captainslack said:
Today, I became the lucky beneficiary of no less than FIVE medium format folders!!! (Many thanks again to Bill Mattocks for his generosity!) Three are Agfa Isolette I's and two are Zeiss Ikon Nettar's.
As as is par for the course for what I've read about them online, all the Isolettes have light leaks in the bellows. Has anyone ever replaced the vinyl/leatherette bellows on these before or can anyone point me to a resource for replacing it? Honestly, I don't need five of these things I'd like to fix them up and distribute them amonst my friends here.
One of these Isolette's is strange. It has Isolette I stamped on the leatherette, but it has the shutter and lens of an Isolette II. Anyone ever run across such a combo?
Here are your options for replacement of the Isolette bellows:
1. Harvest a used bellows from a Kodak 66 folder. A lot of people over here know about this and they are getting scarce in the USA. You'll have better luck buying them on ebay from the "international sellers." Truth be told, pretty much any 6x6 camera's tapered bellows will do, but, unless it is a Kodak 66, the bellows will be a nightmare to get out in one piece.
2. Stumble across a "new old stock" 6x6 bellows on ebay. It happens (not very often, but it does).
3. Get a handmade bellows from Jurgen, probably in cranberry glitter tiger stripes.
http://www.certo6.com/
4. Get a handmade bellows from that guy in Hawaii, when he feels like making a new batch.
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~mkapono/bellows.htm
5. Get a brand new machine made bellows from England.
http://www.camerabellows.com/ New bellows will usually run between $40 (the guy in Hawaii) and $80 (England), so most people either harvest used bellows that are in good condition or search for new old stock bellows.
Once you have the new bellows, replacing the old one is easy. Four screws hold the piece in that covers the back of the bellows. Remove all that, unscrew the ring nut that holds the front of the bellows to the back of the shutter, and just peel the old bellows out of there. install the hardware from the front of the old bellows in the new one. Scrape the old glue off of the camera body, apply new contact cement and just put the new bellows in the same way the old ones came out. Done.
As for patching old bellows, there are a number of recipies:
1. Wet and Wild nail polish
2. a mix of Elmers glue, a drop of liquid soap and lamp black
3. a mix of bookbinders glue and lamp black
4. black silicone gasket sealer
5. ... well, there are dozens and I'm not going to list them all. If you patch your bellows though, remember that it is a TEMPORARY repair. No matter how good a job you did, it isn't going to last, because the same crappy bellows material is under it and it will spring new leaks nearly as fast as you can plug them.
If either of the Nettars is a 6x9, this guy has bellows that will fit and that are dirt cheap:
http://stores.ebay.com/frendakfurnari_Kodak-Replacement-Bellows_W0QQcolZ4QQdirZ1QQftidZ2QQsclZ0QQtZkm
