Slide Duplication with Canon FD Bellows and Duplicator

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I have just bought the setup below with the intention of doing some macro work as well as duplicating some slides and negs (35mm and 6 x 6) onto digital.

Canon Duplicator 35-52R w/ Bellows FD 50mm f3.5 Macro Lens set


Am trying to duplicate some slides using the 50mm Macro lens and my EOS 5D

My first problem is getting the 35mm Slide full frame and in focus

The only way I seem to get full frame is with the front bellows fully compressed (and they then lock in place with the spring steel clips) - I then have trouble adjusting focus. Whenever I look at pics in demos of people using similar equipment the front bellows are normally extended about an inch and the rear bellows by a few inches.

Can anyone post a pic or describe how they set up and use this equipment.

Second problem is exposure

I had thought that the TTL metering would still work but I seem to get huge overexposure (at least 2 stops) - I had expected to have to play around with exposures but don't really understand why I have this huge overexposure.

Any advice gratefully receiveds-l1600 (1).jpg
 
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I have just bought the setup below with the intention of doing some macro work as well as duplicating some slides and negs (35mm and 6 x 6) onto digital.

Canon Duplicator 35-52R w/ Bellows FD 50mm f3.5 Macro Lens set


Am trying to duplicate some slides using the 50mm Macro lens and my EOS 5D

My first problem is getting the 35mm Slide full frame and in focus

The only way I seem to get full frame is with the front bellows fully compressed (and they then lock in place with the spring steel clips) - I then have trouble adjusting focus. Whenever I look at pics in demos of people using similar equipment the front bellows are normally extended about an inch and the rear bellows by a few inches.

Can anyone post a pic or describe how they set up and use this equipment.

Second problem is exposure

I had thought that the TTL metering would still work but I seem to get huge overexposure (at least 2 stops) - I had expected to have to play around with exposures but don't really understand why I have this huge overexposure.

Any advice gratefully receivedView attachment 335943
I'm not familiar with anything Canon, but my Leica-R 1:1 setup should be fairly typical. With 50mm bellows extension, 50mm lens focused at infinity, front of lens to subject distance is about 80mm.
 
I'm not familiar with anything Canon, but my Leica-R 1:1 setup should be fairly typical. With 50mm bellows extension, 50mm lens focused at infinity, front of lens to subject distance is about 80mm.
OK thx - I'll try again :) - it's the exposure that really has me puzzled I assumed that the camera would meter ttl when taking the exposure so should be in the right ball park - but as I say it's over exposing by two or 3 stops.
 
It's a few years* since posted my setup using an FD autobellows and an FDn 50mm f/3.5 Macro for the same purpose - I've a photo of my setup if it will help.





Now, with my full frame Sonys (the A7 has been replaced with an A7II since), it's a little tight, but there is still some room for manoeuvre at either end and I don't have any problems achieving 1:1 reproduction.

With a 5D it's possible you might be running into problems because register distance of FD is slightly shorter than that for EF, though.

I'm assuming your FD to EF adapter doesn't contain any optical elements, which they would have to have to achieve infinity focus for regular lenses. I never bothered trying to use any of my extensive collection of FD lenses with my 5D Classic because it the register distance made it a PITA.

One of the examples I referenced in the thread was someone using a 40D, which will have the same register distance as your 5D, but it would naturally be cropped.

View: https://www.flickr.com/photos/hpulley/4408771957/


The same guy seems to suggest trying without the bellows in the system, which is more or less what I had done with some early experiments with Micro 4/3

View: https://www.flickr.com/photos/hpulley/4409539470


I noted those experiments toward the bottom of my 2013 thread, but it was certainly a lot less efficient to use than the A7 setup.

From some of the discussions I've seen around using full frame EF bodies with the FD bellows, it may require a bit more labour to get it to work more reliably


* shocked to see it was very nearly eight years ago
 
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It's a few years* since posted my setup using an FD autobellows and an FDn 50mm f/3.5 Macro for the same purpose - I've a photo of my setup if it will help.


Now, with my full frame Sonys (the A7 has been replaced with an A7II since), it's a little tight, but there is still some room for manoeuvre at either end and I don't have any problems achieving 1:1 reproduction.

With a 5D it's possible you might be running into problems because register distance of FD is slightly shorter than that for EF, though.

I'm assuming your FD to EF adapter doesn't contain any optical elements, which they would have to have to achieve infinity focus for regular lenses. I never bothered trying to use any of my extensive collection of FD lenses with my 5D Classic because it the register distance made it a PITA.

One of the examples I referenced in the thread was someone using a 40D, which will have the same register distance as your 5D, but it would naturally be cropped.

View: https://www.flickr.com/photos/hpulley/4408771957/


The same guy seems to suggest trying without the bellows in the system, which is more or less what I had done with some early experiments with Micro 4/3

View: https://www.flickr.com/photos/hpulley/4409539470


I noted those experiments toward the bottom of my 2013 thread, but it was certainly a lot less efficient to use than the A7 setup.

From some of the discussions I've seen around using full frame EF bodies with the FD bellows, it may require a bit more labour to get it to work more reliably


* shocked to see it was very nearly eight years ago
Thanks for your response - it gives me something to think about. I had hoped to use the setup with bellows and rail etc as it would give me a solid and adjustable platform to use. Apologies if my questions are a bit basic but I had been told that this set up would work and it seems to be almost there. Do you have any thoughts on the exposure issue that I have - I can't really see why its occurring as I thought that metering took place through the lens at the point of shutter release - so whilst I wouldn't expect it to be spot on I had assumed that it would be in the right ballpark. I am also looking at getting an R series Canon which I believe will be easier to use with the FD lenses as they have changed the register distance again with the new mount.
 
Is it possible that the camera's set to spot metering or centre weighted so throwing the overall exposure off?
 
Thanks for your response - it gives me something to think about. I had hoped to use the setup with bellows and rail etc as it would give me a solid and adjustable platform to use. Apologies if my questions are a bit basic but I had been told that this set up would work and it seems to be almost there. Do you have any thoughts on the exposure issue that I have - I can't really see why its occurring as I thought that metering took place through the lens at the point of shutter release - so whilst I wouldn't expect it to be spot on I had assumed that it would be in the right ballpark. I am also looking at getting an R series Canon which I believe will be easier to use with the FD lenses as they have changed the register distance again with the new mount.

Is yours an original 5D?

I recall experiencing significant randomness with AE metering using adapted Olympus OM and Contax C/Y lenses on my 5D Mk 1 for general photography. On occasions it was perfectly fine, on others, it was wildly out.

IIRC I ended up using an external light meter and setting exposures manually. I was never quite sure if it was just me or the [chipped] EF adapters I was using.


Bermondsey riverside, misty by Rob Telford, on Flickr

OM 24mm on Canon 5D

On any of the mirrorless bodies I used with the same adapted lenses, they metered as expected, so I ended up not using them on the 5D.

For the bellows setup, though, in theory* it should be possible to set and forget the exposure in Manual mode once you have figured out the correct Exposure Value by trial and error or otherwise. If you are consistent with your lighting setup, it shouldn't change from photo to photo or even film to film. The only time you should need to change the exposure would be to bracket exposures to pull some hidden detail out of the shadows (or the highlights with negative film).

* and in actual practice IME with my Sonys
 
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Yes I can manually set and I'll probably need to bracket on quite a few anyway thank
 
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