TL;DR: Does the black vinyl/plastic material that photo paper comes in work as the primary light-tight layer in a bellows? Has anyone tried it and had definitive success or failure?
Full post:
I'm restoring another Isolette, and the bellows of course need to be replaced.
After a bunch of reading, I think I just want to try making my own. I'm handy with DIY stuff and this seems like a fun way to personalize my camera as well. There are also really good resources to get measurements and sizing exactly right. So I'm fully aware that there are excellent ptions for buying bellows from people who have been doing it a lot longer than me, and I have decided against going that route.
That said, after what looks like well over a decade of forum posts and debates online, there still appears to be no consensus on what combination of materials yields a good, thin, reasonably inexpensive, functional, and long-wearing bellows. I would consider the Isolette bellows a lot easier than something like a 4x5 since I don't have to worry about various focal lengths or bellows sag. The most intriguing material I've seen mentioned is the black vinyl or plastic material that comes in boxes of photo paper, to contain the paper itself. By definition it is light tight, and seems very robust without being terribly thick or difficult to work with.
I was thinking of doing something like a super thin matte black fabric inner liner, with paper ribs sandwiched between that inner lining and the black plastic, with a more interesting looking thin fabric on the outside (maybe a colored nylon ripstop or similar), with the outside being primarily for decoration.
Has anyone actually tried this material? I've seen it mentioned a bunch of times, but there are no firsthand accounts to be found anywhere.
Full post:
I'm restoring another Isolette, and the bellows of course need to be replaced.
After a bunch of reading, I think I just want to try making my own. I'm handy with DIY stuff and this seems like a fun way to personalize my camera as well. There are also really good resources to get measurements and sizing exactly right. So I'm fully aware that there are excellent ptions for buying bellows from people who have been doing it a lot longer than me, and I have decided against going that route.
That said, after what looks like well over a decade of forum posts and debates online, there still appears to be no consensus on what combination of materials yields a good, thin, reasonably inexpensive, functional, and long-wearing bellows. I would consider the Isolette bellows a lot easier than something like a 4x5 since I don't have to worry about various focal lengths or bellows sag. The most intriguing material I've seen mentioned is the black vinyl or plastic material that comes in boxes of photo paper, to contain the paper itself. By definition it is light tight, and seems very robust without being terribly thick or difficult to work with.
I was thinking of doing something like a super thin matte black fabric inner liner, with paper ribs sandwiched between that inner lining and the black plastic, with a more interesting looking thin fabric on the outside (maybe a colored nylon ripstop or similar), with the outside being primarily for decoration.
Has anyone actually tried this material? I've seen it mentioned a bunch of times, but there are no firsthand accounts to be found anywhere.
