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tmark Offline Upload & Sell: On p.1 #1 · Mamiya bellows with Hasselblad, what do I need ? I bought this bellows on Ebay: http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250523732717 on a whim. I hoped to use it with my 500CM. I didn't really think this one through carefully as to what I would need, and I was a little disappointed in it. An enlarger lens is "mounted" on some sort of backwards Bronica "adapter" , which is then "mounted" on the bellows. I used quotes because it is clear that none of these pieces are supposed to fit togethe - what the guy did was wrap the mounts of both lens and "adapter" with duct tape. The 3 pieces (lens, adapter, "adapter", and bellows) are held together purely by friction from the added widths of the duct tape. This part of the unit seems very flimsy and not confindence inspring; rotating the aperture ring on the lens causes it to rotate either in the "adapter", or the "adapter" in the bellows mount, and usually one side of the lens will tilt somewhat out of the bellows. The lens mount seems to be in good condition, however, so I thought I could just replace the enlarger lens and "adapter" with a Mamiya 645 lens. What do I need to do this ? - I'm assuming I need to use a metering prism, which I have. - Are all Mamiya 645 lenses leaf-shutter ? - How would one trigger the shutter, and how would I get it to work with the 500CM ? Is there some sort of dual cable release I need that would synchronize the mirror with lens shutter ? - is there a lens that is both well-suited for use on a bellows, and inexpensive ? Any help here would be much appreciated. thanks - terry Nov 13, 2009 at 07:54 PM

jcolwell Offline Dedicated FM Upload & Sell: On p.1 #2 · Mamiya bellows with Hasselblad, what do I need ? Hi Terry, You managed to pick up a primo Mamiya M645 Auto Bellows N, for a decent price. I was watching this auction, as I'm on the look-out for a 'backup' front standard for this device, but I'm looking for a real bargain - like one where the back half has been run over by a truck. (not kidding) I use a Mamiya 645 Auto Bellows N with a variety of lenses on my EOS 5D. If you want to use existing Hassy lenses, you can replace the duct taped HC to M645 crapdapter with a generic (and relatively well made) one from eBay for about $80 - see http://tinyurl.com/ygjkpsv for example. This will let you mount an HC lens on the Bellows, with some confidence that it won't fall off. OTOH, you can use a wide variety of other bellows, enlarger, reversed and large format lenses, as well. All you need is the right crapdapter - I mean, adapter. I shouldn't speak too harshly of crapdapters, as I've converted two old HC and P6 to M645 adapters to hold an M42 adapter for my El-Nikkor 50/2.8 (and others), and for a Schneider-K Xenar 180/4.5 LF lens. I've also kludged an M645 extension tube 1 to adapt a sweet little Tokyo Kogaku Horseman Professional 105/3.5 lens to the M645 bellows. The last two lenses are used in "LF-style" with bellows movements, and they can achieve infinity focus on the bellows. Most of my other bellows lenses are for high magnification macro photos. Anyway, I use lots of goopy RTV sealant/adhesive in my crapdapters, and there's no way that the lens will rotate in the adapter when I turn its aperture ring - this stuff is good. OK, to your questions. - I suppose a metering prisim would be helpful, but it's way easier to mount this puppy on a DSLR, and use the histogram to get the exposures right in manual mode - especially if you're using flash for macro. - most M645 lenses are not leaf shutter (LS) - M645 LS lenses use a double-shutter release thingy to synchronize the lens leaf shutter with the body focal plane shutter. I suggest you forget this for most apps, and simply use the Hassy focal plane shutter with MLU - or forget that stuff and use a DSLR. - there are many inexpensive bellows lenses - exactly what kinds of photos do you want to take with this gear (i.e. what magnification), and how much do you dislike colour aberration (i.e. read price)? Here's two shots of my M645 Auto Bellows N. The first shows a SMC Takumar-Bellows 100/4 on an M42 to M645 crapdapter, and the second shows a reversed Mamiya C 80/2.8 with bellows hood. Cheers, Jim Nov 14, 2009 at 02:11 AM

