What Macro bellows have the most movements?

[bicycletricycle]

I am looking for a set of medium format macro bellows that have as many large format type movements as possible. I am not going to use them with the camera that they were meant for so the mount does not really matter. shift, tilt, rise, swing, as many as possible. I have seen some nice mamiya 645 auto bellows and I was wondering if there is something better out there.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

The Bronica S Type II bellows for the S2/S2a/EC/EC-TL has full movements on the front standard--rise, fall, shift, tilt, and swing.

 

[jonw]

Hope you are right Dave, I just picked up the one for the EC-TL for $200. It just seemed like too good of price to pass it up. BTW, this is the only MF bellows I am aware of which has this full range of movements. Does anyone know of any other makers of MF bellows with this much movement?

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Good luck with the bellows.

Of course most any 4x5" camera can take rollfilm backs, and there are dedicated rollfilm view cameras, so they can have more movement than the Bronica bellows. There are also the Hasselblad Flexbody and Arcbody. I think the ultimate would be the Linhof M679.

But for the price, and the potential attraction of having an SLR with movements (the downsides being mirror slap and shutter vibration), it's hard to do better than the Bronica. You can even adapt LF lenses to the screw mount.

 

[BradS]

Doesn't the Fuji GX680 also have full front movements?

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Indeed, I suppose it does.

 

[Claire Senft]

Novoflex

 

[Dan Fromm]

Novoflex

Claire, I thought of that lovely but apparently useless Hama bellows, but IIRC it is only for 35 mm cameras. Does the Novoflex one you're thinking of attach to 6x6s? I ask because I don't know.

Cheers,

Dan

 

[naturephoto1]

Hi Dan,

Here is a link to the Novoflex bellows. It is not inexpensive (German). You are interested in the Tilt- / Shift-bellows BALPRO T/S (and possibly the PROshift+ Adapter) (you have to navigate through macro equipment to the bellows to the Pro):

http://www.novoflex.de/english/html/products.htm

Novoflex has adapters for cameras up to 6 x 7 for the bellows.

Rich

 

[leapinggrassroot]

Actually, I am looking forward to have the Bronica bellow for my EC. Just want to experience the movements...

Can anybody tell me how much does the Bronica bellow worth today?

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

I suspect you can find one for around $200. It's hard to say, because Bronica stuff has generally dropped in price in recent years, along with much MF gear, but that's a particularly unusual and desirable accessory.

 

[CBG]

I don't know the Bronica in particular, so maybe the camera might or might not work in this application, but a good general solution is to use the rollfilm camera on one end of a view camera and the lens on the other end - using lensboards as adaptors. The camera ends up being a glorified rollholder with a reflex viewer.

I have seen Sinar adaptors to fit Pentax 67 and Hasselblads to the back of Sinars, and also to fit various lenses to the front. At a minimum, you give up all automation with this approach, but you get tons of movements and solidity. Check www.glennview.com/sinar.htm almost all the way down the page to a Pentax 67 adaptor.

A cheap used / damaged teleconverter or extension tube is a good source to reuse for the camera / lens mounts.

C