In addition to the articles on the View Camera website, try to find a way to
borrow or rent a view camera, lens, and a polaroid film holder and buy a box of
polaroid film to try out for a weekend. Let's see, you'll also need a tripod
and a dark shirt to use as a focusing cloth. The best way to get to know this
is to try it.

As for buying equipment in Italy, I've never been there. I understand that it
can be more expensive than here in the States, but I don't know for certain.
Almost everything I've bought for photography has been via E-bay and for the
most part I've gotten very good prices and good quality but your experience may
be different. For example, my 5x7 Burke & James wooden field camera with an
ancient 250mm lens cost me US$150 a few years ago and that's about the price of
a Speed Graphic camera and lens these days. (I've since bought better lenses
and sold the old one.) A Speed Graphic is often described as a reasonable
starter camera for someone new to large format; at the least you ought to be
able to sell it for about what you paid for it, should you decide that view
cameras aren't for you. The same goes for older Calumet monorail 4x5 cameras;
they often sell for about the same price as the Graphic cameras. Good luck!

Mike

C program run. C program crash. C programmer quit.