Suggestions for "translucent" bellows

I dont know that I have ever made a 7 min exposure in daylight. That said I am not sure I would fog film at 1/2 to 3.5 minutes. I would be willing to run some tests first.

lee\c

lee said:

I dont know that I have ever made a 7 min exposure in daylight. That said I am not sure I would fog film at 1/2 to 3.5 minutes. I would be willing to run some tests first.

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My take is, if it fogs Efke 25 at 7 minutes (he said it read 53 out of 255 with his digital densitometer), it'll fog Fomapan 100 in under 2 minutes, which can be rushing things a bit if one is waiting for a lull in the breeze to make a 2 second exposure (after all, you'll generally have the dark slide out while you wait, so you can push the cable release when the moment seems right). Load Classic 400 and you'll be below 30 seconds for that same level -- much below 30 seconds after accounting for the change in reciprocity failure; I'm concerned whether I'd even be able to pull the slide, expose, and reinsert the slide fast enough to avoid significant fog on ISO 400. And I *like* fast film...

But there are enough low-tech solutions available that I should be able to use one or more to get me through until I can replace the Aletta bellows with one made from properly opaque material, or else trade up from the Aletta to something more capable.

bellows repair

I have an Aletta bellows also. It looked like a lamp shade when I put a light bulb inside. I ended up using a couple coats of black fabric paint. This is the stuff found in craft stores to decorate t-shirts. I haven't tried your test, but I didn't see any light coming thruogh after I painted mine.

Eric, I already have a small bottle of that stuff that I bought to try to repair a plate camera bellows that was cracking at all the folds (didn't work and the bellows turned out to be an undersize replacement instead of original anyway). I know exactly what you mean, and can easily get more (the flexible kind, not the 3-D variety, is what's wanted). If you took it from "lamp shade" to "blackout curtain" with two coats that's probably good enough; it doesn't have to stand in the sun from dawn to dusk without fogging, just needs to be able to last 5 or 10 minutes with ISO 400 film in direct sun, as might occur if I'm waiting for a lull in the breeze, or a fish to jump so I can catch the rings, or some other "decisive moment" in large format style -- without the film looking like I overdid a preflash.

Maybe it's my night for "2 cents"?

I had a bellows here I was going to refinish. With my background and wanting to have a decent looking finished product, I bought a can of vinyl spray paint at the auto store. I used to use it on dashboards, seats, etc and it's tuff stuff. Also comes in just about any color you may want.

Since I never did get around to that bellows, I'll only offer my thoughts...

With a careful taping job, the bellows wouldn't even have to be removed, but is recommended.
Two or three light coats should do the job.
Wait a week for it to dry despite what it may say on the can.
Give it a good coat of lemon Pledge when dry and fold it in/out several times.

Since almost all post wwII bellows were vinyl covered, recoating them with a vinyl spray seems pretty natural. It's also quick, easy and cheap. And as long as you know how to handle a spray can, it will look much better than anything brushed on...

P.S. Make sure to wipe down the entire bellows with alchohol before spraying or it might not stick. I've made that mistake before on spot repairs...

Now I'm out of cents...

I recently used rubberized undercoating spray (Bondo brand) to coat the baffles of a pair of speakers refurbished, and I can recommend it as an alternative. It's a mess to use but remains flexible and doesn't smell bad very long.

Well, with camera now in hand, I see an additional snag -- the bellows is on the thick side, and possibly longer than it needs to be. With a 135 mm lens mounted, the bellows is so compressed as to allow virtually no movements, and I'm not completely certain it would allow infinity focus with that focal length (haven't rearranged the standards vs. tripod mount to allow getting things that close together to be sure), yet there's lots of folds left when I extend the bellows to the limit the supplied rail allows; the bellows itself look as if it would accommodate 400 mm or more of extension between lens board and ground glass.

Upgrading the rail to a longer one with the tripod mount separated from the rail (is it still a "monorail" camera if you have the rail supported at the ends by a second rail carrying the tripod mount?) won't be any big deal, and I was planning to make a bag bellows anyway, so not insurmountable -- but adding still more thickness to this bellows isn't a good idea, I think. I'll have to look at the coating options to see which ones will add the least thickness as well as keeping stiffness down.

Flat black fabric paint will more than likely do the trick.

Ole, Ole, Ole...man oh man.

Make sure you keep that Latex stuff out of your nostrils...