Josiah purchased this 4x5 camera as a kit in about 1978 from Jay Bender, a classmate at SIU. He never built the cherry wood kit and gave it to me in about 1980. It wasn't much more than a box of wooden blocks, cloth, fittings, and instructions. I finished building it in about 1985, taking a long time to do it right. The Bender camera is still in production today as a kit, which is a testimony to Josiah's wise choice.