Goodbye Hope, See You Soon

I noticed a few negatives from my Tachihara Hope 4x5 had what looked like light leaks but were off somehow. The "leaks" were never in the same places, they moved around.

Tachihara Hope old bellows by Richard Hendrix, on Flickr

When I first received the camera (ebay purchase) I did shine a bright flashlight into the bellows while in the darkroom. It looked fine to me. But after about 50 sheets of film I noticed several shots with light leaks, never in the same place though.

A few weeks ago I took the Tachi back into the darkroom and this time I racked the focus all the way out. The upper part of the bellows at the folds were loaded with pinholes, dozens and dozens of pinholes. There were so many pinholes I'm surprised it took so long to see the leaks. I suppose that it would depend on how far I racked the focus out for the pinholes to be exposed to the sun.

Of course the fault is all mine I should have racked out the focus all the way on the very first day I received it but I know I didn't. I'll mark this up as a lesson learned and wait for my Tachi to return home with a new green bellows. So I sent my Tachihara Hope 4x5 off to Richard Ritter June 11th to have the bellows replaced.

Tachihara Hope green bellows by Richard Hendrix, on Flickr

As a side note, I did search Google and a couple of LF forums for recommendations on replacement bellows for the Tachi and Custom Bellows in the UK was mentioned many times.

I did send an email to Custom Bellows for an estimate on replacing the bellows for me. He advised that sending the camera to him, the import was a real pain and there were many places in the States that could replace the bellows if I was not comfortable with doing it myself. He was super nice and very helpful.

Mr. Ritter emailed me July 11th that the camera had a new bellows and was ready. He sent an invoice and packed and mailed it via USPS.

Tachihara Hope new bellows by Richard Hendrix, on Flickr

I haven't had a chance to test it out with film but I can't wait to shoot it. Thanks for reading,

You probably don’t need any hope that the repair was correctly performed. Enjoy your camera. Hopefully, you’ll get plenty of nice images now!

BrianShaw said:

You probably don’t need any hope that the repair was correctly performed. Enjoy your camera. Hopefully, you’ll get plenty of nice images now!

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Thanks. Richard Ritters' work is spot on. I only hope the weather cooperates, too much heat, too much rain here.

When Edward Weston was photographing his peppers and other vegetables at Wild Cat Hill, kept finding fogged film. He was extremely poor so this would not do!.
So got a candle and at night looked at his bellows and counted over 250 pinholes! So had to scrounge up the money for a new bellows. Many of the cameras from this period did exhibit pinholes though. Pictures of photographers from the period do show the cameras setup during the shot with the dark cloth draped over the bellows.

These guys also did not pull the dark slide and wait too long for the light on the scene they wanted, as the faint light would build up and fog the film. They waited and just before light was perfect, they pulled the slide and exposed soon after pulling.

Hope this helps.

Rod

Rod Klukas said:

These guys also did not pull the dark slide and wait too long for the light on the scene they wanted, as the faint light would build up and fog the film. They waited and just before light was perfect, they pulled the slide and exposed soon after pulling.

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I do this even with brand new bellows or a brand new camera because I just don't trust fate.

Love the green bellows.
Hope is an appropriate name for a camera.
Enjoy.

I've never pulled out a dark slide till time to shoot. Get that thing back in ASAP. no such thing as a sheet film camera where you can go out in the July mid day sun and pull out the darkslide all day and expect it to stay dark as a 40 mile deep cave on the backside of Pluto. There was once an expression: :What's the brightest source of light in the universe? The crack under the darkroom door.

When I first saw this thread title I thought it would inevitably lead to a ban as overtly political

pentaxuser

pentaxuser said:

When I first saw this thread title I thought it would inevitably lead to a ban as overtly political

pentaxuser

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I think we need to initiate a 2000 message thread on the socio-political-religious-cultural implications of green bellows.

(j/k, they look great

chuckroast said:

I think we need to initiate a 2000 message thread on the socio-political-religious-cultural implications of green bellows.

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I don't think I have even seen a green bellows before but the green certainly suits the colour of the wooden camera

pentaxuser .

pentaxuser said:

When I first saw this thread title I thought it would inevitably lead to a ban as overtly political

pentaxuser

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Everything is political any more. But when it comes to photography, my mind doesn't even register it. I didn't notice any. Having a heart attack can change things.

F4U said:

What's the brightest source of light in the universe? The crack under the darkroom door.

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I hadn't heard that one before, but I'm sure I'm going to remember it!

This has worked quite well for me for many years, though I no longer use gaffer's tape because the glue dries up and dusts badly. I now use masking tape.

The top has a velcro attachment to hold it against the wall, the bottom has a piece of rolled up felt that travels with the door and acts both to block light and sweep up dust bunnies:

chuckroast said:

I think we need to initiate a 2000 message thread on the socio-political-religious-cultural implications of green bellows.

(j/k, they look great

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All I'll say for my first post on that thread is "Zen".

I had a Wista 45DX back in the 80s I think, of course it had a standard black bellows. The only other older camera I remember from then with a other than black bellows is a Kodak LF camera I think it was red?

I only noticed the color choices on the Intrepid cameras. The green color looked awesome. Not too sure on the blue though. Since the Hope needed new bellows green was an easy choice for me.

When I shoot IR with the camera I will have the dark cloth draped over most of the bellows just in case.