[Lloydy]

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The other set that I have is this one, but mine is Minolta MD,

Konica Auto Bellows-Professional SLR Bellows Rails-Nice! | eBay

These are made by Unitor and are often branded to the particular camera manufacturer, mine has a Minolta sticker, The rail under the bellows is actually a two piece design, and the bottom piece comes off easily and is a very smooth and precise focusing rail, in the third picture down looking under the whole rail - the screw on the right is unscrewed and the bottom rail comes away, the block is then screwed on the tripod and the screw you've just undone is the camera mount screw.
I've just had a close look at mine and the gears are brass and very precise, It's a well made accessory.
I actually use the slide rail on it's own more than the Minolta one, this is lighter and slightly longer. If you can get the full kit you will have a bellows set up, and possibly a slide and film copier.

[Omestes]

Thanks for all the help!

@Lloydy: I stared at those Minolta rails on Ebay for a bit, and am a bit confused by them. Looking at them, I don't think that they are actually what I'm looking for at all, it doesn't look like the camera moves. It appears that another arm moves, which would move a slide, or stage, in and out of focus (from a stationary camera). Or not. I can't honestly tell, but that little triangular bit with a hole in it, on the opposite side as the camera mount, seems a bit odd. Perhaps I'm completely wrong. Are yours like these?

I have almost no luck with garage sales and shops where I live (Phoenix, AZ), it seems that most of the Goodwill shops around here round up everything an auction them. The only place I've seen any camera gear at all is at the Mormon run ones (Deseret Industries, I think they are called). Haven't seen anything much in garage sales around here either... though sadly there was an estate sale , right before I picked up the hobby that had TONS of assorted camera gear, from an old Brownie to a semi-modern Nikon DSLR. I try not to think about that one too much... Sadly sale season has ended (it is sitting at 110 degrees right now)...

@newarts: I might just grab those, or at least the 2-way equivalent. Most of my shots are inside, in my "studio" (read that as "on my living room coffee table, next to the TV, with an Ikea desk lamp), so I don't think I'd need the other axis. If I do, it seems low cost enough to just grab another 2-way, at some point. If I'm going cheap, I might as well go VERY cheap... And then pick up those bellows, and a nice 28mm lens. *cough*

Edit: Will those bellows work with K mount lenses and cameras with minimal work? If so, that might be the best of both worlds.

[Lloydy]

Thanks for all the help!

@Lloydy: I stared at those Minolta rails on Ebay for a bit, and am a bit confused by them. Looking at them, I don't think that they are actually what I'm looking for at all, it doesn't look like the camera moves. It appears that another arm moves, which would move a slide, or stage, in and out of focus (from a stationary camera). Or not. I can't honestly tell, but that little triangular bit with a hole in it, on the opposite side as the camera mount, seems a bit odd. Perhaps I'm completely wrong. Are yours like these?

I have almost no luck with garage sales and shops where I live (Phoenix, AZ), it seems that most of the Goodwill shops around here round up everything an auction them. The only place I've seen any camera gear at all is at the Mormon run ones (Deseret Industries, I think they are called). Haven't seen anything much in garage sales around here either... though sadly there was an estate sale , right before I picked up the hobby that had TONS of assorted camera gear, from an old Brownie to a semi-modern Nikon DSLR. I try not to think about that one too much... Sadly sale season has ended (it is sitting at 110 degrees right now)...

@newarts: I might just grab those, or at least the 2-way equivalent. Most of my shots are inside, in my "studio" (read that as "on my living room coffee table, next to the TV, with an Ikea desk lamp), so I don't think I'd need the other axis. If I do, it seems low cost enough to just grab another 2-way, at some point. If I'm going cheap, I might as well go VERY cheap... And then pick up those bellows, and a nice 28mm lens. *cough*

Edit: Will those bellows work with K mount lenses and cameras with minimal work? If so, that might be the best of both worlds.

The Minolta rail is perfect for macro work, the block with the knobs sits on the tripod and the other block moves like silk with the camera mounted on it, this is a seriously well made precision rail. There is about 84mm of movement, which is enough ( The Unitor has 110mm )
The triangular section with the hole is for attaching a slide copier bellows and not used for macro work.

