Intermediate large format questions/photography misadventures

Yes, I misinterpreted the adjective/objective thing!
But now, I can follow why your lens selection boils down to size, weight and budget rather than the look and feel, in the print.

My apologies for the interruption and I'll let you get on with your ramblings!

No problem. Interrupt away.

There are a lot of threads comparing various lenses, and I tend to think that a lot of t "feel or look" in the print itself can be accomplished in the darkroom regardless of a lens generally speaking. Take my 2 competing 90mm designs as an example. There are quite a few examples of people talking about the Nikkor SW 90mm f8 as being too sharp or clinical in its rendering. I haven't exposed nearly enough negatives with 90mm lenses to say for myself if I buy into that line of thought. I will say that if at some point I do want images that are perhaps softer and dreamlike, I will likely need to experiment and possibly seek out a different lens.

The shuffling of the dry mount press (old Seal 200) went fine. I had remembered it being crazy heavy, and while heavy it wasn't unmanageable. The rest of my basement/shop/darkroom has become unmanageable, and I feel like I am no closer to being able to print after most of Thursday and Friday spent down there trying to organize and sort. I even have a large donate pile loaded into the car.

Goal today: get things into printing shape. I have a specific negative in mind already, so I can disregard time at the light table sorting through binders at least.