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Old 16th October 2008, 08:05 PM
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Default Olympus Auto Bellows

I've just been given (yes - given!) an Olympus OM auto bellows. I've not done much macro stuff, but I'm going to have a go now - probably starting with some fungi. Any tips or tricks, recommendations of good books etc?

Rob
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Old 16th October 2008, 08:49 PM
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Originally Posted by Rob Archer View Post
I've just been given (yes - given!) an Olympus OM auto bellows. I've not done much macro stuff, but I'm going to have a go now - probably starting with some fungi. Any tips or tricks, recommendations of good books etc?

Rob
Yes, you need a tripod (obvious), patience (lots), an alarm clock, and reflectors. Plastic bin bags make good kneeling pads and are light to carry. Good luck and I for one look forward to seeing the results.
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Old 16th October 2008, 10:16 PM
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a 10x8 piece of plain white card or wrapped in silver foil works well for reflecting light up onto the underside. And if you know exactly it is you are photographing you can even eat it as well.

Metering can be difficult and if you use a spot meter, then you must remember to calculate exposure compensation for bellows extension which makes the effective aperture much smaller than what your lens is set to.
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Old 17th October 2008, 02:54 PM
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Originally Posted by percepts View Post
.

Metering can be difficult and if you use a spot meter, then you must remember to calculate exposure compensation for bellows extension which makes the effective aperture much smaller than what your lens is set to.
And just to add to this I will quote from Bahman Farzad's simplified zone system:

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If you want to take close up pictures, avoid incident meters or off camera spotmeters since their readings, depending on the degree of magnification, must be adjusted before they can be used. Your best tool for measuring light would be the 18% grey card. To use the grey card, focus your camera on the subject and replace the subject with the card. Then find its normal exposure. Remove the card and then shoot the picture with the normal exposure obtained from the grey card. If you have a camera with a built in spotmeter, you can use this feature to accurately expose your picture. The great advantage of this built-in metering system is that it compensates for the lens extension due to extension tubes and simplifies exposure determination. Close-up photography , very much like photographing with a telephoto lens, is extremely sensitive to camera shakes. make sure you use a tripod or a copy stand and press the shutter release gently.
O.k, so most of it states the bleeding obvious, but I thought it might help.

Stoo
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Old 17th October 2008, 03:32 PM
Dave miller Dave miller is offline
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To state more of the obvious, the Olympus OM series have a remarkably accurate off-the-film metering system that makes exposure control a non-event, even with a bellows unit. At least that was my experience with the 6 or 8 I owned; and don't ask how I got through so many. I rate it as the best 35mm camera system ever made; as long as the fungus is outside of the camera, no problem.
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Old 17th October 2008, 06:50 PM
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To state more of the obvious, the Olympus OM series have a remarkably accurate off-the-film metering system that makes exposure control a non-event, even with a bellows unit.
What he said. My bellows is not even auto, but the OM2 and OM4 still get the exposure right without any difficulty at all. Maitani is a genius. Just press the button, he'll do the rest.
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Old 18th October 2008, 06:08 PM
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Thanks for the tips - I'm planning on trying a few shots tomorrow ( weather permitting).
Watch this space!

Rob
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Old 1st January 2009, 11:18 PM
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Default Auto bellows

Rob how did you get on with the bellows? There is a book by Carl Shipman called "How to select and use Olympus SLR cameras" published by HPBooks. It has a good section on the use of the bellows which I found useful. I only ever used it with the slide copier both of which I bought second.

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vincent
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