From: Geoff Allen DISCLAIMER: The only other 4x5 camera I've used is a Linhof Technikardan, which is an amazingly cool camera, but costs a couple orders of magnitude more than the Bender. I've never used a field camera or a monstrous studio camera. You might need to take such things into consideration as you read this. Also, I have no connection whatsoever with Bender Photographic, other than as a very satisfied customer. As I see it... Executive Summary ----------------- It's a great camera and loads of fun. You don't have to spend loads of money for a view camera if you've got a few weeks of time available. (It took me a year to build mine, but I actually only spent about three weeks of actual effort.) Pros ---- Cheap. Movements limited only by lens coverage. You can very easily reach the limits of most any lens with this camera, since the only physical restriction on tilts and swings is the bellows, and rises and shifts are a couple of inches in all directions. Light. The Bender is half the weight of the Technikardan. This should be an important consideration when I'm trudging high in the Tetons. A three pound camera vs. a six pound camera is no contest when one is climbing a mountain. :^) You build it yourself. Pride of ownership. It's loads of fun to tell people you built a camera and see what reactions you get! Chances are you'll be the first in your neighborhood to do this! Some folks might consider the need to build the camera a con, of course. :^) Attractive. I think my Bender is more attractive than donl's Technikardan, and I've told him so. :^) Cheap. Light. Cons ---- You need to build it. Can also be considered a pro. :^) Friction focusing only. I've had no problems with this, though. Use a loupe and stop down to f/32 or so and you'll be fine. Little brass l-screws are used to hold the lensboard, back, and bellows in place. I replaced them all. On my camera, I hold the lensboard and bellows in place with some plastic window screen retainer clips. Lots nicer. And for the back, I found some catch locks that hold it more securely than I think the l-screws would have. NOTE FROM BENDER PHOTOGRAPHIC: (11/97) The lensboard is now held in place by two nameplates, a flat one at the bottom, and a formed/slotted one at the top that slides out of the way for lensboard removal. This new system is considered to be more elegant by many.... even though the old system actually worked just fine. It was a constant source of question and worry by those who had not yet used it, so we changed it. Movements aren't ``calibrated.'' But if you care about such things, there's nothing preventing you from marking appropriate calibrations on the standard yourself. (There are levels for the back provided with the kit.) Things get really tight when using a 90mm lens. With a 90mm lens, the bag bellows is essential, as the standards are about as close together as they can physically get. With a 135mm lens, I find I still need the bag bellows. At 210mm, I can use the regular bellows. For anything shorter than 90mm, I'm sure you'd need to rig up a recessed lens board. So, if you've been drooling over that 58mm Super Angulon, you'd better drool over another camera to go with it. ;^) NOTE FROM BENDER PHOTOGRAPHIC: (11/97) One should not need the bag bellows with a 135mm lens, but it can certainly be used that way. Most cameras do need a recessed lensboard for focal lengths of less than 90mm... the Bender is no exception, and this is quite normal. I (Jay Bender) use a 75mm lens on a recessed lensboard on my camera. For focal lengths that are very short (58mm talked about above) there is an option that many of our kitbuilders have used.... adding two small extension blocks to the lensboard stage which move it closer to the back of the camera. Although this moves the front tilt movements slightly "off-axis" it allows the use of much shorter lenses (I could use my 75mm lens without a recessed board) and would allow one to drool over that 58mm without having to get a different camera. Usage notes ----------- For using my camera, I leave the monorail on the tripod. This provides the next best thing to a quick release (maybe even better, because you can hold the camera with two hands while putting it on the tripod). When taking a picture, I just haul the camera out of my carrying bag and slide one standard onto the monorail on either side of the tripod mount. For the 90mm, both standards have to go on the same side of the tripod mount, because you can't get them close enough otherwise. I honestly can't remember which way I configure things for the 135mm lens. I think it's the same as the 90mm. Removing the camera from the monorail also has the advantage of making the camera fit into a carrying bag more easily. It's certainly not as compact as a Technikardan, though. I keep both standards all the way down in their rise/fall adjustments for their ``zero'' position. This keeps the camera a little more compact without sacrificing any movements, since front fall can simply be accomplished by back rise. This means one less movement to zero when you set the camera up (well, actually, two movements, I suppose). What else you'd need besides the camera --------------------------------------- Though the Bender is tempting as a low-cost way of getting into large format photography, you should realize that the couple of hundred dollars you'll spend for the camera is the beginning, not the end, of your capital outlay. Besides the camera, you'll need: Film holders -- You'll use a lot less film when shooting 4x5, but I'd still recommend having several film holders around. Maybe 5 as a minimum. How many you want is a trade-off between how often you're willing to reload, how many different kinds of film you want available, and how much you're willing to carry. (Large format film holders hold two sheets of film per holder.) Lens(es) -- Here's where you'll spend the money. I don't know enough about older designs to make any recommendations, if you're looking for used lens deals. In newer models, Schneider, Rodenstock and Nikon are all good. Loupe -- perhaps somewhat optional, but extremely helpful for getting the focus right on. Make sure it's a loupe that works with a ground glass, since the image is a few mm from the end of the loupe, due