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You've seen the Fader and Bender View Camera kits. You may have also seen the book "Build your own View Camera" by Bert West as well as the other book "Building a Large Format Camera" by Jon Grepstad. Well, I've decided to add to this pool of knowledge with my own book, "Design & Build a View Camera". It covers both a 4X5 and an 8X10 design and comes with both sets of plans.
To give you an idea why I wrote this book, I should start by telling you I've been interested in photography since 1975 (Whew!!! 22 YEARS!!!) and have been working with LF cameras for about 7 of those years. I also program and between the two interests, my expenses pile up fast. So, naturally, when I decided to get into LF photography, I tried to start with the lowest cost equipment I could find. One of the least expensive routes I've found is to build the 4x5 or 8x10 kits offered by Bender Photographic. (Jay Fader also offered a 4x5 kit for a while but I haven't heard much about the Fader kit lately.) So, I started with a Bender 4x5 camera kit.
I enjoyed building and using my Bender, but I felt that it could be improved. I've done some model building and woodworking when I was younger and I had studied drafting in high school, so I got a nice CAD package and started designing my own version of a 4x5 camera. When I finished, I realized that the design could be easily scaled up to either a 5x7 or 8x10 design. I chose to implement an 8x10 design as I haven't seen as much available for the 5x7 format. Also, having a really nice 8x10 negative that I could contact print really appealed to me!
The book discusses several methods for implementing swing, tilt, shift and rise/fall for the front and back standards. It also discusses designing around a single round or square rail, a double rail or even a triple rail. While the main plans implement an on-axis swing/tilt mechanism, the modifications are shown to implement a base swing version. The base swing version is simpler to build but is NOT a yaw-free design, while the on-axis swing/tilt mechanism is yaw-free.
Please pay by check or money order to:
Derek A. Benner
PO Box 2248
Citrus Heights, CA 95611
This is a print-on-demand book. That means that I don't actually print a copy for shipment until I receive your order and clear the payment. So please be patient. It may take 2-4 weeks to process your order. (I'm working on getting a Visa/MC merchant account which will allow me to accept credit card orders. When I do, the payment clearing process will greatly speed up!) I'm working on a LF enlarger design for 4x5 and 8x10 using cold lighting. I hope to have a working set of B&W enlarger plans and the design and usage manual ready by December, 1997. Keep looking back here!
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