I'm the polar opposite of Bernice

My main concern is weight and portability. Still, I need enough movements to do architectural work in close quarters in cities as well.

My compromise (all camera choices are compromises) is a lightweight wooden camera with compact lenses. Everything else, including the larger wooden folders, is just too heavy and bulky. I hike, carry my camera on my bicycle and travel internationally for work in European cities. The smallest and lightest kit I can carry that can get the job done is what I need.

That said, over the years I've accumulated a few cameras (six in total now, at last count). However, I use two of them for 95% of my work, so I'll address these:

The workhorse in my kit is a beat-up Wista DX that gets carried outdoors on long day hikes, in slot canyons, scrambling up and down scree slopes and through underbrush, etc. The Wista DX fits my outdoor/landscape needs well is still fully-featured enough to use for the occasional architectural shot (lots of front rise is a problem though... crimped bellows even with the 90mm on a recessed board). I carry it in a lumbar pack along with four compact lenses. Smaller lenses fold up in the camera, which saves space.

So, I can carry the DX, a 90mm Nikkor f/8, a 135mm Plasmat, a 203mm Ektar and a 300mm Nikkor M (this latter on a top-hat board) plus 4-6 filmholders, meter, cloth, tripod and filters easily, have both hands free for scrambling if need be and have the whole kit (plus water bottle) weigh in at just over 20lbs. I've used this combination for years now, everywhere from Death Valley to Arizona's slot canyons, to the Pacific Coast to Alaska and Yukon glaciers and it has performed superbly for me. I can go even lighter if I need to, swapping out the 90mm Nikkor for a 100mm WF Ektar and using Mido holders instead of regular ones. But, I don't do extensive backpack trips anymore, so don't often need to pare the kit down this much.

Still, when working lightweight in the city and carrying my kit in a backpack, the above kit has some drawbacks. Having a camera that accommodates shorter lenses with lots of coverage is really, really nice for architectural work, especially in the closer quarters of European cities. Also, carrying the camera in the field pack ends up being less comfortable for me than having the kit in a more versatile pack. Plus, when photographing my home city of Vienna (where I lived for 30 years), I almost always carried my kit on my bicycle. And, when traveling, say to Italy, Hungary or the Czech Republic, I always ended up on foot in cities, dependent on the public transportation. So a small and lightweight, but versatile kit was needed.

My "city kit," therefore, is a modification of my outdoor field kit. It gets carried in a rolling carry-on/backpack combo (basically, a backpack with wheels and retracting handle). Instead of the Wista DX, I carry a Wista SW, basically a DX with interchangeable bellows. I carry the standard bellows, but use it rarely in cities; most of the time the wide-angle bellows is mounted, which accommodates lenses up to 210mm. My lens kit is different too. The 135mm Plasmat gets swapped out for a 135mm WF Ektar (need that coverage in the city!) and I exchange the 300mm for a 240mm Fujinon A lens. I add the 180mm Fujinon A too a lot instead of the 203mm Ektar, but often take a small 210mm lens as well, so my final lens choice is: 90mm, 135mm, 180mm, (210mm) and 240mm. With the wide-angle bellows I can easily use all the coverage that my Nikkor 90mm f/8 and 135mm WF Ektar have to offer.

In Vienna, I strapped the tripod onto the luggage rack of my bike, shouldered the backpack and just cruised the city in search of subjects. When traveling to other cities, the backpack became my carry-on. Once at my destination I walked and rode the public transport with my pack on my back or rolling alongside me (on smooth surfaces only! I rattled knobs and screws off a camera once by rolling it too far on a rough, cobbled street. Reassembly took me a while...). Again, the kit is light enough to carry all day, small enough to be able to be carried in close quarters on public transit and easy to travel with.

I could do none of the above with a metal folding camera or even one of the larger 6-lb-plus wooden cameras like the big Shen Haos or the late model Zone VI. They are simply too heavy.

FWIW, I own a late model Zone VI and take it with me on road trips in the States. It lives in the car and gets used rarely; only when the subject is close to the car and I need to use the 450mm lens.

My two monorail camera live in the house and get used for still-life and tabletop work. I never take them into the field anymore. It's sure nice to work with them for close-up work though. A folding camera just isn't suited for macro work.

Sorry this got so long, but hope it helps.

Doremus