to the thickness of the glass. A loupe designed for viewing slides won't work, unless you can adjust the focus. A carrying bag for everything. You might try a generic daypack in the $100 range, rather than a $400-500 ``photo'' backpack. I use a generic pack without any problems. Bag Bellows -- you almost certainly want to buy this when you buy the camera kit. Meter -- remember, this is a truly mechanical camera; there's no meter. You'll have to supply your own. Any handheld meter you know how to use will work fine. If you want to get into spot metering, check out Ansel Adams' book, _The_Negative_. Developing -- this could be where the problem lies. Your options include: A custom lab that will develop/print the film for you. A friend with a darkroom and 4x5 enlarger you can borrow. A rental darkroom. Your own darkroom and 4x5 enlarger. Developing the film isn't too big a deal. You can use the Jobo reels and tanks designed for 4x5 film with or without a Jobo processor. Phil Davis also markets his ``BTZS'' developing tubes that I've read fairly good things about. For printing anything, though, you're going to need a 4x5 enlarger (you could contact print as a start). But you could just shoot chrome film for a while to get used to the camera. Summary ------- I wholeheartedly recommend the Bender camera. You'll trade some slick features of something like a Technikardan for a lighter, though more bulky, camera. I really found little practical difference in using the Bender or a Technikardan. The pictures I took with donl's Technikardan and my Bender are of equal quality. Building it is fun (and I have no experience in woodworking, so if I can do it, anyone can) -- just go slowly and methodically and everything will be all right. Appendix A -- Additional info ----------------------------- Here are comments from others that I've collected. I've occasionally added comments enclosed in square brackets -- '[]' -- and signed with my initials, 'gwa'. From: donl@glass.wpd.sgi.com (donl mathis) Subject: Bender View Camera Kits Date: 5 Apr 90 22:59:24 GMT Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc., Mountain View, CA A couple of people sent me email asking for more information about the Bender view camera kit i mentioned, one of them suggesting a general posting might be of interest. I talk too much, so this is rather long; my apologies to those who are not interested. The 4x5 kit is about $150, the 8x10 is about $250. The primary difference, other than size, is that the 4x5 has interchangeable bellows (because you typically need a bag bellows with short lenses in 4x5, but not in 8x10), and more movements on the rear standard (i believe it's built more like the front standard, where the 8x10 has tilt and swing only, with no shift or rise). [The prices are now $190 and $290. The front and rear standards on the 4x5 are basically identical, except the rear standard is a little wider. You have the same movements available on both standards. -- gwa] NOTE FROM BENDER PHOTOGRAPHIC: (11/97) Well, you can see just how old most of these posts are.... prices of everything in the cameras has risen steadily over the years. We have had to increase the price almost every year because of this. I hate to do it, but it is a necessity if one lives in a real world. The 4x5 is currently $229.50, 8x10 $329.50. It's all made of cherry. You receive, essentially, a rather small box full of sticks and other parts (hardware, ground glass, bellows, etc.). Complex wood parts are glued up out of simple rectangular pieces, rather than having been shaped in a more sophisticated way at the factory. This basic principle keeps the production simple (i.e. inexpensive), but means you have to do some fancy gluing and clamping to get it built. I am not a woodworker, though i know the basics. I had no trouble building the kit, except for one (count them, 1) dimension that didn't quite work out quite right on the back of the 8x10 (which is built differently than the 4x5 so is a non-issue there). Something along the lines of "if this is here, and that goes there, then this overhang is not sufficient to glue that thing to." Nothing serious; a little cleverness makes everything fit. [I had no problems with the 4x5, and I know nothing about woodworking! -- gwa] Start with as many C-clamps as you can find. I believe i had 16 -- 8 little ones and 8 big ones. I used little patches of cut up mat board as pads to keep the clamps from marring the wood. If you have lots of clamps, you can let one glued and clamped assembly dry while you're working on the next. [I second the motion on clamps. If you can get some of those clamps which hold a corner, they will be quite useful as well. -- gwa] I used a palm sander to round off all of the corners. I think it makes it look a LOT better than the simple, square-edged version pictured in the ad. I also stained it dark mahogany before varnishing. Finishing, though, is entirely your option. It can be as simple as a little oil. [I left mine square, and stained it a golden oak. Very attractive. I used some spray-on stain which requires no wiping. Very convenient for all those nooks and crannies. -- gwa] Gluing the bellows on the 8x10 was something i approached with fear and trepidation, because it is this big old floppy thing that you can't get a hold of and won't cooperate, and the dimensions of the flap on either end don't really match size of the wooden frame they are supposed to be glued to. I called Bender and we chatted for a bit, during which time he told me it looks harder than it is -- just give it a shot, it will be fine. So i did, using some (non-from-the-kit) angle and straight brackets to help hold things together as i worked my way around. It was a little messy, with epoxy oozing out here and there, but otherwise not bad. [The 4x5 bellows is no big deal. -- gwa] The design is such that certain parts (lens board, removeable back, etc.) are held on by these little brass screw L-pins. I thought they looked a little weak; i ended up making changes such that i didn't need them. The given lens board, which is 6x6 i believe, is a piece of black acrylic sheet. Additional boards are available (or make your own), and you use one per lens, as usual with view cameras. The design says that you twist the L pins