| Close-up
and Macro Photography
by Chuon-Szen Ong
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BELLOWS
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If
only one single cable release is available for the camera body
only, the aperture control on the bellow’s column must be disengaged
by means of the manual lock provided on it.
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Nikon
PB-6 Bellows. Animation shows DOF Preview Lock.
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In such a situation, the aperture should be left wide open (i.e.
smallest available f/stop number) during focusing and composition
to allow the brightest possible view through the viewfinder.
The aperture should then be stopped-down to the desired f/stop
number prior the taking the shot. Although this may seem a tedious
procedure, the benefit of it when using such a set-up with only
one cable is that the lens-mounted half on the bellows is isolated
from the body. This reduces the possibility of accidental movement
or "shake" of the lens section on the bellows via the cable
release plunger.
To
reverse-mount a lens onto the bellows, the same previously mentioned
BR-2A Lens Reversing Ring is used
(with the BR-5 step-down ring when necessary).
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When the lens is reverse-mounted, auto stop-down aperture
control can be achieved with the aid of the BR-6 Auto-Diaphragm
Adapter which incorporates a plunger-type cable release
connector to accept the mechanical cable release from
either the AR-7 or AR-10 double cable release. This BR-6
adapter can be omitted if, as in the previous case, only
one single cable release to the camera body is available. |
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To attach filters or hoods on the reverse side of the
lens, the shown above BR-3 adapter is required. This allows
standard 52mm filters or screw-in hoods to be attached
to the adapter.
PERSONAL
NOTE ON THE USE OF BELLOWS
In the course of my usage of the bellows, I’ve found that
using the double cable release on the bellow’s front column
introduces the risk of causing unnecessary extra vibration.
This are caused by the mechanical plunger activating the
auto stop-down aperture control on both the bellow’s front
column or on the BR-6 Adapter. |
| Instead,
I completely omit the use of this BR-6 auto-diaphragm
ring adapter, replacing it with the BR3 adapter for filter
attachments and simply use one single cable release attached
to the camera body and manually stop-down the aperture
just prior to triggering the shutter (see set-up image
below). This eliminates the extra variable of possible
vibrations from the lens mount when it comes to the critical
review of set-up when the images don’t come out the way
they were “supposed” to! |
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Image:
Nikon F5 mounted on PB-6 & PB-6D Spacers with a Reverse-mounted
MF 20mm f/2.8 AI-S using the BR2A & BR-5 mounting adapters
and the BR3 52mm thread-size attachment adapter.
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