My perception of the costs of MF have changed significantly in the past couple of days -- first was the Calumet offer, then, after posting, I got notes from a couple of people on this forum offering a line of MF back/camera combinations for sale at pretty good prices. I'm not going for one right now (I'm still digesting the cost of a full Leica system) but I will eventually, I think.
However, for those who don't know -- You can get a pretty damn good MF system for ~$20,000 (not counting lenses), which is less than I paid for my M8 and a series of lenses. I'd thought of the costs as being more like $45,000 for a back, camera and one or two lenses. It's not. And the systems on offer (Hassy HD3-39), if not exactly at the cutting edge at the moment, would give you photos (I think) that would be virtually indistinguishable from those of the most advanced backs available.
I wonder if this is as far as it goes, in terms of cost - or, if we'll see further reductions once the used market really gets going. Given these prices, I'd say that Hasselblad is already somewhat competing with itself, and if they're forced to knock down the new top-end price, the used market will also drop.
It'll be interesting to see where we reach equilibrium.
JC