brucemuir Offline Dedicated FM Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #3 · Mamiya bellows with Hasselblad, what do I need ? J man, he has a 500 series 'blad so no focal plane shutter action. I guess if he gets a LS lens he could lock the 'blad barn doors (rear body baffles) open with the "T" switch on the blad body shutter release and trip what ever lens he gets via a cable release. I agree that it would just be more flexible to convert the rear adapter to EOS (assuming he shoots canon) and use an slr with a boatload of choices for mounting lens. Nov 14, 2009 at 02:27 AM

jcolwell Offline Dedicated FM Upload & Sell: On p.1 #4 · Mamiya bellows with Hasselblad, what do I need ? Part 2 - all of my comments above were with respect to the lens mount at the front of the bellows. I just had another look at your auction and remembered/re-noticed that it has a kludged Hassy adapter at the rear standard as well. Of course, this lets you mount it on your 500CM, but you'll have to replace it for a DSLR. For most setups (and as shown in both photos above) I use a generic M645 to EOS adapter at the back standard, which you can see is connected to the original M645 "back-end". You would only need a HC to EOS adapter to connect your bellows to an EOS DSLR (or similar for other DSLD brands). OTOH, if you want to use the bellows for infinity focus with MF and LF lenses (I suggest lenses for formats up to 69, not 45 or larger), then you want to minimize sensor or film plane to front standard distance, and you can replace the whole back-end with a homemade slim adapter. Let me know if you want more info on this. Ciao, Jim. Nov 14, 2009 at 02:32 AM

jcolwell Offline Dedicated FM Upload & Sell: On p.1 #5 · Mamiya bellows with Hasselblad, what do I need ? brucemuir wrote: J man, he has a 500 series 'blad so no focal plane shutter action. Thanks. I guess it's easy to tell that I haven't used the 500 series bodies. brucemuir wrote: I guess if he gets a LS lens he could lock the 'blad barn doors (rear body baffles) open with the "T" switch on the blad body shutter release and trip what ever lens he gets via a cable release. You can't use the M645 LS lens shutter to both open and close, as you would for a LF shutter. Nov 14, 2009 at 02:39 AM

brucemuir Offline Dedicated FM Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #6 · Mamiya bellows with Hasselblad, what do I need ? Okay, and I have experience only with RZ in the Mamiya mount. Well that sucks. The RZ is funky in that way if you try to trip the shutter at the lens instead of the body also in a "T" situation. edit: I just researched the mamiyas and it appears this quirk is due to not using battery power in a T situation so you could do long exposures. I forgot Nov 14, 2009 at 02:46 AM

tmark Offline Upload & Sell: On p.1 #7 · Mamiya bellows with Hasselblad, what do I need ? Jim and Bruce, Thanks so much for your replies, people here are wonderful. When I bought the bellows I wanted to experiment with MF macro photography, but was hoping not to have to invest too much money. But clearly, I didn't think this through very carefully jcolwell wrote: You can't use the M645 LS lens shutter to both open and close, as you would for a LF shutter. Does this mean that there's no good way to do this with my 500 CM ? I'd need the lens shutter to both open and close, wouldn't I? If there's no good way to use this with my Hassy - and I am beginning to appreciate it would be a much more involved and difficult undertaking for so many reasons - I would be willing to work with it on my DSLR (Nikon). But then there's the business of the camera-side Hassy V lens "adapter" which seems to be glued or otherwise fixed on pretty darn tight. I know there are V-to-Nikon body adapters, but would I be better off trying to free the "adapter" with a heat gun and buying a 645-Nikon F adapter instead ? Would the heat damage the leather for the bellows ? (I'm sure it would be ideal to remove the bellows before trying to free the 645-to-V adapter, but I tried removing disconnecting the bellows leather from the rear standard, but somethings keeping it in. I unscrewed the large top pin, and I see a smaller metal protrusion on the inside of the standard which clearly fits through a whole in the bellows, but I just seem unable to lift the bellows out of the standard completely. Is there a trick to doing this or am I missing some retaining mechanism ?) Finally - if I decide to go SLR on the back end, is there a lens that is would do well for higher magnifications and is (ideally) quite affordable ? As I mentioned - I was hoping to be able to play on a budget - for now ! thanks, you guys are great ! terry Nov 15, 2009 at 08:56 PM

