Attachment 165517Attachment 165518Attachment 165519Attachment 165521Well 35 x 35 is out of my league to be sure so I'll defer to those who have already chimed in as Dan and others have consistently been excellent sources of information on the technical aspects and capabilities of various lenses. I don't think we are appreciative enough of their expertise and what valuable resources they have become for our community here. I tend to have far fewer post as I usually only contribute to my immediate level of experience. I shoot 20 x 24 Ambrotypes and film negatives for Pt/Pd and have various lenses that fit those needs. The suggestion I have since this is a five year out/retirement project is to start to envision the project through the available syntax of the gear instead of trying to find the gear for the syntax of your vision. So for example for life size portrait headshot you could be using a 355 G-Claron on my 20 x 24 and even get bigger than life size head shots, which of course also reduces your bellows extension necessary for such portraiture. For my portraiture on the 20 x 24 I use a 22 inch 550 Schneider Fine Art Lens, which allows for beautiful portraits all the way from full body to bigger than life size shoulder/head shots. It is also a fantastically sharp semi-wide landscape lens in that format. For a tighter look in landscapes I use 1000 mm Germinar (sp?) that is very sharp. For my wet plate work in that format I use a 30 inch Dallmeyer RR, and a 37 inch Dallmeyer 8D which took me 5 years to find. Since you are having the camera made have inserts made for your wet plate holders that will take smaller plates that fit the various lens capabilities and then fit it to our vision as you traverse the Canadian countryside. If you are shooting film too then have a reducing back made for 20 x 24 then buy Ilford film in their annual run and you can shoot film too. I had both a 20 x 24 back and 16 x 20 back made for my Ebony and I don't regret it all as both get used frequently. You have an incredible vision in front of you don't have it limited by gear. Let the gear be there in all its mulititude to give you choices at each stop.
Here are a few shots with the above mentioned lenses as well as a picture of my daughter holding the 8D
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