Quote Originally Posted by Drew Wiley View Post
If this is all just about background compression, you might end up owning a long heavy tele and seldom actually use it. Usually it's the other way around, involving the challenge of taming the shallow depth of field inherent to the longer lenses of 8x10 work. It might be more useful to have a moderate focal length lens with good "bokeh" at wider working apertures. The Fuji 360 A is a wonderful lens for crisp results, but doesn't render background blur smoothly. You might look into a Fuji 420 L-series for such purposes instead, or something analogous.
Based on this thread, i decided to stop looking for longer lenses. I see very few photo’s that justify the expense for me. Zoom with my feet or crop is the way to go.

I will prioritise on rendering and shutter size for my next purchases. The 420 L might be better / more useful than a 450c.
I own the big and heavy 360 cm-w. There is some potential for weight saving and a smaller/faster shutter, but the remark about background rendering is good advice.

i love the heliar, (and tessar in general) look. It is my TLR with tessar lenses that drew me to LF. More aperture blades can help, but are difficult to find in a lightweight lens in a modern shutter.