Since you may be interested in the economics, I should begin by pointing out that the Intrepid 10x8 costs £480. That much is an obvious cost. But unless you're going to use it as an ornament, you're going to have to use film, and to use film you need a film holder. Intrepid sell them for £185 new. Second hand will be less, and it's possible to buy them new for less, but it's still a sizeable expense. That's a holder for cut film. For wet plate, you'll need to look elsewhere, and try Chromagraphica - Steve
@stevelmx5 should be able to fill you in on these. I don't know how easy wet plate holders are to obtain on the second hand market. You also need to factor in the cost of a lens that covers 10x8. I don't know how much you know about large format, but to make the full use of the camera facilities, you should have a lens that will cover more than the 10x8 format, to allow for the lens shifts (and other movements). These tend to be big and heavy.
The advantage of the Intrepid over other 10x8 cameras is the weight, or lack thereof. My first 5x4 camera was a monorail that weighed 4.2 kilos. The Intrepid 10x8 weighs half that, and therefore less than my current favorite 5x4 camera. It's easy to carry around which is a big advantage. And, to be honest, if you're carrying it around for landscapes, you don't usually need a lot of lens coverage and a small light lens is enough. I suspect the same is true for portraits, but that's outside my large format experience.
One of the things that is always at the back of my mind is that with large format, wet plate is a possibility, and would allow me to continue photography if film ceased to be made (and my stocks ran out). Dry plate is also possible, and less messy and easier in the field.
I've tried to give some Intrepid specifics and a little LF background. Is that enough to be going on with? There's a specific thread on LF that contains a lot of other info.
IMG_1059 by Des Ferguson, on Flickr
