About to step up formats, advice appreciated

The reason to use the Crown over the Shen-Hao is that the Crown is intended for hand-held use. So if you're looking to shoot hand-held, street photography Weegee-style, with just one or two lenses, the Crown is for you. If you want to use anything wider than a 90mm (28mm equivalent on 35mm) or longer than a 210mm non-telephoto, then a Crown is NOT for you. If you do a lot of portrait (vertical) shooting, you'd be better off with a Shen Hao or something else that has a back that can be switched from vertical to horizontal - a Crown has a fixed horizontal orientation back. For your money, if lack of movements are not an issue, you might want to look for a Graflex SLR - you can get a complete camera with revolving back and a lens for under $800. The downside is that you won't be able to do wide-angle at all, and the mirror getting out of the way is quite noisy, although not as noisy as say an RB67.

Well, if you are use to 2 meter prints from 35mm film, then doing only 2 stitches from 4x5 is very convenient. You then get from 4x5 (after including overlap with stitching) either 4x9 or 5x7. However, you have one problem left...the scanner. An epson class scanner (4990, 750) are good to about 3-4x enlargement with high quality. So you won't get those 2 meter prints you want. If you shoot 8x10, you will get to 40 inches, and maybe that is enough. On the other hand, drum scanners (Howtek 4000 and 4500) have come done a lot in price (few thousand) and would give you enlargements of 10x or greater easily and solve your problem, but do you want to get into mounting stations, fumes, and scanning supplies? The advantage of sticking to 4x5 is ligher weight of camera and film holders, less bulk, and far greater choice of films.

Another choice is shoot 617, and scan with a Nikon 9000 scanner. Two stitches will get you 4x7 (with overlap). The Nikon scanner will easily get you to 2 meters and more. I consider this the most affordable approach, because buying into a system means you must think not just about the camera, but also the scanner. If you go the other route, and decide on a drum scanner, remember one thing.....one repair can set you back $5000 easily, so most people buy a spare one for parts. Is it worth the hassle? For 617 you have 2 types of styles.....617 view cameras (look at Shen Hao, Ebony), or panoramic cameras (like Fotoman, Goaersi, Widepan, Fuji, Technorama).
Some other advantages going this route are....carry a days supply of 120 film in your shirt pocket, no dust issues, need for film tent, easier to process, and total cost of film/lab is far less.

A third option (a 617 roll back for your 4x5), but there are issues with wide lenses.

Considering used LF cameras and lenses hold their resale value, I would like to start with 4x5 and once I get a feel for the system and the results it can produce I'll see where I want to go from there. I am going to try and meet some APUG LF users and get some hands-on time, actually see what I'm dealing with, which will help a lot. But at the moment, I think a Shen Hao is the most likely choice.

The only good reason to shoot LF is because you want to shoot LF Well maybe some architecture and murals might benefit from LF, and you can certainly get a LF kit for far less than the latest and greatest digi outfit but if this is worth it to you is a question only you can answer.

Yes I want to shoot LF. I like film, technical photography, and taking my time when shooting.

"The only good reason to shoot LF is because you want to shoot LF." I expect that the same goes for digital. I sure do respect digital, as it's dropped the price on silver film equipment a lot!

I'm a pseudo-newcomer to LF, and just bought my first medium format 120 rig a month ago, now bought 5x7 and 4x5 assembled from bits and pieces on eBay.

Last time I shot LF, it was thirty-some years ago, with a fellow named Edgerton who taught a course at the community college I went to in Cambridge. There's a local fellow named Easel Adams or some such, he's taken a few good local pictures, kinda contrasty but I like them. Nice picture up the road near the new Home Depot in Hernandez. I gotta drive by that place sometime. Couple other folks seem to like taking pictures locally, well, I might as well try it too.