Jules had figured out the solution. Modest as he was, Scheimpflug insisted on giving credit to Jules Carpentier for the details of how to accomplish this distortion removal. Scheimpflug, who got several patents of his own in the realm of aerial photography and panorama cameras with up to 8 lenses, shared his technique freely. Nowadays, most architectural photographers are well-versed in his principle.
But I digress, as I often do. How do we use this PB-4 to get sharp photos of stuff that might not be perfectly aligned with the camera sensor? By using the Scheimpflug Principle, of course. For starters, focus on the middle of your subject without any shift or swing adjustments. In the sample above, the three planes all converge at a spot about 1 meter to the left of the camera slightly out of the frame. After the subject plane is in proper focus, you probably need to shift the lens to get your subject centered in the viewfinder.
Scheimpflug Principle. Scheimpflug was a smart guy, as was Jules Carpentier. You should thank the both of them. This stuff is a bit complicated, until you go through the alignment exercise yourself a couple of times. Closeup results from setup shown above. Coin face is entirely in focus. The photos above show a coin mounted with a significant rotation, relative to the camera sensor plane. Normally, it would be impossible at these magnifications to get the rotated coin face in focus even when the lens aperture is stopped down.
The swing adjustment, combined with the shift adjustment, made getting everything in focus possible with a single photo.
It would also be possible to get everything in focus by stacking several photos, where focus is shifted slightly between shots see discussion below.
Thanks to the swing and shift controls on the PB-4, the coin face is entirely in focus. The vertical field of view here is 9. I hope you can tell that this lens yields very, very sharp results. You can get a pretty good idea of the distance to the subject from the lens when using the BR3 ring while mounting the 60mm lens in reverse using the BR2 ring and step-down rings by inspecting the overhead gear setup shots included above.
The whole coin NOT using the bellows. The coin used in these examples is The face itself is 0. This is roughly as close as most people ever get when they use a macro lens by itself.
The PB-4 takes you to a whole new level. The stacking invention makes Scheimpflug no longer an imperative unless you use film. Lighting Hardware Example. LED ring light mounted onto BR-3 ring.
The BR-3 ring works as a nice surface to attach ring lights. There is still enough working range to your subject if you choose a small light. My ring light is about 34mm thick. I like LED lights, because other types of continuous lights tend to cook your subject. Without continuous lighting, the non-sunlit subject is usually too dim to focus easily.
The light shown above has three tightening screws that grab onto the BR-3 ring. Remote release. Over the years Nikon produced five different bellows units for the F-Mount. Model II was introduced around It is still usable, but has many limitations in comparison to the PB Firstly, it has an even stronger size limitation due to the shorter distance between the rails and the bayonet mount.
For instance, a D is not moveable along the rails. Secondly, there is no separate tripod mount. Model II has two fixed tripod mounts - one at the front of the rail and one in the rear standard. The moveable tripod mount of the PB-4 is great for fine focussing, I wouldn't want to miss it! The third limitation is the movement of the standards. Overall, it is terrible to work with the Model II in upright position, especially if a more heavy lens is used!
The next model was the PB It was a strongly simplified bellows unit that was offered additionally to the Model II. The PB-3 has a fixed rear standard, only the lens mount is moveable. In contrast to the other bellows units with their squarely-shaped bellows the one of the PB-3 is octagonally shaped. Switching the orientation of the camera is not possible.
Nevertheless, the PB-3 might be a nice bellows for using in the field, because of its small size. But a PB-3 is not that easy to find! The next generation consists of the PB-4 and the PB The PB-5 is a simplified version of the PB only one pair of rails and no separate tripod mount, no shifting and tilting capabilities. The last one is the PB It was introduced around as the successor of the PB-4 and as far as I know it is still in Nikon's product line. Tilting or shifting is not provided. On the Web critical reports on the build quality of the PB-6 can be found.
On the other hand, the PB-6 offers two new extension options: Firstly, Nikon offers the PB-6D spacers for increasing the distance between the mount and the rails. It allows you to use even big cameras - like the D3 - in conjunction with the PB Secondly, a bellows extension unit is available.
It is a second bellow that doubles the possible extension of the unit! Another nice feature is that the front standard has the funcionality for a semi-automatic diaphragm like the BR Using a bellows unit for digitising slides. Except for the PB-3 every Nikon bellows unit has a mount for an optional slide copying unit. Today, that is very usable for digitising slides. More about this can be found here: How to digitise your slides and negatives. Sample images:. Using a bellows unit, particularly the Nikon PB-4 December 27, A hundred years ago field cameras became popular.
Around my great-uncle bought this 9x12cm amateur field camera. It was produced by Ihagee, Dresden, Germany. The knob at the left side of the bottom is for focussing, the little plate on the right side of the bottom is the focus index.