to catch the edges and hold everything NOTE FROM BENDER PHOTOGRAPHIC: (11/97) As noted earlier, the method of holding the lensboard in place has changed from the system talked about here. in place. I made a lens board from a heavier sheet of black acrylic and a few additional pieces, using a Bridgeport mill, that serves only to accept my Linhof Technikarden lens boards, which are more like 4x4, thus permitting me to swap lenses between cameras when appropriate. The rear film holder frame was also designed to be held on with the L-pins. It must be removable so that you can orient the film vertically or horizontally as appropriate. Rather than use the pins, i drilled a hole in each corner of it, and put studs in the back of the camera that poke through the holes, with a little knob on each one. I used 1/4" studs, because all of the other studs in the camera are 1/4", and they were MUCH too large and the holes ended up being rather crude. If i were to do it again, i would use rather small screw-in studs to hold the back on. They must be carefully placed so that the back fits both vertically and horizontally over the same studs, i.e. they must be really square. [Some catch locks can do the job of holding the back in place also. Poke around in the fastener section of your favorite hardware store and see what they've got that looks good. -- gwa] There were other wire pins used as pivots here and there; i replaced them with heavier brass rod, because i like to over-engineer everything. They suggest gluing the various clamping studs into their respective knobs, and screwing them into the T-nuts embedded in the parts of the camera. I decided i would rather strip the threads in the knob than in the T-nuts, because the knob can be replaced, but the T-nut can't. You can't always glue the studs into the T-nuts because then you can't get the camera apart if you ever need to, because of the way it is assembled. Usually, a healthy twist on the stud will drive it home in the T-nut where it runs into the backing piece of wood, and it will stay there as you loosen and tighten the knob. [I didn't glue any of mine, and it seems to have made no difference. --gwa] The camera focuses by loosening a clamp and sliding the front standard back and forth on the rail, which is a 1x1 square aluminum tube. With the long lenses used on an 8x10, i found it a bit difficult to reach when standing behind the camera and looking at the ground glass. The rear standard of the 8x10 has a pivot in the middle (at the base), and studs with knobs running in arced slots at the left and right to clamp it in place as you do your swings. I left out the pivot, and enlarged the slots a bit so the whole rear standard could actually be moved forward and backward an inch or so, as well as swinging as necessary. This gives me an inch or so of focusing range at the rear standard, right there in front of me, so i don't have to reach out around to the front of the camera when tuning the focus. It gets a bit difficult to reach all the way up there when using a 20" lens! Standing behind the camera, you just can't reach. I'm not sure how the 4x5 is set up; hopefully, you can slide the rear standard and focus there. [Yep. Both standards slide easily. I generally rough-focus by moving the front and fine-focus by moving the back. -- gwa] I don't think there were any other major points; all in all it was pretty fun to build, and is actually quite easy to use. I picked up an old Turner-Reich triple convertible, 300-500-600mm focal lengths, f/7, in an old slow shutter that i had to recalibrate (1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/12, and 1/30 second, with the all-important B and T settings!). The front and rear parts of the lens unscrew; using both of them gives you a 12" (300mm) lens, which is equivalent to 150mm in 4x5, and is sort of normal, but actually slightly wide. Using one or the other have alone, behind the shutter, gives you 500 or 600mm focal length, with significantly reduced image quality, which means you'd better stop way down if you expect a decent image. Actually not a terrific lens, but it was sort of cheap, which is the general idea. Hindsight says i should have gotten a better 300mm lens and forgotten about this convertible stuff. For 4x5, you probably want to start with a 210, maybe a 150. There are probably lots of cheap 150's out there, so for not TOO terribly much money, you can get started in 4x5. Then if you are clever, you can turn it into an enlarger by finding a way to fasten a cold-light source on the back, behind or instead of the ground glass, with some sort of negative carrier. I think Bender might be working on something like that; ask them. I made several phone calls, and the same guy always answered the phone, who i suspect might be Mr. Bender himself, and he was always nice and friendly and sort of got to know who i was, so that by the time i called him from Port Angeles, Washington, in the middle of my trip, moaning about breaking the ground glass and needing another one, he sort of knew who i was. I made a cover for the ground glass out of acrylic sheet. It fastens quickly over the back of the camera, and is spaced out from the glass about 1/2". Highly recommended. -- - donl mathis at Silicon Graphics Computer Systems, Mountain View, CA donl@sgi.com ---------- From: donl@glass.wpd.sgi.com (donl mathis) Subject: Re: Bender View Camera Kits Date: 10 Apr 90 23:10:10 GMT Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc., Mountain View, CA In article <5360328@hplsla.hp.com>, andyc@hplsla.HP.COM (Andy Cassino) writes: > Thanks for the very informative posting, Don. You've piqued my interest. > I'm wondering about some of the statistics for these cameras. Like, max > bellows draw, weight, and how compact are they when closed up. Would you > consider (gasp) backpacking the 8x10? [I would take mine! Of course, it's only 4x5. :^) -- gwa] I have no doubt that it could be made to fit in a back pack; you will need to fashion a cover for the ground glass. If you remove the monorail (which can be accomplished by loosening a couple of knobs and pulling it out), the bellows can be compressed all the way down, and everything sort of fits together pretty well. I would consider it, yes, though i can't say for sure