Best Bellows Setup for Canon 450D

Thanks, Ray. What would be the max. price one would pay for each?

Personally I'd think the FL is worth up to $100 and the FD with extensions up to $150.

Are you trying to take pictures of just the coins, or the holders as well? That will affect the choice of lens with bellows.

That does not answer the question. I'm interested in the size of the objects you'll be photographing. Do you need to photograph just the coin (inside the holder...), or do you need to photograph the entire holder with coin inside? The required magnification is very different between these two. If you need to photograph the entire holder, mag is around 0.15 or so, and will require you to get a longer lens (120-135mm) than if you were doing just the coin. A dollar needs a mag around 0.4 to fill the sensor, which can be achieved safely with a 105mm lens on most of the bellows out there, and as short as 75mm on a few bellows. The longer the lens, the bigger copy stand you will need, more table space, etc.

No problem, just want to be sure you end up with the right equipment. One more question...will you ever need to take pics of smaller coins, or detail shots of your dollars to show variety markers? If so, then you will likely need two lenses. The longer lens required for full holder shots will limit your highest magnification. If all you do is dollars and no detail shots, then a 120-135mm lens will suffice.

I had it in my watch list and when I saw he had posted and asked about it I didn't bid either

Ray, I do have some VAM's that I would like to do some detail shots. As you suggest, I would probably need 2 lenses.

The very best optic to use as a handheld coin magnifier is a short focal length enlarging lens such as the 35mm Spiratone MacroTar that SuperDave is referencing. This is a little-known fact. These lenses are highly corrected and have a wide field of view, though they typically don't have super high magnification unless they are very short focal length, but for 3x-5x use a 20mm-35mm lens is superb.

Ham, given the two requirements you've described (low mag GSA and VAM details) you are going to need two lenses. If you end up with a T-Mount bellows such as the Vivitar or similar, you might want to consider a pair (or even trio) of Spiratone lenses:

35mm MacroTar that SuperDave describes to be used for 3x and above mags
75mm Flat Field Macro for Halves to Cents and some variety shots up to 3x
150mm MacroTel for your holder shots and also for Dollars

I've seen the trio offered along with a MacroBel bellows and this would be a good starting point, especially minding a budget, though there are few compromises with this sort of setup.

Looks good to me. One of the nice things about the MacroBel is it has a 1/4" mount on the lens standard. This gives you the option to try both connections to see what works best for you. My only caveat is that I have never tested the 150mm MacroTel but I expect quality to be good given the good results from other Spiratone Macros.