Migrating back to MF? (from LF)

[2F/2F]

What made you want to go to 4x5 in the first place?

[Q.G.]

Should you have left-over money, why not invest it in replacing the Sinar Norma (great though it is) with a Sinar P (for Perfect )?
The P is easier and faster in use, and will make using 4x5" less cumbersome. And Ps aren't very expensive nowadays. (You don't need a perhaps more expensive P2: the original P is already great.)

[revdocjim]

If you really can't afford to own both why don't you pass on Hassy and invest in one of the more reasonably priced MF systems like Bronica, Mamiya, etc.

[BrianL]

revdocjim, I was thinking the same thing. Bronica made a shift lens. I like Hassey but the price/performance ratio favorsronica in spades. After a certain level of quality, I'm not convinced the quality of the photographer is more important then the lens.

[watanabe`]

What made you want to go to 4x5 in the first place?

Was accepted into a master of architecture program, foresaw shifts in my future. Also wanted to be able to make contact prints, so I bought the 180mm fuji W and 250mm that cover 8x10

If you really can't afford to own both why don't you pass on Hassy and invest in one of the more reasonably priced MF systems like Bronica, Mamiya, etc.

Think it's cause I had one and loved it. I'm not blinded thinking that it performs better, but having used one and gotten used to how it works it'd be hard to go to something else.

Should you have left-over money, why not invest it in replacing the Sinar Norma (great though it is) with a Sinar P (for Perfect )?
The P is easier and faster in use, and will make using 4x5" less cumbersome. And Ps aren't very expensive nowadays. (You don't need a perhaps more expensive P2: the original P is already great.)

There's an idea... love my photoclam multiflex(arca cube) and how fast it is to setup... if the 4x5 became a trunk camera exclusively for architecture shoots then the extra weight wouldn't be an issue and the speed/ease of setting up each shot would be in the P's favor. Seeing that they go for half the cost of the flexbody makes that even more absurd.

[2F/2F]

If you have a need for what the 4x5 offers, I would keep it, even if you don't use it often. Tilt/shift lenses are good, but they are a compromise between the advantages of smaller cameras and large format. I used to shoot LF at least three times a week, for all sorts of subject matter. I would go through many boxes of film every month. Now I am doing that more with my Mamiyas, and I will pull the SINAR out only maybe once every few months for "pictorial work." I shoot no more than 10 or 12 sheets when I do. I use it more often for reproduction of flat work for other projects now, using Ilford Ortho, Fuji T64, and my new favorite film for halftones, Rollei ATP 1.1. When doing this, I more often than not use the camera with a 6x7 back, as opposed to sheets. I don't view the camera as a waste, though I recently sold off all my DB lenses that I don't use much any more. I kept a 210 and a 90 in shutters. When my 210 cannot magnify enough using all the rail I have, I put the 90 on.

You never know when you will find another use for your camera, and I also don't think that shooting it once every few months makes it useless to you. Having the Hassy will be a good idea, but I would not sell the SINAR unless you cannot afford to keep both. I am sure it will come in handy.