 Jaymes R. Stuart |
What Should I Stick on My Bellows? Stimulated by the close-up capabilities of my Oly 3000 digital, I rummaged around in my Fred Filmstone shoebox and dug up a rather dusty Minolta Bellows. Lord knows why I bought it (circa 1980) but the bellows material is still lightproof and the knobs still work, which is, I suppose, about all you want in a bellows. Next, I tracked down an SRT 101 which had been sitting in a local camera shop since the Reagan Administration. This clunky thing has a mirror lock, self-timer, DOF preview, a bright viewfinder and it's massively cheap, which is, I suppose, about all you can want in an SLR for macro work. However.......digging further into my collection I found the only Minolta lens I own is a 45mm Rokkor, which seems to focus only when the front element is actually trying to nudge the tiny little thing I want to photograph. So my question is: got camera, got bellows, got tripod, no got lens. What should I stick on the front of this contraption so it doesn't crush little bugs and flowers: 55, 50, 100? What if I whip the little 45 on backwards?
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Peter Strazds |
I have a set up about as old as the one you are describing. I use a Pentax Spotmatic, 1969, plus bellows and a Novoflex 105 mm. short mount lens, specifically made for bellows, plus a double cable release. I think your Minolta bellows are of the automatic type that don't need a double cable release so you are better off. I am very happy with this gear. Peter Strazds
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doug Nelson |
I'm dealing with these same issues with Canon stuff. The bellows does the same thing for you as extension tubes, just with more flexibility. As long as you have the bellows and the body, you can use any Minolta lens reversed on the bellows. KEH.com has exactly the reversing ring you need ($13), as long as the threads on the front of the lens are 49 mm. Canon recommends using their 50-mm f 1.4 for this for some reason, but a Minolta 50 in manual focus is really cheap these days. Since a reversed lens can't couple with the camera, you'd set your aperture first, then meter. You'll be dealing with some amazingly slow shutter speeds, so use a tripod and lock up the mirror before exposure.
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