how it would work out! I've been carrying it around in a canvas bag. [A very cumbersome-looking canvas bag, I might add. As donl has it set up now, he wouldn't want to take it more than a few feet from the car. :^) -- gwa] The overall package is smaller than my 4x5 outfit; i have four 8x10 holders, and only one lens, so there isn't much else to carry. You tend to run lean on holders, because they're (gasp) $40 each, new. Get used ones. Don't buy very many. Don't make exposures you aren't sure are going to be printable. Etc. etc. etc. It's a time-and-effort versus money tradeoff to load film holders a little more often! The 4x5 kit: $150, 3 lbs., 10x10x4 (folded) [Now $189.50, as noted above. -- gwa] [And now, many years later, $229.50 -- Bender Photographic] rise and fall at both ends: 2 3/4" [Or, as I use it, rise at both ends: 5 1/2" -- gwa] tilts and swings at both ends: 45 degrees [The stats lie. Physically, both of these movements are limited only by the bellows. Without the bellows you can swing them all the way around. I think that's more than 45 degrees. :^) The only real limitation on your movements with this camera is the coverage of the lens, and that's what really matters anyway. -- gwa] front shift 3", rear 4". extension: 3" minimum, 22" maximum. [Here's where you see the problem with short lenses. 90mm is only 3.5 inches. You're just about as short as you can get when using a 90. -- gwa] [This is also typical of most 4x5 cameras. -- Bender Photographic] interchangeable bellows; optional bag bellows. Interchangeable lens board. Back rotates to vertical or horizontal. Cherry wood with little bits of hardware here and there. All movements, including focusing, are friction locks via knobs on 1/4-20 studs. The rail is a simple 1x1 square aluminum tube; appropriate lengths are easy to make. The 8x10 kit: $250, 6 lbs., sort of big but folds up reasonably well. [Now $289.50. -- gwa] [Again, many years later, the 8x10 is $329.50 -- Bender Photographic] rise and fall at front: 2 3/4", none at the rear. front swings and tilts: 45 degrees rear swing 12 degrees, tilt 18 degrees. front shift 4", none at rear. Non-interchangeable bellows (not necessary in 8x10). Other features the same as as the 4x5. All swing and tilt angles are plus-or-minus. Bender is in Albuquerque, (505) 293-1118. Ask them for a brochure. Nice folks. [They're now in Leavenworth, Washington. You can reach them at: Bender Photographic 19691 Highway 209 Leavenworth, WA 98826 (509) 763-2626 (800) 776-3199 (orders only) -- gwa] From: bjs@ruts.ccc.amdahl.com (Barry Sherman) Subject: Re: Bender View Camera Kits... Date: 12 Jul 91 20:19:11 GMT Organization: Amdahl Corporation, Sunnyvale CA >Question: > >How rigid are they? [Description of windy visit to Point Lobos] >He was very upset by the wind. He showed me how the camera was >flopping in the wind. It was clearly unusable. I had no problem with >my rigid bodied 35mm. He said that he doubted that he would have had a >problem were he using his Toya view camera. But the floppiness of the >field camera was very disconcerting. Well, I haven't had it out in any major winds (though we get them here, that's for sure), but I don't think the camera would be flopping in the wind. Of course, if there's any vegetation in the scene, you don't want to be using large format anyway! The camera does seem to ``give'' a little when I insert a film holder, but it stays in focus, so it's obviously not slipping any. A bigger hazard in a heavy wind might be that the camera is so light, yet so big. The wind may try to carry it off. I don't know if that would become a problem or not. >I'm hoping to start with large format in the next year or so and >am considering a Bender kit as a starter. [Barry has since caved in to the temptation of that 20 square-inch piece of film, as you may know. He started with another camera, and has since bought a Bender, for the weight savings. Welcome to the club, Barry! --gwa] >But somehow the >friction locks on the Benders just don't look as if they would >produce a really rigid assembly. What does experience show? I'd say it locks up just fine. The friction locks, you probably know, are just screws. I tighten them up pretty snugly and everything holds together just fine. In fact, when playing with tilts (which are held by two screws) I usually just tighten one and leave the other loose. This allows me to use one hand to adjust the tilt and one to man the lock. Tightening down one side seems to hold it pretty well. Of course, once I decide everything is how I want it, I lock the other one as well. Then check the focus again, just to be sure. I haven't had any problems yet. Another thing I wondered about the friction locks was focusing. I wondered how close I'd be able to get focusing without a geared focusing movement. The answer is, ``Quite well, thank you.'' I do my rough focus with the front standard and fine focus with the rear standard, and am rather impressed with how easy it is to move the standard the tiny little bit required to get the focus right where you want it. I'd definitely recommend a little extra care when building the monorail riders, which are the first parts in the instruction book. There's a bit of extra wood in them, which you sand away. If you don't sand enough, they'll be loose; if you sand too much, they'll be tight. Either way, focusing will be more difficult. NOTE FROM BENDER PHOTOGRAPHIC: (11/97) If built according to the instruction booklet (there _are_ those that go their own way) the monorail riders should slide very smoothly. The key is to build them as described in the instructions. Every time I've seen a problem I discover, after quizzing the builder, that they devised their own method of constructing them. -- jhb From: donl@glass.esd.sgi.com (donl mathis) Subject: Bender 4x5 View Camera Kit report Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc., Mountain View, CA, USA Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1992 22:46:18 GMT [I'm posting this for Steve. -- donl] ----- For the past two months, I've been building a Bender 4x5 camera. Given the interest in 4x5, and specifically Bender cameras, evidenced by recent rec.photo traffic, I decided to write about my kit-building experiences. donl@sgi.com has graciously offered