<p>I agree with Mr. Gillis. I built a 4X5 decades ago, and have several manufactured LF cameras. Unless you need something specialized, a commercial camera is almost always more cost-effective. (My favorite film camera is a Mamiya Press that I modified to 6X12 format with a 50mm lens--about as wide as you can get with out "fish eye" distortion.)<br>
Figure out what kind of photography you want to do, then get the hardware to match. I do a lot of panorama photography. For example, I got a Calumet 4X5 camera, mounted a sliding Nikon adapter to the film holder area, and put on a D3200 digital body. This gives me a 96 megapixel image with all of the swing, tilt, etc. adjustments of the traditional view camera and the convenience of a digital camera.</p>
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