Here are some random thoughts about products that I'd be interested in. I guess there must be some technical hurdle that makes them not profitable, to some Bean Counter.
#1. Magnifying Viewfinder on 200/500 Hasselblad: I've always wanted a square sensor digital camera. Yes, you can crop the 645, but it's just not the same. Once I was in Kurland Photo in NYC and they had a 200 or 500 that had that little square sensor Hasselblad back on it; maybe it was called CFV or something. I remember the experience of picking it up and looking through it, and then realizing that only that tiny little square in the center of the frame was the actual Sensor Area. It was so bad it was almost funny, to expect a photographer to shoot like that. What I wonder is: If Hasselblad made a Magnifying Viewfinder for the H camera, for their NotQuiteFullFrame backs, to "blow up" the viewfinder image to a kind of fake full frame, why couldn't they also do that for the old 500 series? How hard could it be? Just take the sensor area of the CFV and then make a viewfinder that matches that dimension, but when you brought the camera to your face, all you'd see would be the "live area".
Think how many 500 bodies there are out there. And that CFV back is very affordable. It makes you wonder why Hasselblad just turns their back on the 500 and the 200. Money is money; profit is profit. It all spends the same. All those great bodies, just sitting idle on a closet shelf. The viewfinder wouldn't even need to be electronic; just a loupe inside of a Chimney Finder or something.
#2: Phase puts DigitalBack on a Mamiya 7II: I once owned a Mamiya 6, and I've rarely felt a camera that fit so well in your hand. It was just a natural. And with that telescoping 75 lens, that collapsed when you were walking around, it was just about perfect. And tack sharp lenses too. If Phase owns Mamiya, or controls Mamiya, could they not rig a back onto that body? And maybe in the Rangefinder Viewer, just put markings that correspond to the Sensor Area of the DB, for each lens.
#3: KPS 1.3x Magnifying Attachment: I took delivery on this silly little device yesterday. It's sort of a Magnifying Viewfinder for DSLR. I mounted it late last night, in the dark, and I've got to test it today. It barely goes onto the 5D2, but once I got it on there, it transforms the viewing experience from GloryHole to Hasselblad H2 Viewfinder. I didn't even look how much it cost, but maybe fifty bucks or so, but if it works, and the diopter can be calibrated to it, I will nominate it as the 2009 Product Of The Year. Such an afterthought in a way, it makes you wonder why Canon does not make something like this, (with better quality). If I paid fifty, I'd gladly pay ten times that much. Here is video showing about it. Some guy named Rogan sent it to me. KPS stands for "Kinda Pretty Sharp". Imagine if there was Zeiss glass in that little viewfinder thing. Edit: In use, the 1.3 magnification is a bit strong; you end up having to cram your eye up in there to see the corners; ideally 1.2x would be perfect. But I'll take this 1.3x over nothing, any day of the week.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6F4TTdvRpwU