Copy Stand

Found space to set up my Reflecta copy stand at last.

I last tried it when using digital for the first time and found the camera did not like the link up with the Aico tubes because they only had 5 contact points.
Since then I purchased a Kenko tube that has the required 8 contacts. So happy with that and the ease of working that I managed to buy a set of 3 to add to it.
Foolishly I had forgotten about the Aico tubes and sweated a bit trying to use them with my Sony A55. When the penny dropped I hiked out the Kenko's from my bag and got full control back.

Took the pics of the "Buffalo nickel" using only two of them.

Looks complicated but works easily; as the JPG shows I am using energy saving bulbs for longer life and less heat. Using a BPM sliding mount for simple control of focussing.

I only wish that BPM were still active in the camera  world.

I am sure that by now they would have bellows that would work with full control for Sony cameras and lenses; after all Praktica managed to do that with their B200. That was well over 25 years ago too. What has happened to innovation? 

Praktica did it by running wires through the bellows to the contacts points at each end. True they had but 3 contacts but it only requires an adjustment to a standard bellows set with a Sony bayonet fitting, Could be done for all fittings too if it came to that. Cost in China? Paltry; but it would be a sure thing for the firm that manufacted the bellows.

I have just purchased a fitting that is Chinese manufactured for around half of the price of the original Minolta bellows attachment. It gave perfect control of focussing that assisted in the photo of the Leopold 1861 coin. I could creep the camera up or down until there was a flicker of the green "in-focus" light and then use the auto-focus built into the camera. At f36 and 1/4 second exposure I had perfect control over the manoeuvre all the way.