Help me choose 4x5 camera to buy in 2022

[Robert Opheim]

It all depends on what you want to take images of - and how you are taking those images. I would look for a camera that handles the lenses that you want to use - (they generally run from 47mm to 450mm or 600mm for 4x5) Do you need a bag bellows for wide angle lenses (some cameras have them some don't). If using a long lens do you have a long enough bellows on the camera? Does weight and size matter? does it fold up well? how far are you going carry the camera? it is a systems camera - are there added accessories that you might want to use now or in the future? Is the camera able to be hand-held (as maltfalc says above). It does come down to what you are taking photographs of, on or off the tripod and how much you want to carry and its weight. I have very heavy 8x10 equipment - it stays within a few hundred yards of the car. My 4x5 equipment is in a pack-sack and can travel with me further. My 4x5 camera is always on a tripod. There are many very fine 4x5 cameras made, new and used. Only you can select what fits your needs. You need to handle them to see how you work with them - and what feels right to you. They are all different tools.

[hiroh]

Guys, I watched couple videos about Lihof and read about the history and I pretty much already fell in love with the company and their cameras, I just need to research a bit and see what model suits me the best. Thank you all for your helpful advices. I hope I'll become an active member of this forum very soon!

Oh, btw, is there any particular place where should I look for Linhof cameras? Except eBay and Craigslist, which I avoid for anything valuable. I tried KEH, but they don't have any Linhof cameras on stock.

[Willie]

"One can never own too many Deardorffs", Tillman Crane

[Two23]

After owning several different brands, I settled on a Chamonix and haven't felt any urge to change. Really though you are being distracted by the wrong thing when it comes to LF. It's lenses that are important. You can use lenses from any age on a LF camera. I have one set of lenses I use that are from the 1840s and 1850s, another set that's from 1905-1925, and a set of modern lenses from the 1980s -2000. The other thing you're not yet aware of is all the different mediums you can use. No doubt you're aware of color and b&w film, but there's also wet plate, dry plate, x-ray film, calotype, and more. LF is very versatile. The camera is the least important thing. I started shooting color E6 film in the 1990s, moved to b&w film ten years ago, then dry plate four years ago, and for the last three years I almost exclusively shoot wet plate. Also looking to get into calotypes. My favorite LF camera is my Chamonix 4x5 but I also shoot a Gundlach Korona 5x7 and a Kodak 2D 8x10. And yes, I have a Rolleiflex, Leica IIIc, and a couple of dozen other very nice cameras from 1905 to 1960.


Kent in SD


Below photo:

My technical adviser, Annie the Cat, doesn't think the 1862 Voigtlander Petzval is going to fit on the little Chamonix 4x5.

[Two23]

Guys, I watched couple videos about Lihof and read about the history and I pretty much already fell in love with the company and their cameras, I just need to research a bit and see what model suits me the best. Thank you all for your helpful advices. I hope I'll become an active member of this forum very soon!

The important thing in LF is lenses. The cameras all basically work the same and rarely make any difference in your photos. You seem to be more after "prestige," and if so right now that's Gibellini cameras, not Linhoff. Prestige is much more attached to lenses than cameras in LF.

https://www.gibellinicamera.com/cameras/

Below photo:
pre-1844 Horne & Thornewaite FL=7 inch Petzval. (H&T supplied lenses to Fox Talbot.) Very desirable lens.



Kent in SD

[Jim Jones]

Hiroh -- When I chose a Leica rangefinder as a primary 35mm camera in 1953, I had to base that selection on far less information than you can get on LFPF. It was a fortunate choice. The Leica was supplemented with Nikon gear for photography beyond the capability of a practical Leica outfit. Upon retirement, LF became practical. Rather than search for the best, I settled for whatever camera would do at a low cost almost everything that the very best cameras manage. That turned out to be a used flat bed Burke & James 5x7 at a time when many photographers were moving down to handier 4x5 cameras, and 5x7 was becoming "Old Fashioned." I've taken more LF photos with that camera than with all of the several other LF cameras acquired before and since then. Certainly some of today's cameras are more precise and convenient to use. They also may be too valuable to risk in capturing some photographs. I don't regret losing one 4x5 due to carelessness. After all, it was only a Newton New Vue. Also, my battered Toyota Corolla gets me to places I'd never take a BMW sedan.[p]
It is the lens, not the camera body, that forms the image. Today's multi-coated lenses capture urban night scenes far better than anything available when I first used LF. However, there are almost infinite subjects that don't demand such fine lenses. Uncoated lenses took all of the finest photographs before the Second World War. I've used them with success. Others can direct you to sites for comparing modern lenses.
The equipment you have is far less important than how you use it. If you are mainly interested in B&W photography, the book Way Beyone Monochrome by Lambrecht and Woodhouse may be a better investment than much of your equipment. Be warned, it is fairly technical. In my day, View Camera Technique by Leslie Stroebel might have been the best. A good manual on photography should have answers for questions one might never think to ask. And you can always ask here. There's not a single bit of photographic knowledge that someone on this site doesn't know far better than I've learned in 90 years.

[Peter De Smidt]

Most flexible Linhof for field or studio work: Technikardan. Most bomb proof: Master Technika.

[Tin Can]

Most likely buying in 2023

I am waiting 2 months for a new very lightweight 8X10 Intrepid Model 3

https://intrepidcamera.co.uk/product...id-8x10-camera

Right after that I will want Chamonix H1

https://www.chamonixviewcamera.com/cameras/45h1

I have too many heavy cameras

[Tin Can]

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/searc...0camera&sts=ma

I bought a perfect Wista RF from Japan for way less

[Bob Salomon]

Guys, I watched couple videos about Lihof and read about the history and I pretty much already fell in love with the company and their cameras, I just need to research a bit and see what model suits me the best. Thank you all for your helpful advices. I hope I'll become an active member of this forum very soon!

Oh, btw, is there any particular place where should I look for Linhof cameras? Except eBay and Craigslist, which I avoid for anything valuable. I tried KEH, but they don't have any Linhof cameras on stock.

Check Cameras West