Has anyone built a Bender home made

[Lloyd Lim]

I built mine sometime in 2000 and it got stolen in 2002 in New Zealand...
Jay Bender has been a very good seller, and he answers the email and phone promptly and with good replies.

It is a very lightweight monorail that can be carried in the field (albeit a bit bulky, compared to a real field camera) I would say that the closest competitor would be the Toho, as no other field camera has its range of movements.
Now that I have a Arca Swiss F-line, I can definitely say the following:

Pro:
1. Lightweight and reasonable sturdy (make sure you follow the instructions carefully on the focusing standards!).
2. Cheap and easy to repair and modify (e.g. added my own bag bellows, graflock back, shorter monorail with Arca Swiss plate attached, for less cost than an Arca Swiss bellows!
3. A lot of movements - way beyond most lens image circles, and you can easily make a few different bellows to adapt to any lens (e.g. from 47mm SA XL to 450mm Fuji C).
4. Spare parts/accessories are really cheap (pick it up at Home Depot!).
5. You are not limited by the system - you can really make what you want.

Cons:
1. No way can it be compared to the Arca Swiss for stability/rigidity and ease of focusing...(but you can make your own geared focusing system, if you want). There will always be some play in the movements, as it will never be as rigid as metal.
2. No graflock back by default (but can be added, by doing some machining yourself... (just machine some clips and use the same sliding system as the lens board attachment.
3. A bit expensive nowadays as used cameras can be gotten cheaply (used cc400 < $200 etc).

I would suggest building this only if you really are interested in playing with your camera and adapting it to fit yourself (how else can you get a 3 pound monorail to carry in the field, that can take any lens you throw at it, is easy to repair and adapt for any shooting situation?)

If all you are interested in is to take photos and you are not going to extensively modify your camera, get a used Shen Hao, Tachihara, cc400, speed graphic etc , it will probably cost you less trouble....

[GARY BARTON]

I,M JUST GETING BACK IN TO LF AFTER SOME YEARS ,IN THE PAST USED A CROWN GRAFIC FOR MY FEILD CAMERA,NNOT THE BEST BUT A GOOD STARTING POINT. I JUST PICKED UP A KODAK MASTERVIEW 4X5, 10 FILM BACKS AND A SCHNEIDER SYMMAR 1:5.5 210MM IN A SYNCHRO-COMPUR SHUTTER FOR LESS THEN 175.00 OF THE e- AUCTION . SO IF YOU WANT TO BUILD A CAMERA FOR FUN GO FOR IT, BUT IF YOU ARE DOING IT TO GET INTO LF FOR LESS LOOK TO THE USED MARKET.