[tim60]

Well, glad I bought my bellows long ago - a K-mount manual set (Ricoh). I liked using it with my 80-205 Osawa. Used it recently with STak55/2. Got some interesting pictures of flowers in my front garden. Since it is K-mount it does not present the issues described.
But I thought of another solution. The 1/2 turn that the bellows could make before fouling the flash would open 0.5mm between the adapter and the back of the bellows. This could allow a thin hook tool to be introduced in order to press the spring (without risk of slipping and damaging something inside because the thread is still in the way. Then using a second hook tool it should be possible to release the adapter. One hook to press the spring, the other to hook onto the edge of the adapter slot near the spring to pull the adapter past the lock point and then to release it.

[Stone G.]

Back to basics. M42 extension tubes are very cheap - even the original Asahi Pentax ones - and I would go for the solution proposed by Nick Siebers.

It adds very little to the lenght of the completely compressed bellows and is compeletely "fail safe". See "position 2" in image below. I trust that you have discovered by now that loosening the little screw in "Position 1" you can rotate the bellows freely relative to the camera --- and you can rotate the silvery ring relative to the M42 adapter( with a modest diffuclty getting the right grip of that thin ring).

[wolfiegirl]

Hi Tim,

That hook thing sounds tricky. Or am I misunderstanding? The problem with my bellows at the time was that I couldn't even see where the adapter release-y thing was. I'd like to think I got lucky in that the bellows was old (albeit in very good nick) and that after I undid some screws age and gravity did the rest. The still sticky glue around the bellows collar sure makes me wonder. Either way I'm not going back to playing with the bellows until I get a cheap infinity m42 adapter and/or a m42 2x macro tube. Lucky I have other lenses to play with while I wait...

[wolfiegirl]

Hi StoneG!

Thanks so so so much for that photo! That's what I need! Visual aids!!

Umm methinks you trust me too much. I only unscrewed those two metal bits when I realised the bellows was stuck and I was desperately trying to unscrew anything and everything in order to get the thing to get off my camera.

While playing with the bellows I only used the screws on the sides rails to achieve focus.

Looks like I'm going to need both a m42 adapter and the macro extension tube to make this bellows work. Or do m42 macro tubes have one side as the m42 screw, and the other as a pk mount? Do they in fact even come as the latter? *curious*

[Stone G.]

Hi StoneG!

Thanks so so so much for that photo! That's what I need! Visual aids!!

Umm methinks you trust me too much. I only unscrewed those two metal bits when I realised the bellows was stuck and I was desperately trying to unscrew anything and everything in order to get the thing to get off my camera.

While playing with the bellows I only used the screws on the sides rails to achieve focus.

Looks like I'm going to need both a m42 adapter and the macro extension tube to make this bellows work. Or do m42 macro tubes have one side as the m42 screw, and the other as a pk mount? Do they in fact even come as the latter? *curious*

Well no, but what you CAN do is this: Get a thin P/K extension tube and an M42-to-P/K adapter. Insert the M42 to P/K at the lens end of the extension tube and voila: You now have an M42-to-P/K extension tube!

[wolfiegirl]

Well no, but what you CAN do is this: Get a thin P/K extension tube and an M42-to-P/K adapter. Insert the M42 to P/K at the lens end of the extension tube and voila: You now have an M42-to-P/K extension tube!

love it!!

[dawsonjm]

If you had a genuine Pentax Auto-Bellows, attaching and detaching the camera is super simple. Mine is a M42 bellows, and presents no problems because Pentax built the bellows with a knurled clamp screw on the right side of the bellows that allows the camera body connector ring to slip completely out of the bellows. You then can attach or detach the connector ring, with or without a M42-P/K adapter, to your camera. It does not require that you turn the camera while it is attached to the bellows.

By the way, I just bought a 100mm bellows lens with an old bellows, and the prize in the box was the original operating manual for the Auto-Bellows/Slide Copier. I already had another M42 bellows and slide copier, but without the lens or manual. The manual also discusses using the bellows with standard super takumar lenses, and gives magnification values and other values along with it.