Jonathan,

It's true that Ottawa camera dealers are not exactly focused on large format. The professional market has evaporated. For example, Lee Valley Tools, once a significant local user of large format for product photograhy, now uses digital cameras to produce its catalogues. The amateur market seems to be quite small, although I've heard that there is some sort of large format club. While you're correct that Ottawa dealers don't carry large format cameras on the floor, they can get them. For example, Amplis Photo (www.amplis.com) represents Arca-Swiss in Canada and does stock their cameras.