Hello there!

I'm looking for a LF camera to be used mainly for portraiture. I'm a fan of ULF, but this time I decided to keep it at 8x10 -- it's a good enough size for what I have in mind and lets me build up from there if I so decide.

A little about myself and what I'm looking for:


- My experience with LF cameras is limited; I never owned one but worked with one in college

- I know 4x5 is probably the most logical entry-point for Large Format, but I feel I'd be wishing for bigger negatives if I chose that format instead. Is it too bad an idea to have an 8x10 as my first LF camera?

- Since I'm going to work mostly with portraits, I like the idea of being able to focus with the sheet already in place, so I looked into Rangefinders as an option -- in your experience, how relevant is this ability to focus until the last moment, assuming you're working with very shallow depth of fields (which is something I definitely would like to do)?

- Weight is not an issue for me. I don't intend to carry the camera around too much

- I'd like to have the ability to use glass plates as well as film

- Movements are of course appreciated, but since I'm working with portraits most of the time, I don't think I'm going to need too much

- Regarding budget, I'd like to keep it under 1000€, but a quick ebay search suggests I might have to spend a bit more. It's not a huge issue, I'll just have to save money for a bit more. I'd rather spend more and get something I really want

- I live in Europe, so buying from the US will probably mean a lot of money spent in shipping and customs. I'd like to avoid it if possible (or is this not that much of an issue at all?)


And I think that's it!
Thanks in advance for all the help and see you all around the forum (I'm new, if you couldn't tell already )