In article <CZY4j.5304$C24.1732@newssvr17.news.prodigy.net>, Paul
Furman <paul-.RemoveThis@-edgehill.net> wrote:
> I have a few questions for anyone who has a PB-4 or is familiar. And
> some discussion below.
Paul, I've used a PB-4 quite a bit with a D-70. Based on that
experience...
> 1. Do I need an extension ring to mount on a D200?
As others have commented, you have to mount and unmount the bellows to
the camera in portrait orientation, which is a minor annoyance. Then
rotate the camera body into shooting position.
> 2. Does at least one of the end caps on the 4 rails come off? I saw one
> modified to shorten it and am also curious if two female PB-4 mounts
> could be attached, switching out the actual mounts for more flexibility
> in tilting & shifting. Shortened modification:
> http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1139/1396372967_f682af0555.jpg?v=0
John Shaw also mentions using a shortened PB-4 in his great book,
Closeups in Nature. I'm not convinced.
> 3. When rotating from landscape to portrait, can you stop anywhere
> between? I'm guessing it's just a matter of possibly being too loose so
> that things wouldn't stay put but if there's enough tension this might
> be workable.
The rotation of the camera back vs. the bellows has solid click-stops
only at landscape and portrait. In between, mine is stiff enough to
hold the camera. Another PB-4 might be looser.
> 4 the adjustments for tilt & shift are levers on the front, how do these
> work? Does the lever just loosen it and you push it with your hand or
> something else? Are these pretty secure for a heavy lens if the unit is
> set at 90 degrees to get vertical movement?
Shift... You move the lever to loosen, slide the lens with your hand,
then tighten. While loose, it slides pretty easily. Hard to make
precise small adjustments; sort of a hit-or-miss thing. You'll want to
have a hold on the shift mechanism when you loosen it. Swing is about
the same.
The PB-4 is elegantly designed and well-made.
You can use your tripod head to flop the bellows on it's side so that
the left-right shift becomes a vertical shift and the swing becomes an
up-down tilt, but beware of one thing: You'll want your tripod to flop
90 degrees in the correct direction; otherwise your camera body will be
upside down. On my Tiltall tripod, the tilt is in the wrong direction.
Flopped over, the whole rig is pretty heavy. Watch tripod rigidity.
Could even be tipped over depending on the geometry.
> 5. What does the small 'thing' on the front lens mount do? It looks like
> maybe a place to attach an aperture diaphragm... if there was more
> mechanisms inside..
Lens release button.
> Here's an interesting modification allowing a lens to get closer to the
> sensor for infinity focus by mounting it on the inside of the mount.
> http://homepage2.nifty.com/akiyanroom/redbook-e/collection/blue.html
Doesn't sound practical to me.
With camera directly on bellows, it focuses to infinity with Nikkor
short-mount 105/4 bellows lens. Ditto with several enlarging lenses.
I think the PB-4 is terrific for close-up/macro work. I like the
Micro-Nikkors (55/3.5, 105/4 bellows), Olympus 80/4, APO Rodagon-D 1x.
The shift-swing are helpful in controlling the plane of focus in macro.
You can add extension tubes (M, PN-11, etc.) to get more extension, but
the practical limitation is when the flex of the whole rig combined
with magnification starts to have the image jittering. In my
experience, you won't want to add much more extension.
With the 105/4 bellows, you have a small, limited movement, view
camera. But, it's a tele rig, not a wide angle. I used it with a
vertical tilt/shift for a scene 20 feet deep and it was fine. I cannot
imagine using it to shoot a building.
I have a couple of other comments:
1. Tilt/shift controls the plane of focus. But bracket-focusing and
then compositing with Helicon-Focus gives much, much more depth of
field than you'll ever get with tilt/shift. George Lepp wrote up
Helicon Focus in a recent magazine article. I think it's a
breakthrough. (Depth of field is a huge problem in macro; of course the
subject has to be static; as with a bellows, you'll be using a tripod.)
2. Tilt/shift controls perspective distortions. But, these are now
very managable with Photoshop.
My NET-NET after a lot of experimenting: I'd rather shoot with a
simpler camera rig (body + macro lens), bracket focus and composite
with Helicon Focus to get depth of field, then do my perspective
control in Photoshop.
One more for D-70 users: The D-70 won't meter at all without a modern
lens attached directly to the camera. I use a modified M tube to fool
the camera into doing matrix metering and TTL flash with the PB-4 or
with old macro lenses. See Bjorn Rorslett's excellent article at
http://www.naturfotograf.com/index2.html
(The D-200 and D-300 WILL meter with old lenses and the PB-4.)
Good luck and have fun. Let us know how it turns out.
-=- Rick
--
Richard Karash <Richard.RemoveThis@Karash.com>
Richard "at" Karash "dot" com
>> Stay informed about: Nikon PB-4 Bellows (exploring tilt/shift options) 
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