LF is a very different world today than it once was.
If you're trying to put food on your table, roof over your head, and those dependent on you for support, tolerance for an iffy product become about zero.
I'll used Linhof as an example (since Bob is involved). While they have specific limitations, they ARE a VERY high quality camera designed by folks who know what is expected and demanded from a view camera to produce high quality images. They are also built to a very high standard of excellence and backed by a company committed to serving their customers long term. They are NOT low cost, IMO if you're trying to make a livelihood at this LF stuff, Linhof or similar is a valid choice.
What has happened today with LF, there are a good number of hobbyist folks or folks that want to dabble into LF for a long list of reasons. For this user base a camera like the Intrepid or Bender kit or similar could serve perfectly fine and good for their needs.
Both Linhof & Intrepid serves a market segment and specific market user's needs.
Personally, tolerant for iffy camera and related hardware is about zero. After doing this for decades and spent way to much time and resources "experimenting", that stuff has about zero interest, It is all about making images as direct and with the hardware involved to achieve the goals of an image as transparent as possible. Iffy cameras and all related cannot achieve that expectation of transparency to achieving that image goal. This is not to say it cannot be done with iffy hardware, it is just THAT much more troublesome and hassle fought to get there.
Bernice
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