snip It's often more affordable to stay with your existing system. snip
Maybe.
I don't know what happens in the markets outside the world of advertisingl photography. In the amateur world maybe they upgrade every 18 months, in the copy art at the Smithstonian world maybe they need 80 to 90 mpx, In the in-house catalog world it probably makes sense to stay with one camera brand, but in the commercial world I don't know anyone that is buying new cameras the day they are announced.
Early on in digital we all upgraded what seemed like every month, partly because the economy was cranking, partly because there was a big difference between a 12mpx, a 22mpx and a 30mpx camera, but today it's different and today in the world of money for pictures it's pretty much a given than any camera will reproduce well.
In fact I guess we could all say "hey thanks, my 1ds3, p30+, hd31 works fine today and nobody's complaining".
We just purposed out and retouched a half frame from a shoot. The client wanted a more horizontal and it was shot vertical. Honestly once we started working in post I didn't know if it was a dslr, a 21mpx back or a 30 mpx back because I shot all three during the session.
All I know is we worked in post, got the desired effect, added grain for texture and shipped. Nobody in the chain ever said anything about original file size, interpolation, etc. etc. etc. I do know that whatever camera I used was at least 3 years old, probably older and honestly at this stage paid for itself many times over.
So in my view, maybe the phase 90% value plan is good, but personally unless the next line of cameras is just earth shattering, I don't see the point because at this stage cameras are cameras. I don't think I'd even jump on the next Canon or Nikon unless there is just something I couldn't do without and once again at this I don't know what that would be, (other than raw video).
Personally I think the best news in medium format was when Hasselblad lowered their pricing, especially when they got close to the 10k range. That's a sensible number and could go a long way to introducing more photographers to larger formats.
It also allows you to keep your current camera, rather than trade it in, because I don't want to be stuck with one brand forever. Digital changes and sometimes not for the best. At one point Leaf was the darling of the NY world then came lc10 (oops), finally to be fixed with LC11.
Phase was the stable platform with v3, then came v4 (whew) only to be fixed with v5 and Hasselblad that lagged behind forever with their backs and software finally caught up and in someways surpassed everyone with a larger lcd and finally modern software.
So the 90% thing may work for some but I really think the most important thing is to make a stable, usable camera at a good price. A price that doesn't make you gulp if it drops ti 1/2 in a year.
That will enlarge (pun intended) the market.
BC
