[LargeFormat] Bellows

[philip.lambert]

I just bought a Gandolfi 54 Variant Level One and am attempting to cope with
its limitations (or mine). The standard bellows don't stretch much beyond
250mm and my long lens is 305mm so I need to make another top hat lens
board, not really demanding if one has time.
More of a problem is using my 47mm f5.6 S Angulon with the bag bellows -
it's quite difficult to get the lensboard near enough to the glass and still
have usable rising front. Gandolfi just promised to send me some
instructions which if all else fails I shall have to read.
If the bellows are removed the front and rear standards can get closer
together. It looks to me as though the bag bellows fabric is just too bulky
(it stretches to 120mm approx and works fine on 90mm lenses).  It is
possible that a bag bellows of reduced material bulk would work a lot better
with the 47mm and actually permit some rising front.

Does anybody have any views on reducing the bag bellows bulk?   I am not
keen to cut it down as it's nearly new.  Maybe if I find an old Gandolfi
bellows I could use the front and rear frames to have a less bulky bag made.
Or even copy the frames out of plywood of the same thickness.

Anybody know what material a bag bellows ought to be made of and where to
get it?  I can get leather from a hobbies shop but it feels a bit thick. The
colours are a bit odd but I could use black suede dye at least for the
inside.

Another possibility is to use an idea from the Toho monorail of having the
w/a lens mounted off-centre on a circular disk that can be revolved on a
lens board having a circular hole in the middle.  If the lens is mounted
12mm off centre it gives that much rising front, cross front and drop front,
or a combination of cross with either rise or drop front. This is apart from
any movement the camera permits.   I just ordered an adjustable circle
cutter so as to make recessed lensboards, maybe it will come in handy for
the Toho idea.  It will take three attempts to make it work right.
Philip