to post these articles for me; I don't have posting ability to this group anymore (and only limited access to read it). Send comments DIRECTLY TO ME at the Email address (way) below. PART 1 (starts with lots of drivel about me, skip forward if you're bored): My background: My career is as a software engineer, but I've been involved professionally in photography for about eight years. My forte is atypical portraits, more intense than typical "glamour/fashion" work, but along those lines (I tend toward saturated colors and hard lighting, with unusual posing/props.) I've done some product shots, some "event" coverage, and have made one magazine cover. Most of my work has been done in small/medium format. I print my own B/W and color, and process my own B/W film. It's more cost-effective for me to run roll film through a local minilab. Why 4x5? As indicated above, I don't do this full-time. The professional aspect is really intended to finance my equipment needs for personal photography. Of course, I still have to pay taxes on it :-(. My personal interest is "fine art" photography, specifically landscapes, macro flowers, and "set" pieces. 4x5 or larger is the preferred format for this type of work. Why a Bender kit? It's cheap. No, actually, that's just part of it. I enjoy building things, and I wanted a camera I could backpack with, without being overly concerned about knocking it around. At $200.00, the Bender fits the bill. I dropped the serious bucks on a spotmeter and a Nikkor lense. When you couple that with film holders, large format darkroom gear (used), and assorted bits, minimizing costs becomes a consideration. Who knows, maybe I'll hate large format :-). Bender kits have gotten mostly good reviews, both on the net and in the photo media. The Kit: The kit is composed of an unmounted bellows, assorted hardware, a ground glass, and, as donl accurately describes it: "a rather small box full of sticks" (nicely machined sticks). Features: The Bender is basically a wooden monorail camera. It has full tilts and swings, and substantial rise/fall and lateral shifts. Your lense coverage is probably the limiting factor here. All movements and focus are friction lock. There are no scales on any of the movements, but you could add them if you really care. The back holder has two small leveling vials; front/ back, and left/right. All wooden parts are unfinished cherry. You finish the camera however you like. The removeable parts (lensboard, back, bellows frames) are held on with moveable "L" screws. Some people (including me) consider this a mis-feature... however, Jay Bender correctly points out that they DO work, and they keep the kit cost down. Most of us complainers :-) changed these to something else, which is possible with a kit. Recent changes in the kit: Bender does, on occasion, upgrade the kit based on owner feedback. The following improvements were made as of August 15, 1992. (Newer manuals should be current now; I got an old manual and a Errata/Changes sheet). Note: most of this is meaningless if you haven't already built the kit; I'm describing it for the benefit of owners of previous renditions... 1) The groundglass holder is now attached to the back differently. The spring wires now mount into the back at the bottom at a single point each. Looking from the back, the wires run vertically, with inward-turning right angles at the MIDDLE of the groundglass holder, which fit into a small block attached to the groundglass holder. The wires extend down to the bottom piece of the back, and turn a right angle INTO the back (along your line of sight). About a half-inch above this turn, a small notched block is screwed into the side piece of the back to hold the wire down and provide the "springy"-ness. (This is as opposed to the older style which mounted to the back in the center sides, and hooked to four L-screws mounted horizontally into the groundglass holder). 2) Most (all?) glued-together rectangles now have screws also at the joints. 3) The groundglass holder now has a wider part 16 on the side where the film holder is inserted. This is done to allow you to file the underside to a slope, to act as a combination handle and guide for film holder insertion. 4) (I'm not sure this is new) Washers are now supplied to fit between the rise/fall locks and the frames, and between the frames and back holder/lensboard holder (ie - between all sliding parts except the frames and monorail sliders). What you need to build it: As several previous posts have mentioned: LOTS of clamps. I bought four twelve-inch bar clamps, and four three-inch C-clamps. If you're really gung-ho, get more than this. Each major assembly typically requires four clamps to hold it together. I found that each major assembly took about all the time I had or wanted to spare on any given evening. In addition, you need multiple sheets of sandpaper in various grades (I used 100, 150, and 220 grit). A one-quarter-inch wood file is useful in a few instances. The kit is assembled with brass screws and carpenter's glue (the yellow stuff). The bellows is mounted to the bellows frames with contact cement. Contact cement is applied to the joining surfaces, then allowed to dry (mostly). The two parts can then be loosely positioned without sticking together (much), then pressed together for a secure fit. C-clamps aren't necessarily the best choice here, because they aren't designed to clamp a narrow thing while it's lying on a flat surface (which seems to be the majority of the kit building). The clamps tend to want to shear off of the part being held, because the pressure isn't centered in the jaws. An easy solution to this is to cut a board slightly narrower than the assembly you wish to clamp, put the board on the table, lay the assembly on that so that the to-be-clamped edges slightly overhang, then clamp the overhanging edges. Someone (geoff?) mentioned using corner- clamps. In my experience, corner-clamps are designed to clamp from within the frame being glued. The majority of the kit frames don't have sufficient interior clearance for the clamps to fit. Well, that's enough for now (too much?). I'll describe my luck building the sub-assemblies in future posts. Let me know if I'm giving too much or not enough information. -- Steve