Originally Posted by
rdenney
Before making this decision, you might want to consider a more basic decision of what type of camera to consider. But first, you should a bit more carefully define what you will do.
How short will your shortest lens be? Will you ever use roll-film holders? What is the longest lens you intend to use? What do you mean by "macro"? Will you be carrying your camera in a backpack? How far from the car do you intend to go?
Most people use the term "macro" to describe close-up photography, while true macro really starts at 1:1 and gets larger from there. With a large-format camera, macro is very challenging. Large-format lenses, with the exception of a few telephoto designs (and perhaps a few very short modern digital designs intended for smaller digital backs) are approximately centered on their rear nodal points. That means that a 150mm lens will need about 150mm of spacing between the film and the lens board. That 150mm lens will require 300mm of spacing at 1:1. Many prefer to use lenses longer than the film diagonal for macro work, but that just extends the bellows draw out that much more. A 210mm lens (which some still consider "normal" in 4x5) will require more bellows that nearly any field camera when focused at 1:1.
The XPO mentioned above has some nice features along these lines. One is that it accepts Sinar bellows and lens boards, so you can clip in bag bellows to use very short lenses. It is also a quadruple-extension bed, so it provides quite a lot of bellows draw for a field camera that can also go short. With most, it's either one or the other. In return for this flexibility and Sinar interchangeability, you give up a design that folds into itself.
If you work close to the car and don't need a back-packable camera, then consider something like a Sinar F. They are cheap and plentiful on the ground, but they are also solid and well-made workhorse cameras intended for professional use. You can add the XPO later (if you feel the need) and enjoy the interchangeability. But with an F1, you can also buy a cheapie intermediate standard, connect two sets of bellows together, screw an extension onto the monorail, and focus a 300mm lens at 1:1. So, a $350 camera, with perhaps a couple of hundred in extra goodies, can provide the necessary 600mm of bellows draw. With the wide-angle bellows 2, it will easily focus a 47mm lens on a flat board and still provide movements. No field camera is as flexible and modular, and certainly not as cheap.
But monorail cameras are bulkier (not necessarily heavier), and they don't fit in backpacks easily. They also don't look like furniture. That's the trade-off, and the choice you make depends on what you will do with the camera.
Rick "who wouldn't mind adding an XPO to his Sinar F kit, because both is always an option" Denney
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