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Interesting Bellows - Ultra-Fine Adjustment

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 Posted 09/09/2012  4:39 pm Show Profile   Bookmark this topic Add rmpsrpms to your friends list Get a Link to this Message Number of Subscribers
Anyone own one of these bellows:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/17090497824....m1438.l2649

This type has a very interesting feature. The diamond-shaped rail has a fixed inner rail and movable outer rail. The front lens mount screws down to the movable outer rail, but there is no "coarse" adjustment of bellows length like on many other bellows. Instead the lens mount is moved manually to the approximate position after unmessing with the locking screw. This allows you to move the lens in and out quickly to set the magnification. This is a similar concept to the Spiratone "rapid rail" which allows you to bypass the screw adjustment and slide the lens mount quickly along the rails.

So far this sounds like a low-end bellows with only coarse adjustment capability. But the bellows has a hidden feature: the round "trim" ring on the front is actually an ultrafine extension adjustment knob that adjusts the position of the outer rail vs the inner rail. Each turn of the knob equals 1mm of adjustment, so it's fairly easy to make adjustments in increments of a few microns! Each degree of rotation is about 3 microns.

I need to try this feature out for focus stacking and for setting precise magnifications.

Ray
Contact me for photographic equipment or visit my home page at:
http://macrocoins.com
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 Posted 09/09/2012  4:59 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add SsuperDdave to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
If you want it, I'll steer clear but otherwise I might snag this one myself.
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 Posted 09/09/2012  5:16 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add CaptainFwiffo to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
If you get it, I'll be curious to see your results.
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 Posted 09/09/2012  5:20 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add rmpsrpms to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
No worries, I have a couple already so go for it. I've been meaning to test them out for stacking but haven't gotten around to it.

Edited to add I just "discovered" this feature recently. Til then I just thought these were "low end" bellows that were sort of hard to use but now I realize they may actually be "high-end" due to this feature...
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Edited by rmpsrpms
09/09/2012 5:24 pm
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 Posted 09/09/2012  6:07 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add CaptainFwiffo to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
I was thinking of building a Lego gearbox to allow fine, regular adjustments of the focus on my bellows/stand for stacking, I just haven't gotten around to it because I haven't had a big need to stack more than a handful of shots.
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 Posted 09/09/2012  11:29 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add rmpsrpms to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
Well SD, did you win the bellows and lens?

I put mine on the stand and mounted a 4x Nikon objective to compare stand-focus vs bellows-focus. I found that qualitatively I could achieve about 3-4 times finer focusing ability with the bellows at 4x than with the B&L stand, which is pretty darn good. It turns the old adage around that for regular photography you focus by adjusting the lens, but for macro you focus by moving the camera farther/closer to the subject. This is true because it's usually easier to make the small adjustments to camera position versus lens extension. BUT with this bellows it is not the case.
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 Posted 09/10/2012  10:30 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add SsuperDdave to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply

Quote:

Well SD, did you win the bellows and lens?


No, I wasn't willing to go that far for it.
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