i know that size plays a major role...but there is no way that pentax will be allowed to sell the SAME chip (30+mpix, 16bit) with a camera attached for half of what phase and hass charge for their backs based on that same chip....kodak builds that chip and sells it t phase and hass and now pentax....you know they have a say in how much the final product is...they have to protect their customer...and themselves...they own leaf....
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You might be correct, I am not aware of Kodak's business practises, but it would seem that at least Dalsa works differently since the ZD is about 1/3 the price of the equivalent Leaf in Japan... with the same sensor (I know that there are some small differences).
I am personnally not sure that Kodak would refuse to sell thousands of additional sensors to Pentax... can they really afford to?
Companies like Phase and Leaf have always stated that part of the price of their products is in the support structure. In other words, they claim that you pay for a full package and not just the hardware + software.
Pentax and Mamiya work with a different business model (basically sell and forget), will be able to make economies of scale, and are able (at least for Pentax) to re-use much of the IP already invested in APS DSLRs. Besides, selling digital MF is also a means for them to make money with lenses. Considering their culture, I believe that being able to maintain their activity in the lens business are some value for them.
All in all, I wouldn't be surprised at all if they were able to sell at least twice cheaper than Leaf/Phase for a product based on the same sensor.
If things happen as I anticipate, we will then find out if the claims of Phase and Leaf in terms of what business model is suitable are real, or just a way to preserve larger margins...
One thing is sure, many of the photographer who did invest big money in Phase/Leaf products, but don't need/tap enough into the whole support structure put in place for them for big $ might not be super happy about these developments.
I feel that we are kind of back to the Nikon D1 days when Nikon proposed at 1/3 of the price something as good as the top Kodak DSLRs, aren't we?
Regards,
Bernard