Holzworth sch@unx.sas.com x6872 SAS Institute - Open Systems R & D Cary, N.C. Subject: Re: Bender 4x5 View Camera Kit report From: mandayrv@ucunix.san.uc.edu (Prince of Wales) Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 17:39:14 GMT Organization: University of Cincinnati Here are my opinions about the bender kit. I did mail these to people who requested it. But since this thread appeared I felt it would be appropriate here too. Most of the details about the kit have been mentioned by steve (through donl's posting), so I am ignoring those aspects of the kit building. I would however like to mention here that till about a week back I was not fully aware of the use of the spring loaded back, not having used any other large format camera. My procedure for loading a film holder on the back was to remove the ground glass holder from the spring, lay it down on the ground or the camera bag, mount the film holder, take the shot, remove the film holder and reinsert the ground glass holder. It was very recently that as I was going through the zone VI catalog that I saw a photograph of their view camera with the caption "Easy swing out bailing arm for the ground glass". That was when the THING struck me. I have, all this time, been expending unnecessary effort on inserting the film holder. I have now started loading the film holder the way it should have been done in the first place. This has ofcourse led to an improvement in the time to shoot (see comments below) by about 5 to 10 percent. Experiences about the large format per se: 1) I love the image resolution and tonal/color gradation available. 2) I hate (to some extent) the time it takes to take a shot and the weight of the equipment that I have to lug around if I am planning on shooting anywhere a bit farther from my car. (In my case, I do not own a car so all the travelling is by bus and walk. I wish I could save enough money to buy a used car -:). Other things that irk me (they are what one terms occupational hazards) are the fact that since I do not have a changing bag with me at present, I have to do all the film loading/unloading at night. In other words, I have to plan every shoot at least one day in advance. In the next few months I plan on buying a changing room from Calumet. Accessories that I feel one should have for doing large format photography: 1) A magnifying glass/slide viewer. I use my 8x agfa slide viewer to focus the image on the ground glass. I can somehow manage because I have 20/20 vision, but if your eyesight is not so good, I would recommend one of the slightly more expensive ones such as the CALUMET viewer that sells for about $40. 2) A spot meter. You lose the fun in working with large format if you are not able to analyze an image before taking a photograph of it. This is not a big problem with roll film since one can afford to bracket. 3) I have been using a jacket as a focussing cloth. But I would still prefer to have a regular cloth. 4) A spirit level of some sort if you intend doing a lot of architectural shots. The bender kit comes with two spirit levels that you glue to the rear standards. Besides, my tripod head also has two spirit levels. 5) Other odds and ends such as lens cleaner/dust remover/brush (these are a must for large format). The brush can also be used for cleaning the backs before inserting them. The tools/consumables which IMHO one MUST have to build the Bender 4x5 kit: 1) A Drill - electrical or hand powered. The drill bits needed are 3/32", 1/8" (or 7/64). *** I purchased an electric drill for two dollars at a local yard sale. ** [A drill press is best if you have or can buy/borrow one. --gwa] [A drill press should not be needed, a hand drill is fine IMHO -- Jay Bender] 2) A couple of screw drivers with 3mm and 5mm blades. 3) Two grades of sandpaper: 90 and 200. 4) Clamps: a) Greater than 8 inches - at least one. b) Greater than 6 inches - at least two. ( One of the above can double up for both categories) c) 2 inch clamps -- at least 6. (very time consuming, but could be done with only 2) d) A corner clamp. 5) Scrap wood to place between the clamps and the wood surface. [Cardboard and mat board work as well. --gwa] 6) The smallest possible container of wood glue. 7) Contact cement that hardens to the touch in a few minutes and sets in about an hour or two. 8) A reasonably flat piece of material (wood or any other metal). [I used an old piece of glass. --gwa] 9) A reasonably accurate 90 degree T-square. 9) A hammer to fix in the T-screws for the various adjustable movements. Tools/accessories which IMO one could use to ease the working conditions but are not critical: 1) A drum/belt sander or a sanding drum for the drill. 2) A set of good wood working chisels or wood carving knives. (these, I felt were the single most useful junk tools that I had collected over the last few years.) 3) Wood working stain and brushes for finishing/polishing the wood. BE CAREFUL ABOUT THE FOLLOWING WHILE ASSEMBLING THE KIT. a) The single most important thing IMHO is the ground glass placement. Be extremely careful about the dimensions that the kit mentions. (The kit is very very accurate as far as the positioning of the glass goes. How close you get to it is very much dependent on how patient you are in measuring distances of about 1/32 of an inch) b) Read the assembly for the back holder at least 3 or 4 times, do a mock set up without actually gluing the pieces together. Keep in mind the following : 1) The hinge (or pivot )for the back should be towards the lens board and not the other way (the instruction manual is a bit fuzzy about this). Also, the UNEVEN ledges on the inside of the back holder should be away from the lens, i.e. should be facing back. [I would recommend pre-fitting ALL of the parts, not just the back holder. Like I said early on in all of this, go slow and careful and everything will be all right. --gwa] c) Be careful with the cutting instructions for the bag bellows. Take a couple of minutes extra in cutting. I would recommend cutting a little less than is mentioned in the manual and then adjusting as and when necessary. THERE ARE SOME MORE HINTS WHICH I WOULD RATHER TELL YOU ONCE YOU BUY THE KIT. YOU CAN SEND ME EMAIL OR CALL ME AT (513)-281-9870. My experiences with the Bender kit: HITS : 1) Extremely light weight to carry. AM very pleased with this feature. 