Above the lens there is an optical waist-level finder and on the right there is a hinged action finder. If you replace the film sheet by a focussing screen the camera offers live view as well ; Could one expect anything more? Two very different cameras! They have the same focal length and therefore they have approximately the same length.
Nikon's first lens with CRC. Besides: this Nikkor is very usable on a bellows Going closer! The Ihagee is focusable nearly down to life size on its own! For accurate focussing the usage of live view before loading the film is recommended. A tube crowd! Back to the roots: Using a bellows unit shown here: the PB These adapters make the Rodagons usable in the Nikon world. I closed the light leak caused by the aperture window with black wool around the optical unit. Have a look at the images below: 1: knob for moving the tripod mount.
Compatibility of the PB-4 None of the Nikon bellows units are really usable in conjunction with 'G' type lenses lack of an aperture ring , because the aperture of the lens is not controllable. Going beyond life size For most people the intention for buying a bellows unit is that they want to reach high magnifications.
On the right: Nikon's current reversing ring, the BR2A. It is often sold together with the BR3. Both rings screwed together give a small tube. If the BR2A is used for reversing a lens, the BR3 makes a good sun shade for the rear side of the lens. Between the lens and the bellows unit there is the BR2A reversing ring and on the front of the setup the BR3 is mounted as a lens hood. More examples for the achievable magnifications with reversed lenses: 1.
From my point of view a digital body should fulfil the following criteria: Metering without CPU lenses. As light and small as possible. Live view, maybe remote controlled see my article about remote controlling.
A bit more comfort: semi-automatic diaphragm The workflow for shooting for the setups described above is this: firstly, you should focus. BR-4 and AR Semi-automatic diaphragm in use. The PB-4 allows shifting by about 1cm to the left or to the right. Titlting is possible up to about 33 degrees in both directions!
The subject of our test setup shown below. The green line represents the plane of focus, the red one the lens plane and the blue one the image plane. The three lines have a common point of intersection.
All of the movements are still smooth, which is impressive considering how old the bellows is. The Nikon bellows PB-6 is in the same price range. I think it is a slight step down in quality. However, there are accessories for it that do not exist for the PB I also previously had a Nikon PB-5 bellows that I did not like, due to it not having a focus rail.
Unlike other gear, I do not have any desire to replace it. Make sure you're able to find accessories you might want before purchasing. High priced accessories, lenses, and adapters can negate potential savings versus the Nikon PB Optical test and research equipment is great for macro photography.
Where they are better than a bellows is that the setup will not be raised as far off of the base it is mounted to. The height added by the bellows rails will not be there, which should make the entire setup more stable.
Thorlabs, Edmond Optics, and Newport all sell tubes and clamps. The sizes appropriate for photography are M42 and M It is the same M42 as the Pentax screw mount. The M52 is 52mm instead of 42mm. These tubes are going to have thicker walls than camera extension tubes. The additional mass and rigidity is desirable for higher magnification work.
There are also clamps for optical tubes that should be used to take the strain off of a camera mount. You can get a d to mount on the PB4. Just attach it in portrait mode, It's a fiddle but it can be done, and when on rotates quite comfortably. It's a beautiful thing to use, quality is on a par with Nikon's manual focus lenses from the same era, and everything just works.
If you use a geared tripod head with it you will be able to very precisely frame and adjust focus for close up work. I use it with the Manfrotto junior geared head, and it pairs perfectly. The attachment for doing slide work is also very useful as a lens hood.
A plate on the back of the attachment clips loose and clips onto the front of the lens, forming a light tight bellows lens hood. If you want to increase contrast to the max this will do it. I am using all sorts of lenses with it, but mostly the f4 bellows lens, which came with it.
I suppose you can focus stack with the motorised new bellows units, but there is something very satisfying about taking the time to use the tilt and shift capabilities to maximise apparent depth of field.
There's one bellows for 35mm which I think probably outperforms the PB4, the Spiratone. I've never got my hands on one but it looks to have greater flexibility for tilt and shift. No matter, if you shoot Nikon and want a bellows, get the PB4, you won't be disappointed.
Can you please explain what you mean by the "Essential Film Holder" - is this an accessory that will work with the Nikon PB-4 or is it a separate device altogether? There's also the Nikon ES-2, which might work.
The ES-2 is designed to be used with a Nikon 60mm macro lens, so depending on the macro lens you have, it may or not work. Thank you, so informative and helpful.
I believe this is the way to achieve the best results and to then explore macro photography. The PB-4 is not a good choice for negatives as it will likely scratch them during the digitizing process. I would suggest looking into the Essential Film Holder. Your email address will not be published.
Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Best 35mm Film Cameras. Best Macro Lenses. By Nathaniel Stephan. Last Updated: November 22, Outside the Shot participates in affiliate advertising programs. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases made through links on this site.
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