Follow up, replacement bellows for folders

I posted a few weeks ago about needing a bellows for an old welta folding 6
X 4.5 camera. It has a coupled rangefinder and a non-front cell focusing
zeiss tessar (focuses by a sliding bed like a view camera) so I though it
might be worth fixing up. I looked around and decided to get one from
http://www.camerabellows.com/ I went to their request info page, gave them
some basic info and they responded promptly with an estimate. A couple of
more e-mails and I mailed them the old bellows along with my credit card
info. In a few weeks I was sent a very nice leather copy of the original.
It wasn't -exactly- the same but it was -very- close and works great. It's
slightly harder to close now but other than this, it works perfect and now
so does the camera. I guess in time it will smoosh down some and close
easier.

It wasn't real hard to install and it looks as nice as any leather bellows
I've seen as far as quality. Even has some fancy looking "stripes" down
it's length! It was $45 shipped which for a custom made bellows seemed
reasonable to me. It wouldn't be worth it for a cheapo model folder but for
the higher end ones that can't be found already made elsewhere, it's a good
source for these.
--

Stacey

In article , Stacey wrote:

I posted a few weeks ago about needing a bellows for an old welta folding 6
X 4.5 camera. [...]

Thanks for the report, Stacey! Very useful information.

FWIW, I find that compressing a bellows in a press (or under a tall stack
of heavy books) for a few days takes care of the closing problem, but it's
too late for that, so you will eventually achieve the same thing after a
few weeks leaving the camera folded when not in use.

It's good to hear of people having good experiences in these things.