Hi there,
as I said in my December post, when I bought my H3D-22 I immediately experienced problems with the camera. Usually I would receive the error mesages like: restart the back, reattach lens, lens problems...) after just few exposures.
I understand your frustration. I will say, none of these cameras is really perfect. Although, honestly, the most hassle free has been the 1ds2.
I owned the H1D, and I got error messages with that, and had cord issues with that ImageBank. Sent that back; it was certainly not ready for prime time.
Then bought the H1 with P25, and continued onward with error messages and just overall strange behavior. Sold that. I think most of the issues with that combo was the H1; not the P25. I've found Phase to be pretty darn reliable and solid.
Now, reluctantly, I bought the Contax and P45, and I've not had ONE error message or lockup with it. When I first moved out of Canon and into MF, I thought that for sure, the H series was "the way of the future" and that Contax was way out of date. But in reality it's quite the opposite. Like James says, there's not much to go wrong with the Contax - it just works. Day in and day out. Same with the P45 (and a borrowed P30).
I do not know about the H3D. I have not shot it. But overall, I'm just afraid of the H series now. Nothing more frustrating that have that thing lock up in the midst of a pressure job. "Reattach magazine", huh? Very frustrating. I just think the camera might be trying to do too many things at once and it's just not up to the task.
I've never been more surprised at the solid performance of the Contax. So simple, and so Old School, but it rocks. You look down, you know what your settings are, by the knobs -- not by some buried set of Menus, as in the H.
Yet, beyond all this, I wish the best for all these companies, including Hasselblad. My fear is that the entire universe is heading toward a 5D mentality, and nothing would be worse than be forced to shoot a vertical job, with a 24x36 proportion. We need Medium Format to survive. The villain here -- the one to be worried about -- is not Phase, or Hasselblad, or Leaf -- it's Canon.
MT,
http://www.marktucker.com