

I wanted to share my experiences buying new bellows for my Wista 45D on eBay. I knew that bellows were available from Wista's importer, but I really needed to keep costs down, so I found it from a seller on eBay and decided to take a chance on them.

I just got the bellows today, it took a week to arrive. When I opened the package I was surprised to find that there was a label on the inner package indicating that they were from Shen Hao. The quality was fantastic, much heavier material than what was on the camera, a very nice rubberized fabric. The fit was also perfect.

I did have to remove the metal plates from the ends of the existing bellows, I then used contact cement to glue the bellows to the plates for mounting on the camera. I wanted to pass this along since I didn't find as much information as I had hoped when I researched this myself.

The seller I bought the bellows from is tssy2005 - here is the item: http://cgi.ebay.com/Wista-4x5-Bello...ltDomain_0&hash=item230df331fe#ht_2164wt_1141

Just to make clear, my only connection is as a satisfied customer.

Sirius Glass · Feb 7, 2011

Thank you for this positive research. Much better to deal with real facts and some of the puffery that we have seen posted about Chinese products.

Steve

ghostcount · Feb 7, 2011

Thank you Paul for this. I've been curious about getting new bellows for my 45DX. How hard was it to remove the metal plates?

Paul Sorensen · Feb 7, 2011

ghostcount said:
Thank you Paul for this. I've been curious about getting new bellows for my 45DX. How hard was it to remove the metal plates?

Not bad. I am not sure that the attachments are the same, however. I have the D, which is the metal field camera, not a wood camera. There was a single plate on the back and a pair of plates on the front that are screwed together with some very tiny screws with the bellows sandwiched between. I basically ripped the old material off, it was very thin and papery, and I then used acetone to clean off the old glue and stuff. It was a little bit of a project, but not all that bad. I also needed to do just a little trimming in the front, where some extra material was left, but it was very easy to do.

ghostcount · Feb 7, 2011

Excellent! Thanks again Paul - I really appreciate it.

Steve Smith · Feb 8, 2011

Sirius Glass said:
Thank you for this positive research. Much better to deal with real facts and some of the puffery that we have seen posted about Chinese products.

I was just about to post a similar comment.

Steve.

Wayne · Feb 8, 2011

So this Chinese bellows was satisfying but left you hungry for another one soon after you got it?

Paul Sorensen · Feb 8, 2011

Wayne said:
So this Chinese bellows was satisfying but left you hungry for another one soon after you got it?

Yeah, but I find that to be the case with all camera equipment...it all gives me GAS too!

Paul Sorensen · Feb 8, 2011

Oh, and one more thing I need to mention.

This bellows is made from significantly thicker material than my old one, and it does make the camera harder to close and fold up. I am fine with that, but it took me a little bit to get it figured out, I really needed to jam the bellows in tight to give the camera bed enough room to fold up properly. I am still extremely happy with my purchase, however.

jscott · Feb 11, 2011

This thread reminded me that I had bought one of those a few months ago for my Wista 45, which came to me with a crinkled bellows. This afternoon I took the old one off (easily with a palate knife and alcohol) and fitted the new one. The new one is marginally smaller on the large end, but will work fine. Installation is fairly easy with contact cement.

Like Paul, I am happy with the price and material quality. I can recommend this product.

I also bought one (a bit more costly!) for my Deardorff Special, but have not installed it yet.

Yamaotoko · Feb 14, 2011

I bought a set of these bellows (I assume from the same seller, the picture looks familiar) a couple years ago, same thing Paul said, great quality, just need to clue them to the plates. Mine have been fantastic, couldn't fault them in any way.

Mainecoonmaniac · Feb 14, 2011

I've been buying some photo Chinese photo products from eBay as well as Meritline. Overall the quality is pretty good. I've bought lens adapter rings, tripod plates and lens cleaning brushes that are decent. I bought a remote shutter release for my DSLR and it's crap. But the prices are always good. My first piece of Chinese photo gear is a Pearl River 120 camera and the quality was not up to Japanese nor German standards. The pictures from
It is not bad, but not great either. But it's worth the $50 I paid for it 20 years ago. Still have it.

Usagi · Feb 18, 2011

Thanks for the information.
I am looking for new bellows to my Hasemi 4x5 field and those chinese bellows are quite interesting (I guess that bellows size of my camera is pretty much same as Tachihara).

Chinese 4X5 Bellows on eBay

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