WTB: Mamiya Paramender for TLR

[eumenius]

Hello friends,

recently I have acquired an excellent Mamiya C330 camera to use in both my hobby and work - I am a molecular biologist working with bacteriophages of horse intestinal microflora, so I need to do plenty of macro shooting. Mamiya is truly a gem, it gives me excellent portaits of both people and phages, but it's impossible to use it correctly without Paramender

I saw plenty of them on Ebay, but we here in Russia just can't use Ebay at all because our credit cards are not accepted anyone It's absolutely impossible to get a Paramender in Moscow. Maybe someone got a spare Paramender to sell? I can transfer the money for it and its shipping through Western Union cheques, for example - it should be easy to get money this way anywhere in the world. Or maybe someone could offer me a helping hand from abroad and buy the Paramender off Ebay for me, so I can later cover the expenses??

I would not be asking your assistance if we were not in a bad need of it. Russian science and our horses would be very thankful for your help

All the very best, and cheers from Moscow - Zhenya

 

[Dave Miller]

For those not familiar with the Mamiya TLR range the Paramender lifts the camera 50mm so that the taking lens occupies the position of the veiwing lens, thereby removing the problems of parallax.
Until you can find one Zhenya you may be able to use a tripod with a wind up centre column if you mark the 50mm spacing required on the column. Not nearly so easy to use as the correct tool, but it may help until you can get one.

 

[eumenius]

Until you can find one Zhenya you may be able to use a tripod with a wind up centre column if you mark the 50mm spacing required on the column. Not nearly so easy to use as the correct tool, but it may help until you can get one.

Hello Dave,
thank you for your reply! I understand that it's easy to make marks on a tripod column, but it works only while one keeps the film plane parallel to the column. Unfortunately, most of my work requires some camera tilt, what renders this approach quite useless (my tripod, Manfrotto 055 Pro, doesn't allow for column tilt, alas). So the Paramender is perhaps the only solution for our work

Regards from Moscow,
Zhenya

 

[PRB]

Hi Zhenya,
I was without a paramender for a while when I owned a C330s. I measured the distance you had to move the taking lens to place it where the viewing lens was. Then I cut a block of wood the right length. To use it, I would extend the column on my tripod until the block fit under the camera. I had to fool around for a while until I got the length right, but it worked fine once I did. Even with the tilt you mention, trial and error should get you the right length.

Onward,
Paul