2) Is very generous in terms of movements. 3) Has interchangeable bellows (though I have never used the bag bellows). MISSES: 1) No geared focussing (But I do not miss them so much). 2) Am not very sure about being able to use lenses shorter than 90mm. 3) The standards have some play, but since it is wood I have realized that they spring back to normal once external pressure is removed. You may have to get used to this. ** Initially you may find that once you focus the image and then tighten all the knobs, the image has gone out of focus. You will then have to readjust every thing again. After a few attempts you will get used to allowing for such "plays" in the focussing mechanisms. ** NOTE FROM BENDER PHOTOGRAPHIC: (11/97) I do not understand the above comment. There should be no reason whatever for the camera to just mysteriously go out of focus. Once you have tightened the knobs on the movements they do not move. If anything moves while, say, inserting the film holder... then there is a problem that must be identified and corrected. A possible culprit might be that one of the studs was not screwed all the way into it's knob and, therefore, protrudes too far... causing it to "bottom out" before sufficiently tightening the movement. We wish to assure the reader of this review that Bender cameras do not mysteriously drift out of focus. If something moved, there is a problem, and it is correctable. There are no "plays" in the focusing mechanism. 4) May not be possible to rent lenses for this camera since the lensboard is not a commonly used size. I will have to look into this sometime. NOTE FROM BENDER PHOTOGRAPHIC: (11/97) The Bender 4x5 uses a standard 4"x4" lensboard. This was, by far, the most common lensboard size in 1979 when the camera was designed. Desinger Jay Bender was quite consious of this andpurposely made the lensboard the standard 4x4 size. In recent years a number of other cameras have been introduced. Many have chosen to use an odd, proprietary sized lensboard so that, if you buy that camera you must also buy that mfrs. lensboard (and for no small $ amount, usually). Many cameras still use the 4x4 lensboard and Technica lensboards are close enough to fit on cameras that take 4x4. All the old Calumets and Speed Graphics used 4x4 boards and it is still one of the most common sizes. Perhaps the writer of the above has now discovered this, as well. 4) Some of the joints that are glued do not look/feel strong mechanically. I had to reinforce some of them. NOTE FROM BENDER PHOTOGRAPHIC: (11/97) If I had Arnold S. grab and twist some of the components of the camera they would break somewhere in the wood and _not_ at any of the joints. All joints are glued together, followed by a solid brass screw, and there is no reason to think they will not hold up. Adding brass corner pieces will only add weight and expense to the camera (some people think they look nice, but there is _no_ reason to add these things because the camera is not strong enough). The writer felt he had to reinforce some joints. In actual fact, he did not have to do this. I use plastic window screen retainers for holding the lens board in place -- (an excellent piece of advice from GEOFF, geoff@pmafire.inel.gov . You may want to contact him about some more insights about the kit) -- I have two on the top and two on the bottom of the lensboard holder, besides the two L screws that Mr. Bender has supplied. This has given me a lot of confidence in not worrying about my $500 lens falling down when the front is tilted forward. [Note: the lensboard hold down system has changed as noted earlier -- Bender] 5) Though I have not had it, light leak could be a problem if the workmanship is not good. This is not meant to discourage anyone from trying out the kit, just that you should take that tiny little extra care when working on the light trapping edges such as the inside of the ground glass/film-holder holder. [We do not regularly get call from people with light leaks. The few who have called with this problem had not yet painted thier light traps flat black. -- Bender] It took me about a week of intensive working (with the limited amount of time that a PhD candidate has) to assemble the kit and test out the focus. Plan on spending additional time if you do not do your own darkroom processing since you may take three or four days extra if your ground glass is not at the correct distance from the lens board. The kit has more information about this aspect. -- ramanand@pumpkin.ece.uc.edu Whew! If you read all of this, I know a few things about you: You have the determination needed to build the Bender kit. You have the intelligence needed to build the Bender kit. You are obviously interested enough in this to have read a lot of comments from a lot of people. If you decide to go for it, remember: relax, and take thinks slow and easy. You'll do just fine. Happy shooting! Geoff Allen -- Geoff Allen : WSU EECS Dept. sysadmin support guy Pullman, Washington: home of WSU and the National Lentil Festival From Barry Sherman (bjs@oes.amdahl.com) I'm of very mixed minds regarding the Bender kit. It's definitely cheap and definitely light. Both good things! But I think that there are some very serious down-sides. Not too long ago the Tachihara cost about $450 while it cost about $250 all told to build the Bender kit and I'd have recommended buying the Tachihara unless one absolutely required longer bellows extension than it can provide or simply couldn't scrape up the extra $200. Nowadays the Tachihara is up to something like $600 or $650 and $400 is a bigger jump in the price so I'd be a little more hesitant about recommending it over the Bender. So. What I like about the Bender: * It's light. * It's cheap. * It's not bad to build. I have a lot of woodworking experience and that helped, but I've no doubt that someone with none could build one. They'd have to think about things a little more, but it's doable. I think that I spent around 30 hours building mine. * You can have unlimited bellows extension. The "standard" is something like 16 inches but the bellows will allow about 22 inches and you can buy a longer monorail for just a very few dollars as it's just a piece