[dragonfly]

Great pickup and thanks for sharing your lens comparisons.

[dasuhu]

Those are bokeh masks. They in focus areas are sharp, and the out of focus highlights take the shape of the mask.

I want to see then how the "keyhole" shaped bokeh highlights turn out

[CEWren]

do people still use bokeh masks?

[alohadave]

do people still use bokeh masks?

I think it's like star filters. Everyone plays with them when they start out then get bored with the technique pretty quickly.

[RioRico]

I think it's like star filters. Everyone plays with them when they start out then get bored with the technique pretty quickly.

I think I played with them when I was about ten years old, hanging them in front of my Brownie. That lasted a week maybe, through two rolls of film. But I bore quickly.
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And now, 'cause of the kinda guy I am, I'll talk about the bellows. Wonderful gizmo, those bellows. They take a little time to get used to. Depending on what lens you put on them and how, they can be used for shooting macros, or general photography, or all sorts of weird stuff. I like weird stuff. Heh heh.

The easy way to start is to just put a manual prime lens on, like your Sears 135, then mount the other end on the camera. Oh yeah, a trick for putting stuff on the camera: You don't want dust on the sensor 'cause it's a booger to get off. So whenever there's nothing on the camera mount, aim the camera DOWNWARDS so dust doesn't fall in.

Anyway, put the lens on the bellows and the bellows on the camera. Set the camera to Av mode. Set the lens aperture wide open, to f/2.8. Use the bellows' knob to focus on something VERY CLOSE, and SNAP! Now chimp the screen. (That means to review the picture.) If the picture seems low-contrast and washed out, there may be little holes in the bellows. I use matte-black fabric paint to seal such holes.

Hey, you've just taken your first macro shot! Shorter lenses, like the 35mm, let you work closer to a subject; longer ones like the 135mm give a bit more working room. Zooms can be tricky. And most autofocus lenses don't have aperture rings, so on bellows they'd be stuck wide-open or shut-tight. Bellows eat light, so you usually need longer exposures, so it's good to use a tripod or just brace the camera-bellows-lens set on something solid like a table.
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That's enough for now. This will keep you busy for awhile. Have fun!

PS: Nice shots.

[Steinback]

Those bellows will likely let you shoot at 2x magnification with a 50 or 55mm manual lens. Are they M42 or K mount?

Another application of bellows is for adapting lenses with long registration distances to shoot at distances from infinity to extreme close focus. I use an enlarger lens on mine and others on the forum use bellows with old medium format and folding camera lenses.

[CEWren]

I will try that! sounds fun. I love the explanations!

I believe it is K mount but havent tried it yet. had no idea how or why. will work on that tomorrow

[Arjay Bee]

The screw mount bellows can foul the flash housing when I went to remove it - mine did I now use an extesion tube spacer to allow easy removal of the bellows set. If you have already hit the problem you will need a rotate and lock technique to get the bellows off. Have fun - lots of cool stuff in that box.