tmark Offline Upload & Sell: On p.1 #8 · Mamiya bellows with Hasselblad, what do I need ? Also - I understood that the auto N bellows was supposed to allow the camera to rotate 90 degrees. How is this accomplished ? At present, with the Hassy "adapter" on it, there is absolutely no play at all. Nov 15, 2009 at 08:58 PM

jcolwell Offline Dedicated FM Upload & Sell: On p.1 #9 · Mamiya bellows with Hasselblad, what do I need ? tmark wrote: Also - I understood that the auto N bellows was supposed to allow the camera to rotate 90 degrees. How is this accomplished ? At present, with the Hassy "adapter" on it, there is absolutely no play at all. The part that allows the camera body to rotate is the Mamiya part that was replaced by the Hassy mount that's on the back of your bellows. On an original Auto Bellows N (as shown earlier), the body rotation is provided by the M645 lens mount assembly at the back of the bellows. The annotated photo below shows the body angle adjustment knob that's attached to this part of the system, and allows the body to rotate when the knob is loosened. Nov 15, 2009 at 11:11 PM

jcolwell Offline Dedicated FM Upload & Sell: On p.1 #10 · Mamiya bellows with Hasselblad, what do I need ? tmark wrote: ...I tried removing disconnecting the bellows leather from the rear standard, but somethings keeping it in. I unscrewed the large top pin, and I see a smaller metal protrusion on the inside of the standard which clearly fits through a whole in the bellows, but I just seem unable to lift the bellows out of the standard completely. Is there a trick to doing this or am I missing some retaining mechanism ?) The leather bellows frame should come out of the back standard frame when you loosen the top screw, as you describe. The top of the bellows frame angles-out and then the bottom lifts off the little stud or peg at the bottom. It's designed to be an easy operation, as you often replace the accordian bellows with a bag bellows, to allow movements with shorter focal length lenses (and tighter bellows compression). It sounds like you're doing the right thing to get it off. Try taking the bellows off the front standard, then you can look inside and maybe figure out what's going on. Nov 15, 2009 at 11:16 PM

tmark Offline Upload & Sell: On p.1 #11 · Mamiya bellows with Hasselblad, what do I need ? Arggh. Mine just does not seem to want to come out. All sides of the bellows frame seem to move within the outer frame a few mm or more - I can pull the top part of the frame out so far that I can see the back of the frame - but it just doesn't want to come out. As for the rotation part that has been replaced - it seems a shame that this functionality has now been lost, when a real 645-V adapter could have been used. I was told that the original seller was some sort of camera repairman, so he probably kludged this all out of spare junk he had lying around. Nov 16, 2009 at 03:49 AM

jcolwell Offline Dedicated FM Upload & Sell: On p.1 #12 · Mamiya bellows with Hasselblad, what do I need ? I assume that you were bidding against somebody to get this, eh? You should be able to sell it for about what you paid (minus shipping), and start over. Nov 16, 2009 at 10:20 AM

Dergiman Offline Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #13 · Mamiya bellows with Hasselblad, what do I need ? if you want to use it with a hasselblad, you just have to buy a hasselblad F- / 200 / 2000 series camera, these have the shutter built into the camera. they also work with shutter in the C/CF/CFi/CFE lenses. Nov 16, 2009 at 12:30 PM

tmark Offline Upload & Sell: On p.1 #14 · Mamiya bellows with Hasselblad, what do I need ? jcolwell wrote: I assume that you were bidding against somebody to get this, eh? You should be able to sell it for about what you paid (minus shipping), and start over. Yeah, I could do that, but knowing how poorly put together the lens and its "mounts" were, I'd have a hard time asking anything for those parts. Nov 16, 2009 at 03:52 PM

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