Hi All,
This is an unsolicited endorsement of Sorin at DIYcamerakit.com. I had the opportunity to beta test Sorin's bellow making kit and it was a great success.
I restored this old Kodak camera. The bellows were beyond trashed. I had covered them with gaffers tape (about 1/2 a roll) and they could fold enough to fold the camera up. One of the reasons I liked the camera so much was that it folds up so small.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulmcevoy/4554900437/
Along the way, I also realized that the camera was not really a 5x7 but a 3.5x5, taking two pictures on a 5x7 sheet (there was a septum divider on the back that I pulled out). So I was concerned that the bellows were going to be in the way of the film plane.
Sorin designed a new set of bellows that were thicker in the front and thinner in the back, to accommodate 5x7 film. He puts together a really great kit and the materials are super classy. The outer cover material is a heavy duty matte fabric, and it looks really awesome. But also folds down nicely. His instructions are really good, and he provides videos on a CD to help you out.
It was a relatively easy task. The instructions make sense and the kit is really well put together. Sorin has also been really helpful about explaining things.
I think Sorin is providing a really great service here. There's a lot of nice old cameras out there that need a set of bellows, and it's really hard/expensive to replace them. He's making a really inexpensive solution and it could save a bunch of cameras from being too expensive to repair. I got this camera for $100 and probably have another $100 into it now, but I really love it and really enjoyed this project.
Anyway, that's my $.02. I hope that people support Sorin and that he's able to keep doing this because no one else is. I thought that I could make the bellows myself, but honestly, I don't think I would have, and I couldn't have afforded new ones.
Again, this was unsolicited.
All the best
Paul
DIYcamerakit.com
This is an unsolicited endorsement of Sorin at DIYcamerakit.com. I had the opportunity to beta test Sorin's bellow making kit and it was a great success.
I restored this old Kodak camera. The bellows were beyond trashed. I had covered them with gaffers tape (about 1/2 a roll) and they could fold enough to fold the camera up. One of the reasons I liked the camera so much was that it folds up so small.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulmcevoy/4554900437/
Along the way, I also realized that the camera was not really a 5x7 but a 3.5x5, taking two pictures on a 5x7 sheet (there was a septum divider on the back that I pulled out). So I was concerned that the bellows were going to be in the way of the film plane.
Sorin designed a new set of bellows that were thicker in the front and thinner in the back, to accommodate 5x7 film. He puts together a really great kit and the materials are super classy. The outer cover material is a heavy duty matte fabric, and it looks really awesome. But also folds down nicely. His instructions are really good, and he provides videos on a CD to help you out.
It was a relatively easy task. The instructions make sense and the kit is really well put together. Sorin has also been really helpful about explaining things.
I think Sorin is providing a really great service here. There's a lot of nice old cameras out there that need a set of bellows, and it's really hard/expensive to replace them. He's making a really inexpensive solution and it could save a bunch of cameras from being too expensive to repair. I got this camera for $100 and probably have another $100 into it now, but I really love it and really enjoyed this project.
Anyway, that's my $.02. I hope that people support Sorin and that he's able to keep doing this because no one else is. I thought that I could make the bellows myself, but honestly, I don't think I would have, and I couldn't have afforded new ones.
Again, this was unsolicited.
All the best
Paul
DIYcamerakit.com
