At 01:21 15.11.01 +0100, you wrote: >Wayde, >I remember my father, an inventor with ca 25 patents in several countries, >once saying to me - you will never replace bellows with someting else... >it's so old and yet the best. Me too, I tried with balloons... no way! The >best I made were telescopic antennas in the corners of the standards, >covered with black plastic. It worked surprisingly well, very "elastic" ... >but what advantage it gave in comparison to bellows?? It was havier, of >course, (because of the metal in it) and bulkier because of the irregular >folding of the plastic... >The reason, why bellows is the best solution is simple - it best imitates >the nature! Look at your wrist, the skin folding when you move it - and you >understand. You will never replace bellows with something else... George > > >----- Original Message ----- >From: "J. Wayde Allen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Sent: Wednesday, November 14, 2001 10:40 PM >Subject: Re: [Cameramakers] Idea for bellows support > ########################################################################################## ".................never..................." On the philosophical side, sometimes we can beat nature. That is what much of technology is all about. Our eyes are pretty impressive instruments (at least when backed up by all that parallel processing which corrects many of the optical defects) but a decent camera has advantages (if nothing else, images which endure. Try conveying to me how beautiful whatever it was looked without a photo and when I cannot see it in person and you will soon see the photo has some advantages over nature. And there are thousands of equally trivial examples. In the case of photos, if they did not have something to offer we would all not be here!)
I do not have anything to offer as a good substitute for the bellows but I do see ways to make a better bellows than the ones we fold from paper or plastic or leather. A well designed molded bellows could be more compact and rugged. In fact, these are made but mostly in excessively thick form. The problem is only that it is not practical for the one-off bellows and that it lacks the beauty of the nicely made hand-folded product. We should not give up hope; somebody will someday think of a different and pleasing replacement unless the need disappears! (I worry for the future of photos on silver in emulsion. As old as I am, I expect to see the day when we will be buying film from special suppliers who make it for the rare folks who regret the loss of the good old days.) Bob _______________________________________________ Cameramakers mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://rmp.opusis.com/mailman/listinfo/cameramakers
