When I bought my Crown Graphic the first thing I needed was a lens. Naturally, I started with a "normal" length lens. In 4x5 film camera terms this means around 150mm. Of course, one of the things I wanted to do with the camera was portraiture. And I like tight head shots. At first this seemed like an oversight.
I decided to persevere. A view camera doesn't really have any practical limits on how close you can focus the lens. The limits are the length of the rails and the maximum draw of the bellows. But when I tried it I was shocked how close the camera had to be to my subject to achieve focus.
And now I love it. A good picture draws you in. I think these do.
