Having just checked it appears I have been a member of this forum since 2012 but never made a post until yesterday.
Furthermore, it seems I have forgotten my manners as my first post was to ask to buy a 8x10 camera not to make my, much delayed, introduction. Sorry.
So, here goes...
My long term interest has only ever been in film photography. Whilst I do occasionally use a digital camera for my work as a mechanical engineer, I just point and shoot and am not really interested in the results other than to record useful factual information about, say, a conveyor at a power station, a steel rolling mill, or escalator on London Underground.
Film, on the other hand, is a completely different experience. It is organic, mechanical, chemical and natural.
My results may not be remarkable, praiseworthy, or worth the time to critique by others but I do like making them. Having just written that down, the word that really sticks with me is 'making' as that is what it seems to be.
To be honest, there has been several years since I sold my Contax 35mm and MPP mk8 4x5; I used the 35mm for convenience and the 4x5 for maximum quality. Having returned to photography a while ago with a Fuji GF670 I now find myself yearning for a LF camera. The GF670 is great for street photography as it is virtually silent, I am told more so than a Leica, and can be folded away to a really slim profile, but I want something that I can get the maximum quality results at the cost of convenience. 4x5 doesn't seem a worthwhile increase in negative size over the 6x7, hence my quest for a 8x10. I am presuming that 8x10 also opens up the possibilities of frame-able sized contact prints and alternative printing processes as the Durst 138S was sold many years ago. I think that only went to 5x7 anyway?
My photographic interests are, well, varied as I do like the thrill of in-yer-face street photography but I also enjoyed spending a few hours on Saturday afternoon waiting for the right light on the moors above Huddersfield.
Well, it seems my introduction was 5 years in the making but i always was a bit shy

...Sweep