>>3351522You just want portraits?
Get a Toyo 45G monorail and either a 210mm or 240mm lens. Preferably either in f/5.6 max aperture.
About as cheap as the intrepid for the body, and much better. The intrepid can only extend 300mm I think, and that’s not very good for full face portraits. Case in point, with 300mm bellow draw for a 210mm you can only focus to .7 meters (2 feet) with a 210mm lens, with a 240mm lens you can focus only 1.2 meters away at closest (which is awful for portraits.
Seriously you will be very disappointed using a field camera instead of a monorail for people pictures unless it’s an expensive one that has a long draw. Monorail cameras are literally better in every way except they weigh more and don’t fold up. Think of it as Rangefinder vs SLR: the rangefinder is worse in every regard except size (ofc the lenses are sharper too, but that doesn’t hold true with field/monorail comparison. They use the same lenses.)
In fact monorails are probably better for wide angles as well as telephotos. With wide angles you can use bag bellows easier on a monorail whereas with a field camera you generally can’t replace the bellows (on my Toyo 45g the bellows lick and unlock as easily as the back or lens board.)
Use a field camera if you’re mostly just hiking to do landscapes. It only becomes a wash at 8x10 since the Toyo 810mii exists and has enough movements for studio use. Such isn’t true with most 4x5 field cameras
t. Someone who has used a monorail for about 2 weeks now lol
