John, how do you explain that such camera (probably more expensive then any stills camera in history) comes equipped with less then stellar display? And why customers accept that?
Mike
I think the answer to that is in two parts. Most of the MF folks who need the new ability of digital capture to be able to see the scene
as they shoot it (live-view) or immediately afterwards will be shooting tethered in the studio, so they don't use or need the LCD on the digiback itself. They have all they need on their PC monitor, better than any camera LCD could ever be. And an awful lot of H-System users will be in this category, as it is Hasselblad's main market (judging by their promotional focus).
Secondly, some field photographers like myself who have always shot with film really don't care much about being able to see the image on the LCD (well, I know I don't). I do need to be able to see the menus to change the ISO, and having a histogram is a real luxury (just to check that the faithful Weston was right - and it usually is). But beyond that, I'm not really interested - I enjoy shooting just as I did with film, and I'll think about the results when I get home. If I kept looking at what I'd just taken it would interrupt my flow, make me question what I was doing, and even the best LCD screen would be far too small to judge what will eventually be a 16x12 or larger print. Even worse, the screen display is in colour when I am always shooting for B/W, so how could I assess that?
The time to get the picture right is when you frame it up in the viewfinder.
John
