As to wildly different working styles, I think once you put a comera with tilts and shifts on a tripod, and I have a hard time seeing what real use a TS lens would be without a tripod, you are pretty much going to work the same way. The fact is I have a bit of a problem with 35mm and tripods, except for extreme telephoto use, to me small formats are about mobility. Once you anchor it to the ground you lose its reason for existance. However, I am well aware that not everyone agrees with me there.
As a collector that makes sense. The rarer and stranger something is the more collectable it is.
As to your thread mutating, this is the internet, of course it has.
--
Mark Erickson wrote:
Ok, so I asked the original price question and I guess the topic's morphed into a large-format vs 35mm debate. First off, here are my disclaimers: I mess around all three formats. I'm probably most productive these days (and that's not very) with my hand-held 35mm gear.
Beyond the obvious differences in film area, what distinguishes the formats the most is the wildly different working style required to be productive with each. Different photographers excel in different subjects and working styles. If you take this view, the whole, "My format is better than yours" debate loses its lustre just a little bit.
Now for the camera gear collector in me, the 28mm shift is a pretty groovy lens. It is big and heavy, but has a very satisfying "chunk of glass and metal" feel to it. It has three selectable internal filters, and the shift function operates with the twist of a ring on the lens. The item that I inspected was really clean and felt solid and smooth. As has been pointed out (by Jens?), the shift function has been at least partially obviated by Photoshop. Oh well. Time and technology march on, I guess....
--Mark
-- graywolf http://graywolfphoto.com
"You might as well accept people as they are, you are not going to be able to change them anyway."
