From: donl@glass.esd.sgi.com (donl mathis)
Newsgroups: rec.photo
Subject: Bender 4x5 View Camera Kit report
Date: 9 Nov 92 22:46:18 GMT
Reply-To: donl@glass.esd.sgi.com (donl mathis)
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc., Mountain View, CA, USA


[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.
Newsgroups: rec.photo,misc.forsale,ga.forsale