Macro Bellows -poorly designed.

[yashica1943]

I recently started to do a little more indoor Macro, I normally use a 1980's Sigma 50mm with Minolta MD mount on an adapter giving me a modest range with my Nikon D5200 with manual everything of course..
 I then bought a cheap set of extension rings and have used them.
I then became aware that various Chinese sellers were offering Nikon fit bellows at a very good price, on Ebay, including free postage. For occasional use these should be fine.

Now comes the 'Caveat emptor' bi about buying cheap stuff.
On arrival I noticed that the rear bayonet mount is painted! With black paint.
I have pointed out to the seller that I am not going to mount this thing on my camera because every time it is offered up then small fragments of paint will be scraped off and probably enter the shutter mechanism and certainly foul the sensor. I am awaiting their reply.

I have now spent several days trying to explain that the mount is not damaged, it has not suffered in transit, that the paint is on the mount shown on their listing photographs and that I do not want to get it repaired and I want them to pay for the return postage because it is not fit for purpose!

Now they are offering £6-£8 refund and I keep the bellows. They don't seem to realise that anyone using this accessory will find chips of paint inside their camera when they use it. Not easy to clean the paint off and it might then be a loose fit..........

[daveh]

The ins and outs of buying a set of bellows, eh? Just use it very occasionally, or, in other words, never!

[yashica1943]

After about twelve emails, I have asked for a full refund again with my postage paid. There seems to be a big language problem here because they now want to send me another one and I can keep the first one. I have agreed, more out of frustration than anything else! I wish that I had taken the £6-£8.
I'll bet that the second one is painted also, but at least it might be worth getting paint remover for both!

[yashica1943]

I was just about to order some paint remover, sitting there looking at the thing, I suddenly realised that there is a way around this!
I looked at the cheap extension tubes that I bought a couple of years ago. The male mount on the tube is black metal, not painted.
So I have taken the short tube, mounted it on the back of the bellows. No paint, if I don't remove it, no flakes.
The bellows body is now about 20mm longer, but that doesn't matter.

[daveh]

We bought a small TV (10" or thereabouts) through eBay for the kitchen. The USB port doesn't work: it refuses to find any USB stick that I install. We contacted them, and the next thing was that there was a note from eBay themselves. We got a full refund but could keep the TV. It's from Poland. While Polish isn't as difficult to read as Chinese it is nearly so, so the instruction book is pretty useless.


Anyway, at least the company you are dealing with have tried to sort the problem out. I do have automatic extension tubes for the Pentax, but not a bellows. However I hardly ever use them. The 100mm macro lens which came as a kit with a ring-flash and an SFXn has a screw-in supplementary lens to bring it to 2:1 and I find that more convenient.

[yashica1943]

I have found most Chinese sellers very good. How they can sell things for very little money with free postage is amazing. I have put bids of £0.99p - with free postage - on things like filters and won them.
Also, I have heard very good things about Japanese sellers of used cameras, their descriptions seem to be very good and detailed. I did send off for a Konica Autoreflex T3 and lens at a very good price from Japan. It was just as described, well packaged and didn't attract any import taxes. I wouldn't be put off from buying from them again.
The reason for buying a bellows was that my wife has started collecting silver thimbles and I would like to photograph some of the hallmarks.

[raybar]

I enjoy shooting my old cameras from time to time, and developing the film, and all that. But most of the time, and for anything serious, I use current or very recent digital equipment. For macro I use the Canon 100/4 and I can add extension tubes if I must (rarely). The only use I still have for bellows is playing with old glass for fun. Like these (which I've posted before) - - -