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 Replies: 39 / Views: 7,182 |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
4132 Posts |
I was a bit lucky that Ray happened to have a stand on hand when I contacted him, because they're not always available at a good price. Here's a refurbished stand that I found on ebay during my initial research, and the price is good from my understanding. Here's a thread showing one version of his setup, and page 9 of this thread shows a bunch more. Here's a picture of the setup he built for me. That's actually his bellows and camera (a T2i), but I have an identical bellows from ebay.  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1298 Posts |
Thanks, CaptainFwiffo. Don't know how I missed that link, as I looked through that thread. I guess I will have to wait and hope Ray sees the previous messages and this one, and has an answer for me?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4132 Posts |
Send him a PM.  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
627 Posts |
Captain, you got a great price on that bellows for around $50! Sweet deal! Can't wait to see your first pics, and your progression over time! It adds immensely to the hobby.
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
4038 Posts |
Thanks for sending the pic and links CF! Ham, I got the PM and replied back...Ray
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4132 Posts |
Wow, the bellows already arrived. That's amazing for a late-night Friday auction shipping from California to Florida via USPS over the weekend.
It looks like it's missing one of the silver, end-stop things, but that's not a big deal; it doesn't seem that easy to drive off the end. I can see now in the auction pictures that it's missing, so I don't think I lost it in the box or something. It's clean, doesn't leak light, the operation is butter-smooth on all three knobs, and the bearings seem to be perfect. Really seems like a fine, precision piece of equipment.
@brg, you were right about the coupler thing being screwed in to protect the threads.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4132 Posts |
Dang, I take it back. Looking at it again, it does have some spots that are worn through and leak light. Should I just fix it up with some electrical tape or something?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4038 Posts |
It's not likely to make any difference, though I can't see how bad it is. Problem with taping is it won't fold properly afterwards. Once you get the setup all together, you can try covering over the pinholes to see if they let enough light in to cause a problem. Nice thing about tethering is you can see what's going on live. I'd suggest shining a flashlight at the pinholes and see if you can see light hit the sensor. Odds are it will be fine. If your camera was film, I'd say you need to make sure it's light tight but digital is much more forgiving. Old view cameras with bellows had their shutter at the lens, so any little pinhole would let light in to hit the film and ruin it.
Contact me for photographic equipment or visit my home page at: http://macrocoins.com |
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Moderator
United States
23522 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4038 Posts |
Sounds brilliant. I bet that's similar to the original finish on the fabric.
Contact me for photographic equipment or visit my home page at: http://macrocoins.com |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4132 Posts |
It's actually two largish holes on the side, not pinholes. They're too big for something like glue or nail polish. It seems like it was rubbing on something in one specific spot, rather than wider wear and tear. Covering them up and shining a flashlight all over it, I don't see any other signs of leaks, and the rest of the fabric still seems supple.
Two carefully placed strips of electrical tape over the holes seems to have sealed it up without interfering with the function. It folds more stiffly in that spot, but it still easily reaches the minimum extension. It might be trouble if it was five or six folds that had to be fixed
It didn't set me back huge money, so if it degrades further and I have to get another bellows down the road I don't feel bad using it for spare parts.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4132 Posts |
Wooooo! This box should be the last photo I have to take with that bleeding Droid!  Even though I'm pretty experienced with Photoshop, I've never really used Bridge or Adobe Camera RAW or really worked much with RAW files at all. I spent like 2 hours playing around with this photo of my bellows...  Do you guys use CS through the whole workflow? Do you use the Canon software? Something else? A combination? Anybody use Lightroom? |
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Moderator
United States
23522 Posts |
Canon software can handle the tethering, and you'll also find Digital Photo Professional on the Canon disk. That's a RAW processor, and it's a lot more free than Adobe's version.
I use the Gimp for all postprocessing. Also free.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4132 Posts |
I already have Adobe CS5 (thanks to job) so price is not a factor, although I don't have Lightroom. I already know I hate The Gimp (that represents an improvement over older versions, which I megaloathed) and only use it if I'm booted into Linux or someone's holding me at gunpoint.
I'm also philosophically supportive of Adobe's DNG format, though I don't know if it's actually a big practical difference. It seems like there's lots of debate on various photography forums about what is the "better" RAW processor, but it doesn't seem like it's actually based on anything objective.
I guess since I get DPP for free, I should just play around with it and see. Maybe it doesn't matter at all and the fact that I'm familiar and comfortable with Photoshop already is going to matter more...
Really, I need to avoid getting paralyzed by all the different options and just start shooting pictures.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4038 Posts |
I don't use Photoshop at all. In fact I hate all Adobe products. For Canon RAW processing I use DPP, but for all jpg processing I use Nikon ViewNX2.
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Replies: 39 / Views: 7,182 |
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Posted 07/23/2012 12:30 pm
