One of the reasons for going back to the felt may have been repair
ease. The felt ring is simply dropped in place. The bellows is screwed
on the lens side and press fit on the camera body side. To effect the
press fit, the lens assembly must be offered up to the camera body and
then working inside the camera from the back lens opening, you have to
grab the flopping around end of the bellows (the rubberized cloth is
mated to a band of metal) and pull it into a recess in the camera body.
This is a lot easier written about than performed. It is a very tight
fit and sometimes takes a while to get it done.
todd
On 18-Aug-05, at 3:53 PM, Richard Knoppow wrote:
----- Original Message ----- From: "Roger M. Wiser" <rwiser@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, August 18, 2005 2:13 PM
Subject: [rollei_list] Re: Bellows on 2.8D?
Jerry / Todd , it sounds like another thing to deteriorate or go wrong, yet I have not heard of any such problems.It would be interesting to know what prompted the design change. I've never heard that the felt liner caused problems but there were several design changes to the front mechanism so perhaps the change was made necessary by them. Its possible that Prochnow addresses this but I must pick my way through the German nearly word by word so may have missed it.
Roger
In general, bellows can be quite reliable depending on what they are made of. Leather is notoriously subject to drying and rotting, synthetics are not. So, one finds many Linhof cameras needing new bellows and very few Speed Graphics. I don't know for certain when Graflex started using synthetic bellows but all the Anniversary and later cameras I've seen (post 1939) have them. If the light seal in the Rollei if of similar material its likely just as long lived as the felt.
--- Richard Knoppow Los Angeles, CA, USA dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx --- Rollei List
- Post to rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Subscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'subscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org
- Unsubscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org
- Online, searchable archives are available at //www.freelists.org/archives/rollei_list
--- Rollei List
- Post to rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Online, searchable archives are available at //www.freelists.org/archives/rollei_list