of square aluminum extrusion. It's easy to cut one off shorter, also, to suit your needs. If you wanted *really* long bellows extension, Jay Bender would be happy to supply a really long bellows and monorail and there you have it. Probably cost less than $100, compared to the $150 for an extension monorail plus $500 for an extension bellows that I'd have to spend for my Arca Swiss. * Accessories are cheap. The kit for the bag bellows cost around $30. I spent $500 buying a leather wide-angle (not a bag) for my Arca Swiss. It works wonderfully, never folding itself into the image area like the Bender one does. [What? Perhaps this bag bellows was incorrectly assembled or mounted. There should be no reason for the bag bellows to fold itself into the image area. One could force it there by poking it inward with his finger, but why would someone do this? Lots of folks are out there using the bag bellows just fine.... if it must be impervious to being poked into the image area' with one's finger, then I stand corrected... it's no good :).--Jay Bender] Buta savings of $470 is not to be sneered at. (Arca Swiss also makes a synthetic wide angle bellows for 1/2 that price but I couldn't locate one when I got the camera and, at that time, there was no U.S. distributor for them so I took what I could get. Now that I've absorbed the shock of the price I really love the bellows.) When I found that I was using more movements with my 210mm lens than the standard bellows could accomodate, Jay Bender made a special bag bellows kit for an enormous one that would accomodate extreme movements and charged $35 for it. What I don't like about it: * Some of the parts are less robust than I'd prefer. There are three "monorail riders". Two attach the front and rear standards while the third has the screw hole for attaching to a tripod and attaches the monorail to the tripod head. I think that this one piece is grossly too weak. I accidentally left the fore-and-aft lock on the pan head too loose and the head/camera rotated forward until it stopped abruptly at the end of its travel. The piece of wood shattered, depositing the rest of the camera on the ground 6 inches away from a mountain river in full spring flood. A friend with a machine shop fabricated repl U.S. distributor for them so I took what I could get. Now that I've absorbed the shock of the price I really love the bellows.) When I found that I was using more movements with my 210mm lens than the standard bellows could accomodate, Jay Bender made a special bag bellows kit for an enormous one that would accomodate extreme movements and charged $35 for it. What I don't like about it: * Some of the parts are less robust than I'd prefer. There are three "monorail riders". Two attach the front and rear standards while the third has the screw hole for attaching to a tripod and attaches the monorail to the tripod head. I think that this one piece is grossly too weak. I accidentally left the fore-and-aft lock on the pan head too loose and the head/camera rotated forward until it stopped abruptly at the end of its travel. The piece of wood shattered, depositing the rest of the camera on the ground 6 inches away from a mountain river in full spring flood. A friend with a machine shop fabricated replacement monorail riders from Delrin, a space-age plastic that's pretty well indestructable. But at normal machine shop rates of $50 per hour, it would have cost me several hundred dollars for the job had I not had friends do it free. In all honesty, though, I have to say that I'm the only person who I've heard of having this trouble. I also found that if I inserted a heavy Polaroid 545 holder, the rear standard kind of sagged under the weight. I had to reinforce part of it to eliminate the sagging. [There is no "sagging" that we have witnessed when using a Polaroid back. -- Jay Bender] * The monorail riders, if fitted so as to be loose enough to slide back and forth for focusing, have a tendency to rotate just a little when you lock them in place after focusing. You turn a clamping knob and the torsion of turning it makes the rider rotate just a little in a fore-and aft direction wrt the monorail and around the clamping bolt. This is irritating but not terrible as: 1. Usually you're focusing partway into the scene instead of on one specific object so a little slop isn't the end of the world. 2. You get used to it and learn to compensate when focusing so that it rotates into exactly the right spot when you clamp it. 3. With practice you can minimize the movement anyway. Not a big thing, but it's irritating. [These monorail riders were not built correctly. There should be no "rotation" as described and this is not typical of Bender cameras in use today. This writers problem is solvable and I would not recommend putting up with monorail riders that still wiggle when locked. -- Jay Bender] * There's one lock knob for both shift and swing movements. Not a big deal for most outdoor landscape photographers. But if you're using both shift and swing, then it can be irritating. First you set the back to be parallel to the facade of the building that you're photographing. Now you swing the front to be parallel to the back. But swinging the front changes where the camera lens is pointing so you need to shift one of the standards a little to re-frame the scene. But when you loosen the knob to do the shift you lose the shift that you just painstakingly set using the loupe on the ground glass. The solution is to only set the front swing roughly at first, not bothering with the loupe. Then set the shift to get proper framing. Then use the loupe to fine-tune the swing. Not a big thing, but it's irritating. * I've had occasional troubles with light leaks developing around the perimeter of the bellows. Care must be taken when changing bellows to ensure that the little 'L' screws that hold the bellows in place are clamping firmly. So. I think that the Bender is a fully usable camera and I've taken some of my very best, and best sellling, photos with it. But I do prefer the convenience of a real store-boughten camera. I've kept it and take it on trips to carry for longer walks, but it has to be a fairly lengthy or strenuous hike before I'll abandon the convenience of the Arca Swiss. Barry Sherman