This isn't about comparing. This is about business and where most files end up. I have a P30+ on a Mamiya system. If there is not a budget for retouching I do it, and looking at them close for hours I can say with confidence that the MFDB files blow 35mm dig away. No question.
That being said, when starting out with no clients I think it unwise to be limited by a MF system. Buy the Canon and a printer, learn about retouching, print a nice portfolio and get work. If an MFDB is justified, get it after you know what your market requires. Or try film for a while if you want to know what shooting MF is all about.
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I don't know what you shoot, but if you are starting out and you want to train yourself to make a photograph rather than take a photograph, I would buy a used Aptus 22, or a p21 and stick it on an RZ and a heavy tripod.
Learn to see the image rather than run around with small cameras zooming and clicking the world until it looks good and you should be clear that a dozen or so extra million pixels will not make a bad photograph look good.
My first camera was a 4x5 view camera on an old majestic tripod and that probably taught me more than a room full of new nikons, or hasselblads.
Also I would definately buy a system that the file goes straight into photoshop. If your starting you don't need to become a workflow expert learning a dozen different converters you need to learn to make a photograph, process a photograph and probably effect/retouch the photograph yourself.
You also need something that works in the 200 to 400 iso range max so you learn to modifiy the existing light, rather than just cranking the dial until you have an acceptable expposure.
A hundred assistants pass my way each year and to all except one their work looks the same, dragging around their canon snapshots that aren't very well thought out or crafted. The one assistant whos work is outstanding shoots film with an old RZ and though he may only shoot 10 frames a day, those 10 are unique.
There are no absolutes in this business other than beautiful photographs are rarely easy.
If you use a camera that is somewhat difficult you will learn to see the photograph before you put a camera in front of your face.
Given all of this, I would even suggest film, other than film is a disappearing art and eventually you'll have to step over and learn the digital darkroom, so you might as well start that learning curve quickly.
These forums have a lot of sales messages and obviously they are going to mention the latest and the greatest, but few legends in photography bought into the latest equipment, even when they could afford it. If you saw the cameras that Guy Bourdin, Helmut Newton, Paolo Roversi used you would be very surprised.
Staring out your goal is to make a photograph and no camera will make you a better photographer. It's tempting to see all the shiny new dials, buttons, glossy brochures and be tempted to drink the Kool-aid, but remember your goal is to make yourself successful, not the dealers or the camera makers.
In other words don't learn how to do it, learn why you do it.
JR
P.S. Saying all of this you'll probably not go this direction and do what everyone does. First a lower cost medium format back, then a bigger, newer more expensive one, then another.
By the third purchase you will have moved your attention away from photography and over to cameras.
