Hi everyone,

My name is Radu and I live in Boston, MA. I'm really excited to part of this lively community and learn more about large format.
I was a wildlife photographer for several years (Nikon gear, digital whatever) but as the years went by, I noticed being more drawn to nature photos. Turns out that was just a segue into landscape photography, because as soon as I took my first deliberate landscape photo I felt I found my subject (even though it came out looking terrible). Obviously my wildlife centric gear, with long lenses, crop sensor, fast everything was not helping much. Though I bet it was probably the cammo outfit that was making the landscape nervous not my gear

After logging numerous hours of Youtube and forums documentation, I was ready to go full frame... but that seemed incremental from what I already had...
Around the same time, I found a gentleman on Clist (former art student) who was selling pretty much all the multigrade paper he had, plus a few darkroom knick knacks. It was a looot of paper. A few days later I stumbled upon a Nikon FE2, broken but I fixed it. Finally the engineering degree paid off Since it's Nikon, everything I was using on digital, like lenses and flashes, were working perfectly fine on the film camera. A day or two later, an enlarger fully equipped, ready to go. In a matter of 10 days or so, darkroom related things were basically landing in my hand one way or another and I took it as a sign.

After running a couple of rolls through the FE2, taking my sweet time metering and composing, then printing in my improvised darkroom, lo and behold I found it! Everything just clicked. I knew I wanted landscape photography on film. Since then, I ditched my digital gear and have never looked back. I actually fell in love with film in the dark(room)
My full-frame days were short because a retired gentleman gave me a good deal on a Hasselblad kit, which I adapted for landscape (traded some lenses, ditched items I don't need, got filters, etc.). Medium format is my current setup and even though I love the feel, the sounds, the kick of a MF camera, I keep hearing a distant call of an 8x10.

Recent events proved to me that life's too short to keep saying "one day". So here I am; ready to learn, ready to take on a new chapter in my photography journey. I'm currently looking into a field 8x10 and although I understand the basics, I'm not familiar with brand names, camera architectures, etc. That's one side I would need some help from this great community, since it's quite the investment. Money is obviously a factor but I'm aware it'll be over 3-4 grand, so no surprises here. I was doing some research about Chamonix, Shen Hao and Ebony (not in production anymore). They seem to be well regarded cameras but I'd love your input here. I definitely prefer getting something used in decent condition, just like pretty much all gear I ever had, but I can't seem to find any good resources other than the big auction site. Do any of you know someone looking to sell a field view 8x10?

Thanks for letting me be part of this community and look forward to hearing back from you.

Warm regards,
Radu