Key points:
Mamiya + P30
- Warranty with back and can be extended
- cost of lens and availability of used ones
- Overall weight
Hasselblad
- Integrated system
- Build quality of the lens and overall better sharpness
Lots to think thru.
Rodney
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Not to take this completely off topic, but yesterday afternoon I received a call from a friend who is a high end amateur. He walked into a camera store that sells Leaf, Phase, Sinar and Hasselblad cash in hand to buy a digital back for his contax.
He wanted Phase back, but was open minded about whatever brand, though the goal was to use his contax with digital, rather than film.
He was shocked that he just couldn't buy a back, put it on his camera and leave.
They had Phase for the Phase camera, Hasselblad was an all in one system, the Leaf and Sinars that were availalble were all in HY6 mounts and the dealer told him a contax mount in any of these backs would take a month minimum.
So now he's looking at a new camera with new lenses and was almost to the point of buying when it hit him that he really didn't want a new camera with new lenses, he just wanted to be able to shoot digital with his contax, put the files in photoshop and process them.
He briefly entertained the hd31 until the dealer told him the files had to be converted to dng to work in photoshop and lightroom so he dropped that thought.
Then he looked at the HY6 but the lens prices for a complete system put him off, so then he entertained the Phase camera, but only because it would adapt to his RZ, though then once told he had to either upgrade his RZ to a RZ digital body, or use a sync cable from the back to the lens, etc. etc.
Now this wasn't a kick the tires on a Saturday afternoon session, this was a cash in hand, buy a digital back today effort and a sale was directly lost because none of these back easily go onto any camera platform without a long wait, or buying different adapters (another wait) or buying a new camera system which was a lot more expense, or learning a makers software to convert the files, which he has no interest in.
This is what surprises me about medium format. The back makers have spent millions aligining themselves with their own proprietary cameras but none of them make it easy to just click a back on any medium format camera and start shooting. (yes I know Hasselblad and Sinar have adapters, but this dealer had none in stock and said the wait was weeks maybe months).
So his next step was to go downstairs to rental and rent one of these systems before buying.
They didn't rent Sinar and Hasselblad so he couldn't test that, they did rent phase, but the few backs they had were out of the store and they did rent a Leaf but an older version A22 for an H-1 mount, so he left the store.
I can relate to this. What if I wanted to add a new camera for my backs, either a Hasselblad, a Mamiya/Phase or a Hy6. I might entertain that if only for the leaf shutters, but not at the expense of throwing away 4 bodies and a dozen lenses.
For some reason medium format complicates the process or has a myopic view that the only people interested in buying a digital back are also interested in a new camera system and most importantly locked into that one camera system.
JR
