Hi Kevin, Perhaps a Speedgraphic with a 135 (usual lens found on them) and a 90mm for the wide stuff. This would be cheap and portable.
Alternately a Calumet C400 with roughly the same lenses if you want a monorail for the tilts and swings and the things you want to photograph don't move much and are close to a road. A monorail is heavy and cumbersome in comparison to the SpeedGraphic which was designed to be handheld. Of course the graphic works better on atripod, but so does everything Figure AUD$400 to $500 for either camera in reasonable nick and AUD$200 - 400 for an older 90/f8 like a Schneider Angulon (a Super Angulon will cost more for the extra stop). Dark Slides will be around AUD$20 -$30 second hand. A grafmatic back (six shots per unit) is fantastic if you can find them in reasonable condition. They will be from $30 (if you are lucky) to $100 (in nice condition). These fit the grafloc style back found on most SpeedGraphics, but not all 4x5 cameras can use them (the Calumet can't) An older Pentax spotmeter would be nice, maybe AUD$200 on eBay, less if you are lucky, but you could always use your SLR for metering. After you've played for a while you'll know if you want to spend money on specialist filters for LF. If you are looking at B&W then a "Yankee" tank will develop up to 12 sheets of film relatively easily and quite cheaply. For colour it gets a lot more expensive. Getting someone else to do it is very expensive. B&W costs around AUD$1.25 a sheet to buy, and $5 -$6 a sheet for colour. Will cost another $5 a sheet to get it developed. Paul Ewins Melbourne, Australia > I wish to experiment a little with some large format landscapes > and portraits. > > What would a beginners kit include? > > eg 135mm lens, 28mm lens > > What body, lenses, filters etc would get me started? > > Kind regards > Kevin
