[quote name='Christopher' date='Dec 19 2009, 10:22 AM' post='334018']
Well I don't think I'm trying to justify the money I spent because I have invested in my MF kit (P45 Cambo Wide, 503CW, 501CM, 13 lenses), because it is a small amount of total money invested in relation to the total money invested in my studio. Also, I have so many other camera systems so it's not like I'm stuck with my phase back. I also have Xpan & 3lenses, Seitz 220 VR & 5 lenses, Canon 1D mkII & 6 lenses, Sinar 4x5 & 7 lenses. Plus there all the printers, the studio, the vehicles, the employees. So no I don't think it really goes the other direction, at least for me. I just pick the right camera for the job and so I have all of the cameras I could need. Sometimes I use Canon, sometimes I use Phase, etc. I don't know about what people think out there but it's pretty common knowledge among ad shooters here in California that Zeiss glass is superior to Japanese glass. That's a reason why I use the V system with Zeiss glass instead of the new Hasselblads with Fujinon glass. I also used to own a GX680 system. The glass sucked compared to Zeiss. And yes I have done tests and phase definitely looks better and I only have the regular P45. But if I'm going to shoot a record cover with a girl dancing around in my studio I'm going to use my Canon. If I'm shooting a hotel for "anonymous client" on location with 5 models, a gaffer, a key grip, 2 assistants, MA stylists, stylist assistant, prop stylist, ciient, art director, copywriter, and account manager all standing around watching me blow $100,000 daily production budget I'm not going to whip out a Canon... In a nutshell I think most canon glass was not designed to handle the resolution available today. In other words the resolution of the cameras are exceeding the resolution of the glass. It's hard for me to understand how a professional photographer could not see this. But moving forward canon realizes this and is now designing new lenses to deal with this. This 17tse is a new lens built to resolve higher resolutions. But it still does not solve the problem that CCDs perform better when there is more real estate for the pixels to lay on. Bunching them together tightly is not as good for quality. I wish I could use my canon all the time. It costs me more to bring my phase system on the plane than my plane ticket costs. :-)