Quote Originally Posted by Daniel Barter View Post
If I could get on in good condition for around £500 would you say that was reasonable??
Oh yeah, I paid about that (around $750 - so about £500) for mine. I started with a Sinar F2 which I had for about a year. Great camera but bulky and not exactly a walk-around camera (as much as you can have a large format walk-around camera!). After that, I bought a Cambo 4x5 monorail, which I still have although it doesn't get a lot of use these days but it weighs so little for a monorail, I've carried that around all day with me without a problem. After that, I had a Wisner Technical Field Camera - beautiful camera (someone is selling one at the moment on this forum), looks amazing but didn't "fit" me to be honest. I found myself battling with it more than I'd have liked to. It struggled with wide lenses - getting infinity focus on even a 90mm lens was a task and forget movements! But if you're interested in longer lenses, then you wouldn't have the same problem as I had with it.

Finally, I was recommended a Toyo 45AX, which I've had for about 6 months now. I can't see myself shooting with another camera to be honest. It does everything I possibly need - it shoots wide lenses, I can use my 300mm lens on it, it's got enough movements for the kind of shooting I do (landscape, close up, some portrait but mainly "things"). And if I do need more movements for a project, I can always use my Cambo. Anyway, that's my sales pitch for the Toyo. Unless you have specific requirements, like lots of movements for architectural work perhaps, I can't imagine anyone not getting on with it.