I am the owner of a used Bender 8x10 format camera bought about 15 years ago. It was built by the original owner from a kit sold by Jay Bender. Its key features were light weight (less than 7 pounds) and low cost.
It came to me with several significant problems: some because it was not assembled well and some from its design. I started a project to “tune” the camera to my liking but life happened. I lost access to my darkroom and so it has been in its case ever since that fitful start.
With the Covid-19 pandemic keeping old timers like me cooped up, I decided to finish the project. I regret there are no “before” photographs. Here are the things I tackled.
By design, the rear standard was bolted solidly to the monorail. There were two sets of holes along the rail and both were compromises. Focusing was done by sliding the front standard back and forth. Holding a magnifier and reaching around for the front standard was impossible with a 16” lens. I’m 6’ tall with long arms.
The monorail was 30” long. The 30” rail meant you could do a 1:1 close up with a 14” lens but this is unnecessary for my work. With shorter focal lengths, the front of the rail was sometimes visible in the photograph for landscape and architecture photography. The long rail also made it difficult to pack.
The locking knobs lacked any sense of progressive friction making minor adjustments difficult.
The Bender bellows on this sample are very good quality. However, they were glued improperly with about a 10 degree counterclockwise twist from front standard to rear. This made it nearly impossible to raise or lower the front standard, such was the force exerted.
The Bender ground glass was very nice but the spring bail was not strong enough to hold a film holder tight to the frame. With a holder inserted, the locks were not strong enough to hold the frame assembly at the chosen angle. The uprights were not glued properly and I feared they would fail at a bad time.
There were no fiducial marks to align the camera when setting up for a photograph. For some photography this is not a great obstacle. It is a show stopper for the way I like to work.
Part 2 will cover actions I took to "tune the camera".
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