Hi All,

First post, just getting into LF (8x10) photography. As a way of learning i'm going to shoot a series in the style of Avedon's In the American West (ie crisp portraits. Some nice bokeh if needed though not soft focus images like Paolo Roveri). I've searched a lot and found that he shot it with a 360mm Symmar-S. I was going to just get one of these on ebay and get shooting but after much research i'm now considering putting my money into a 360mm Tessar instead. My question is therefore, what should i be expecting from each lens? Obviously there are many variables but should i be pulling my hair out or are either going to suits my needs when trying to get crisp portraits. For that matter would any "big 4" 360 get me in the ball park (eg Nikon, Fuji, Shneider, Rodenstock)?