2026-03-28 NPS Close-up Accessories Set (for Praktica)

In many ways, there are no accessories like old accessories.

Take this NPS Close-up Accessory for example. It comes with a lovely box that has survived literally decades. Its label has two stick-on additions. On the left it says it comes “With tripot”. As we will see, the tubes come with a focusing chunk that has a tripod mount. That could be called a “Tripot” in some language. It could also be a part name, as in many Leitz accessories for the Leica that had short codes made of letters. It could also simply be a misuse or spelling of the word “tripod”. The box doesn’t have a tripod inside it.

One could also wonder if the same box would hold a short extension bellows, as such a device is covered in the instructions.

This Close-up accessory is different to any standard extension tube set I have encountered. There are three tubes and a separate focusing mount. The focusing mount has a “Tripot” mount—an right-angle mount you can attach to a tripod like it is installed on the quick release plate (with level) that wasn’t included. The top of the tripot has a chrome release screw so the camera can be rotated from horizontal to vertical behind the mounted-to-the-tripod tripot.

The three tubes are 20mm, 15mm and 9.5mm.

That 39.5mm (on the left) is on a tube that forms part of the tripot.

In the instructions you find that 39.5mm chunk can be screwed out calibrated from 0 to past 12. I assume these are additional 1mm increments.

Depending on the mount size—there are “short-mount” 105mm and 135mm close-up lenses meant to be used on bellows—this tripot could allow the lens to focus to infinity down to something closer, particularly if you add those extension tubes in.

I managed to unscrew the tripot. It is at the far right. So I assume you could use just the tripot’s extension marked 39.5mm without the tripod mounting block. All the tubes have interior ridges and black finish to help control light bouncing around.

There will be a separate blog posting on the extensive instructions

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