My opinion is that P1 needs to also expand towards the video market and then, at Hi-end level too...
High end video comes in a lot of flavors. Depending on your world and needs, that can cover $5,000 video cams to $100,000 cinema packages.
With today's tech, if Phase One wanted to make a larger than 35mm "video" camera it would have to be this size, because if Arri could make it smaller they would and Arri is very good at making movie cameras.
http://arrirentalgroup.com/alexa65/We dove deep in the motion world (don't like the term video) a long time ago and today my takeaway is don't over produce. I don't mean shoot it bad, or not useable, but pulling out a $50,000 RED package to shoot some motion clips of a still shoot is just overkill and makes for a much longer day.
After all most cinema cameras (whatever that is) don't go much past 1,000 iso and that's being very careful and precise with lighting and ratios. What a lot of clients expect from a dedicated still shoot is some useable clips for web play, presentations, maybe even in store and they want it with as little fuss as possible.
We carry our RED's to most projects because we own them but unless it's a dedicated video shoot, 9 times out of 10 I'll just set my Canon 1dx with some flatter settings and recreate the scene for motion. It produces very useable footage, has easy to work Canon color and other than some simple curve adjustments is easy to color. We are buying the idx II because canon's pdaf motion focus is quite remarkable for quick clips.
In the motion world, the easier the better, though truthfully if we shoot RED footage next to anything smaller like Canon or Sony dslr footage, we usually go to the RED footage because it's much more robust, though in the world of commerce the easier/faster the better.
In regards to the craze of pulling stills from motion footage, it can be done, we do it, but it's not that easy. A red 4/5 k still even at a high shutter speed is probably equal to a 7 year old dslr still. (not motion . . . dedicated still) and even set to uhd (16x9) it's a very skinny frame for still use.
As far as phase "locking out" Leaf customers, I don't see it that way. Their business model has always been predicated on the upgrade process and going forward. In the digital capture world, every manufacturer's business model is to sell you up to the next level.
I mean how many lens mounts has sony made in the last few years and will probably have a newer lens mount if/when Sony makes a larger than 35mm camera.
It just depends on what you shoot. If you use medium format you probably spend most of the time with controlled lighting and/or a tripod. Medium format is great in those situations.
But IMO if phase has any issue, it's that their digital backs last so long and they have supported them in their software for a long time.
I think broad statements about what a company should do are just assumptions. It's like a client asking me for 8k, 6k, 5k, 4k, 2k footage in a complete edit with stills that exactly match.
It's just not possible in today's tech and time limitations on a project, without a huge budget.
BC