When is wide bag bellows needed?

[Bruce Osgood]

I have a 4x5 Tachihara. i'd like to add a wide angle lens to the kit without changing the standard bellows. How wide a lens can be used before a bag bellows becomes necessary?

 

[Ian C]

Close the bellows completely until they form a solid stack and measure the distance from the front of the lens board to the ground glass.

If this distance is greater then the flange focal distance for the lens, then you need bag bellows to allow the lens to be positioned close enough to the film to focus at infinity.

This varies from camera to camera and also depends on the FFL for the lens.

 

[Bruce Osgood]

I see, I need to raise the front and collapse the bellows and measure the distance. This would give me an idea of how short a lens I could use and expect to go a tad longer.

Thanks,

 

[Mike Wilde]

I have a 90 mounted in a recessed board for my 4x5 monorail, and when I drag it out shooting big building architecture in the City, I also need to use the bag bellows.

 

[ic-racer]

With extreme movement, like maximum rise, the bellows can cast a shadow on the sides of the negative. Even when the bellows is not binding. The shadow will also cover the bottom corners of the groundglass but usually it may be so dim down there you may not notice it. A bag bellows solves this problem.

Picture shows no binding of bellows and maximum movement of camera. The lens covers this but the two sides of the bellows obscure the sides of the image. It is obvious on the negatives but can be hard to detect on the groundglass. Problem discussed here: ( http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?t=86129 )

 

[removed account4]

hi bruce

i have a bag bellows mainly for using a 65mm lens.
even with an extremely recessed lensboard the accordion bellows get bound up
and it makes adjusting the standards a pain. when the bag is on, i sometimes forget to
remove it, even when i have a 150mm lens on the front standard ...
i don't really think there is a hard-line when to use or not use the bag bellows,
i wish i had a large one for using a 210 or 370, i wouldn't use the accordion bellows again ..

 

[daleeman]

I have a 4x5 Tachihara. i'd like to add a wide angle lens to the kit without changing the standard bellows. How wide a lens can be used before a bag bellows becomes necessary?

I have the same camera and a 90mm works fine with a regular board. I have heard you can use a 75mm but I do not know if you need a recesed board on that.
The Tachihara is a great camera but I do not believe they make a bag bellows for it.
Lee

 

[Maris]

The Tachihara 45GF cameras have non-interchangeable bellows. I use 65mm and 75mm lenses on mine but I made lensboards with off-centre holes so I get rise or fall but not centred. No one uses centred, do they? The standard bellows has about 10mm "give" with the 75mm lens but virtually nothing with the 65mm.

Tachihara make a SW45F camera for use with wideangle lenses (down to 47mm) that features a nylon bag bellows.

 

[Adrian Twiss]

Personally I use a bag bellows for both my 90 and 75mm lenses. The camera will focus using the standard bellows and give me some movements but I prefer the convenience of the more pliable bag bellows when shooting with wide angle lenses. I use a Walker Titan.

 

[Bruce Osgood]

From the IC-RACER LFPF referral above, regarding bellows 'clipping' into the image without seeing it on the GG.


Yes it is possible to see a "complete image" yet have bellows or lens clipping the amount of light. I've seen it several times.

Simple check for this -- leave the holder out, close down the lens to the desired Fstop, and look through the lens. Can you see each of the 4 corners of the gg? and the four edges?
If so -- no lens vingetting, and NO BELLOWS PINCHING into the image.

Works far better for me than looking through the clipped corners of the ground glass.

Particularly when you are using formats bigger than 8x10....

DON 12x20


One of the better photo TIPs I've come across, thanks IC and everyone.