lundi 25 juillet 2005

Lenses I've Looked Through Nikkor 105mm Bellows lens + PB-4 Bellows I thought it ironical, as I struggled to take a standard "pack shot" of the unusual Bellows and Nikkor 105mm lens for this article, that the specialised equipment I needed for the shot was the set-up being photographed! Whilst all working photographers have a number of different, and spare, cameras and lenses, the few who own one of these scarce items would not have another to hand. In fact this whole set-up is a photographic dinosaur... it could have dominated as a "conquer all" solution... but was gradually killed off as smaller and faster alternatives evolved. Before I describe what the beast does - and why it was superseded - I'll summarise what it is. The Bellows-Nikkor P 105mm f/4 lens ("P" being the Roman letter for Penta indicating five elements) was launched in 1969 as a development of an earlier 135mm Bellows-Nikkor. Both were designed for exclusive use with Nikon 35mm SLR cameras fitted with a bellows focusing unit. This was necessary because the lens itself had no helical focusing mechanism so could only be brought into focus on the film plane by racking it in and out on a variable extension accessory. There are five basic ways of achieving this using... a) Different fixed lengths of compatible extension rings or tubes. b) A variable-length tube (a la 65-116 Olympus Telescopic Ext. Tube). c) A variable-length screwed tube (a la Pentax Helicoid Ext. Tube). d) Using combinations of close-up lenses on the primary lens, and e) A variable-length flexible mechanism... namely, a bellows. Nikon offered options a), d) and e) which, with different models, could be used in different combinations with many lenses from the Nikkor range for a variety of magnifications increasing to much greater than life-size. Apart from extension tube sets and supplementary close-up lenses, Nikon initially offered only conventional bellows units... but then came up with a flexible "bendy" bellows which emulated the basic movements of a traditional view camera. This was quite a clever move because from the 1960s miniature 35 mm cameras were rapidly becoming dominant in professional usage despite offering limited features in the traditional sense. Admittedly, they were the be-all-and-end-all for news and sports photographers, and for most landscape, architectural, industrial, studio and scientific professions they offered much easier handling capabilities... but without the traditional image manipulation and correction capabilities found on view cameras for much of the previous century. But with one product, the PB-4 Bellows, Nikon launched the accessory that brought some traditional ways of working into the modern era... and with the big advantage of handling speed. Kennedy Ilford KI Monobar There had been few previous attempts to produce a 35mm view-camera system... the Kennedy Ilford KI Monobar from the early 1950s is the only example produced (and in very limited numbers) which comes to mind. I owned one for a few years and can honestly admit to never having used it. Although offering movements and the facility of changing film mid-roll using interchangeable magazines it was too slow, difficult and complicated to use... not made easier by it's impossibly dark viewfinder system and small-aperture lenses. How technicians ever obtained results from them in hospitals beats me, but that's where most of them were destined (they were in white enamelled finish after all - for their clinical settings)... mine simply sat on in the desktop as a curio for visitors! The PB-4 was the first and only Bellows Unit from Nikon which offered "movements" - a sliding and tilting lens plane. (The contemporary PB-5 and later PB-6 were a similar units but without the lens plane movements). In fact the PB-4 had limited applications with most Nikkor lenses because they didn't have the circle of coverage large enough for movements... but the Bellows-Nikkor 105mm lens head did, albeit only a small amount. In the top illustration of the Bellows Unit the lens panel is tilted for maximum "visual impression" but is in fact too much for acceptable results - there would still be image coverage to the full extent of the 35mm film frame, but in such a configuration the sharpness and resolution levels plunge to those produced intentionally by the new Lensbaby optic which is attracting a devoted following similar to that created by the Holga camera. For serious photographic applications the PB-4 bellows and 105mm lens are an excellent combo... but in this context "serious" covers usage restricted to close-up photography with some movement to increase depth-of-field which is physically very limited at close-up working distances. The "tilting" feature increases depth-of-field whilst the "shift" feature enables parts of the subject to be included in the view without having to tilt the camera and thus cause distortion. However, the main use for the shift was to crop to a smaller part of a film transparency / negative original when using the matching PS-4 Slide Copier. As before, technical descriptions, specifications and photos of these related products can be studied here. Of course what has happened with time is that photographers needing the features of "tilt & shift" have abandoned such cumbersome bellows set-ups and bought dedicated lenses. These have been offered by several manufacturers over the years and whilst most were expensive they were popular for their ease of use hand-held. The most popular are the T&S 24mm, 45mm and 90mm trio for the Canon EOS system following on from the original T&S 35mm for their manual pro F1 system. Schneider made versions in the past for both 6x4,5 and 6x6cms Bronica and Rollei roll-film cameras... and currently Russian Hartblei models are available using adaptors for several roll-film and 35mm cameras at very competitive prices - their marginal optical failings being overcome with readily available image correction software. And of course Nikon make the 85mm f/2,8 PC Micro-Nikkor... but will what would be a highly desirable 20mm or 24mm Tilt & Shift Nikkor ever appear for the digital system? Nikonians discuss these sorts of questions at length. Despite the seriousness of this type of equipment (seriousness being determined by their prices) there is fun to be had using them. I hardly ever use my PB-4 / 105 bellows set-up the way it was meant... I generally use it hand held, and with the lens tilted against the direction for greater depth-of-field because I want to create images with less depth. This is a very hit-and-miss technique but can pay off if you shoot a lot of film varying the effect bit by bit. A true exponent of this technique is Keith Carter whose following is proven by his workshop popularity and resulting book sales. There are a number of other photographers who use the Hasselblad ArcBody and FlexBody cameras for creative manoeuvres with subjects ranging from weddings and portraits to architecture and landscapes... which just goes to show that if a manufacturer develops a specialist item to fill a niche market a greater number of creative photographers will do the exact opposite with the product and make it a bigger success than the manufacturer realised. Such is creativity... thank goodness! N.B: NikonLinks has a Macro page with good links to relevant equipment, usage and photographers. 10:49:27 PM    comment []