Hello,
I appear to have gone quite insane, as I suddenly have an insatiable desire to purchase a 9 x 12 cm plate camera.
Please tell me they are no fun, smell bad and ruin your life.
Absolutely. There's nothing less fun than getting a large-format image out of a camera that can be stuffed into an overcoat pocket; no smell worse than old leather and a hint of emulsion; but my wife insists that I should unironically tell you that they *do* ruin your life.
It's true. Those complicated-yet-robust little mechanical tricks they use to fold up, and the little buzz of the slow-speed escapement in an old Prontor, and so on? They all just *eat* *up* your whole quality of life while you're not looking.
Also, it's not any fun at all to poke around on a well-known auction site trying to track down the weird little unusual camera or part that you feel like you're missing. Nope. Not a bit. But it's your funeral, I suppose.
-NT