It's reproduction work: if money was not an object the proper solution will be the H5D-200 either the CMOS or the CCD version, buy consistent lighting and be done with it.
A multishot back will have better color separation, and that is more important than having almost twice the resolution.
Best regards,
So speaks a man who knows what museum/library budgets are like for studios.
The powers that be who live in a bubble of academia and history seem to have less patience than we might prefer for the latest technological advances in photographic tools when it comes to budgetary concerns.
I would also talk about what the actual necessities may be for reproduction quality. Ultimate quality is always a worthwhile goal but perhaps not always a realistic one. We are photographing ancient manuscripts and documents 98% of the time. Not material which has a requirement for such exacting colour accuracy. Although multishot colour accuracy may perhaps be wonderful to imagine, I do not believe it is a priority in comparison to the need for that level of colour accuracy in a studio doing precious artwork reproduction for example. Certainly not sufficient enough to persuade the purse string holders.
It is an unfortunate truism that it is hard to persuade people to invest in technological advances which they cannot see on their own screens. Even when I got the boss a NEC Spectraview because I was getting fed up of this limitation.
That said I witnessed a fascinating project at the National Library here recently. They were photographing half size 35mm contact prints which had been smuggled out of wartime Poland, images of a valuable and large (A3+) manuscript photographed page by page. The library, using the 50MS back, were achieving legible detail. Legible enough to be read and copied. I would never have believed it possible. Would never have believed a tiny contact print could contain so much detail? The text would have been marginal for a 12 megapixel camera never mind the contact prints from a handheld WWII era 35mm camera (leica?). Truly impressive.