Cost of exposure - Start to finish

[John Berry ( Roadkill )]

LF ain't no k-mart sport. It will end up kinda like trying to do fly fishing on the cheap.

[Ed Richards]

It really depends on whether you have any budget discipline, either external - poverty or a tough spouse - or internal. It also depends on how much you want to trade time for for money. You can do it on the cheap and do a good job, Weston did. As WG says, however, it can get you if you tend to like to buy stuff. Why you want to leave digital might say a lot about whether this will be a black hole for money.

[Steve_6250]

Thanks for all of the replies. This is a much friendlier forum than others that I have been to. Usually beginners questions are greeted like a baby's diaper, they need to be taken care of but no one really don't want to.

As a follow up I have read an article about selecting an LF camera and its movements (I hope I am using this word correctly). Basically the article covered what kind of movements are necessary for what style of photography. Should this be a concern for a beginner or should I just grab whatever I can that is good quality and cheap.

Thanks.

[Ron Marshall]

Steve, it depends what you intend to shoot; architecture will need more movements than landscape. For most of my landscape shooting I need a few degrees of front tilt or a centimeter or so of front rise. For architecture you would need back movements also. Whatever you intend to shoot make sure the camera has front tilt. But most will have that.

Monorails will usually have all the possible movements, some field cameras lack most back movements.

Field cameras are more compact than monorails, and usually lighter (the Toho is only 3lb), and have less movements, but some have enough movements for architecture.

Here are a couple of examples from ebay, I'm not recommending either of these, I just offer them as examples, since I haven't read the post thoroughly, or considered the price.

This is a monorail, lots of movements, but a bit heavy and bulky, it is reviewed on this site.

http://cgi.ebay.com/4X5-CALUMET-CAMERA-FILM-HOLDER-ACCESSORIES-BAG-NICE_W0QQitemZ7582438596QQcategoryZ15247QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

This is lightweight field camera, reviewed on the front page of this site.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Osaka-4x5-Field-Camera-IMMACULATE-NO-RESERVE_W0QQitemZ7582153378QQcategoryZ15247QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Contact the forum when you have one in mind. If you are patient, and careful, you can get a good deal on ebay, or at Midwest or KEH or Badger. Good luck