I can take some pictures of both sets tomorrow, it's late here now.

[newarts]

I might just grab those, or at least the 2-way equivalent.

I recommend the two axis version. moving a tripod left & right 3mm is just as onerous as moving it in & out 3mm.

You won't regret the extra capability for the small extra investment.

Dave in Iowa

[Omestes]

Lloydy, you are, at this moment, my favorite person.

Don't worry about the pics, if those Konica bellows can turn into a rail, and can accept K lenses (they can?), then I'll snatch it up tonight.

[Lloydy]

Lloydy, you are, at this moment, my favorite person.

Don't worry about the pics, if those Konica bellows can turn into a rail, and can accept K lenses (they can?), then I'll snatch it up tonight.

No, the Konica lens mount is different, sorry, I should have made it clearer that I was posting the link as an example of the Unitor kit. But they are fairly common so a K mount shouldn't be hard to find.

[Lowell Goudge]

I'll add my macro set up to perhaps better illustrate

see the photo below



there are 3 separate parts that slide on the rails for the bellows.
- the front lens mount, which on this bellows has a coarse tractor that moves with the turn of a knob, and a second platform mounted fine adjustment slide, for fine focus.
- a center slide, that has a tripod mount which can move the full length between the front lens mount and the rear camera munt
- the rear camera mount which can also slide on the rails

the bellows itself, with a broken lens cost me $25. you could easily adapt ANY bellows to mount a camera on one of the slides (preferrably the front with the tractor adjustment for fine control) and the trupod to the normal mount, so that you can have very coarse adjustment with the tripod mount, and much finer control with the front tractor.

this is just how any focusing rail would work

a cross slide rail, as others have mentioned, is useable because it allows for lateral shifts

[Omestes]

Thanks for all of your help! I'm going to keep an eye out for bellows like both of you posted, hopefully at a fairer price than I've been seeing online. But in the mean time I've decided to get a cheapo Chinese rail, some cheapo Chinese bellows (the Fotodiox ones), and a 28mm lens, just to cut my teeth on the idea. I figure the cost of the cheap Bellows and Rails isn't that big of a deal if I end up finding something awesome, and replacing them in a year. I also get an excuse to annoy my girlfriend with more exciting tales of LBA. How she tolerates me, I'll never know.

Though, one final question; I've noticed that various flavors of Pentax bellows pop up rather commonly here and around the 'net. Are any of these usable in the same way as the Minolta and Konica ones? Most of them, though, are M42, how hard is it to adapt that to K mount? The camera to bellows connection would be simple, but what about bellows to lens?

Sorry for plaguing the forums with questions. I'm new to this (been at itaround a year and a half now), so every jump I take I enter blindly. Its hard to really tell whats going on just browsing these forums, since I have no hands on experience. Its hard to tell whats going on, until you actually do it yourself. Hence going for the cheapest options for now. This way I can play with it a bit, and hopefully grasp what I need (for my uses), and where I should go from here (probably lighting, my $10 Ikea lamp is showing some flaws now). I am, though, going to hit up some second hand shops. Anyone in the Phoenix area know of places, or would that be encouraging poaching? Thanks again!

[Lowell Goudge]

M42 bellows can be put on a DSLRS with the M42-PK adaptor although go for a flanged adaptor and glue it to the bellows. Otherwise some. Elbows. Ant be easily removed. You would need an M42 lens however of a K mount.

My bellows is a Miranda bellows with a 44mm TMpunt front that I have an M42 adaptor for as well as the enlarging lens shown. The rear was muranda bayonet which I ground off and then. Cemented a flanged adaptor to.

[Lloydy]

The Minolta MD mounts on the Unitor set are screwed on and could be removed easily, and as Lowell says you can then bond a mount on or maybe adapt the mount by re drilling the holes. The Unitor has a large flat face each side that lends itself to adaption, and I guess Unitor made just one set of castings that fitted the range of camera mounts.