Theo, can you please take your anti PhaseOne agenda elsewhere? There are a thousand other threads to pollute without confusing someone just getting into MF. To go by your own advise, since you own nothing from Mamiya, please sit this one out as there is nothing useful you can add here. And please stop with the outright lies.
For one, the reason why Mamiya mount backs are cheaper than say, contax mount or Hasselblad V mount in general is because of good old supply and demand. There are far more Mamiya mount backs out there than those two mounts. Hasselblad H mount backs are actually a bit cheaper, going by the current market prices, but not by much. AFi/ Hy6 mount leaf backs are very rare to come by these days because current owners do not want to part ways with them, which makes them perhaps the most expensive (And the least amount made).
OP: Please ignore the rest of the fearmongering in that post. Here is the ACTUAL compatibility list for your sake.
- Your AFD III will work with Leaf Aptus, Aptus II and Phaseone P, P+ backs (In your pricerange). Phaseone IQ 1and 2 and Leaf Credo backs will also work with it, if you want to upgrade. That's close to a dozen backs (Many of them current)you can upgrade to for quite some time. It will also work with Mamiya film backs.
- Phase One IQ3 backs will not work with your body, but if you are going to invest 40K in a back, might as well drop another 7k and get a new body to go with it.
- Similarly, the Phase One XF body will not work with an Aptus or P series back, but ask yourself if you will upgrade to a 7K body for a 2K back at any point of time.
- Your body does not support the Schneider Kreuznach leaf shutter lenses for the M645 platform. You will need to get a Mamiya 645DF or DF+ for that. I personally own and use a DF+ which I find quite capable for my purposes. I can share image samples at request, unlike fearmongers who do not ever post images. You can find these used nowadays at quite decent prices (Especially after the launch of the XF). Every lens you buy for the AFD III will also work on the DF/ DF+ along with the leaf shutter lenses.
On the Hasselblad side,
- An H1 or H2 will let you use an Aptus or P series back made in the H mount. You can independently upgrade back and body with this combo. You can also use film backs. The H2D comes with a mated back that cannot be independently upgraded (IIRC).
- H3 series are back and body mated. You cannot individually upgrade these, but at lease one poster here has used an H3 series back on an H4 series body and it worked.
- You get something called Trufocus with the H4 series bodies, which is quite good for portraiture applications. H4 series cameras come in two flavors, one with a mated back (Which cannot be upgraded independently) and something called H4X, which will allow you to use third party backs. Phase One P, IQ 1and2 and Leaf Credo backs will work with it. Aptus I and II series backs will not work and there has been a long and documented story about this with Hasselblad and Leaf blaming each other for the incompatibility, with no clear answer.
- The newer Hasselblad bodies are out of the current budget that you#re working with.
These two are realistically, the only two systems one should get into in 2016. Everything else (Contax, Hy6/AFi, Hasselblad V) are out of production and even though they might offer some unique features, a dead system is a dead system.
Now Knowing Theodoros, he will bark and froth in this thread until every single person who has said anything positive about Mamiya/ PhaseOne admits that they are wrong and walks away. (Just FYI, he does not own anything from Mamiya, has never owned anything from Mamiya and only exists in this forum to express his intense displeasure at products that come from the Mamiya Phase One camp). So in order to not derail your thread, I will not be posting here anymore. If you have any additional questions, please PM me and I will do my best to answer them.
Cheers!
