Fred,
Did some guy from Denmark run off with your girlfriend? (insert silly smiley face here).
I'm not trying to insert myself into this, but I'm seriously curious about what problems you had with the phase/mamiya back and camera?
I know that as a company, Phase can be difficult, but so can Canon and RED and probably any company depending on the issue.
What I don't get is what problems you had with the equipment.
I'll admit I never was a fan of the Mamiya 645 AF but the later DF itineration I recently tried was night a day compared to the original mamiya 645 autofocus. The lenses felt great, the body was robust, the focusing was very good, I thought almost equal to the Hasselblad which is the leader in mfd autofocus.
In fact I think in ways the DF was a very nice camera and as far as Phase backs, I've known a lot of people use their for a lot of years (heck I have a friend in Paris that still uses his lightphase) and never had an issue.
Phase makes tough stuff, at least the older backs that I'm familiar with and no they're not perfect backs but I sometimes think I could drive nails with mine and though I can shoot much faster with almost any dslr, in todays world we're all looking for an edge in look and I think a ccd based camera or back gives that as long as you have enough light.
I know Phase as a company has problems communicating, but their dealers don't.
There are two that frequent this forum that know more about Phase products than probably Phase does (I'm serious).
In regards to Leaf, my original Aptus 22 had problems (it was one of the very first Aptus shipped), but Yair knows everything there is in the world about Leaf, stayed on top of it, (heck he probably bleeds Leaf green) and I'm not saying that because I know and like him (I do) because at times we've had some knock down drag outs, but really does know and stand behind what he sells.
The only other serious problems I've had with digital was with the Canon 1ds2 and I could write a book (I think I almost did) and even though it wasn't the best experience it didn't keep me from buying Canons then or even later and trust me, at the time I and other's had enough issues with the 1ds2 to stage a hunger strike at CPS.
If you'r comparing price, then nothing is going to get close to a D800 (not even the Pentax) and though I like saving money as much as anyone, I don't think turning a profit is a dirty word, regardless of how the world seems to view success today. (at least the Left Coast view of success and I can say that with a smile because I've spent a lot of years and investment in El Lay).
All professional camera equipment has a serious premium and depreciates quickly (except for c-stands) including your Fuji 680. I owned one and once digital hit the door those cameras went from serious money to the price of a pet rock and really there is no digital solution for that camera. Even Fuji made a back for it in Japan and dropped that thought in about an hour.
Heck, my RED1 cameras just dropped in price (by RED) to less than half but I did and continue to make money and content with them, so for me nothing really changed because I'm not in the camera selling business.
And in regards to your USB 3 post, come on man, I have less issues with camera connections than I do with Apple constantly changing their hardware interface.
Man I've got about 8 billion firewire devices and I'm not worried about thunderbolt or firewire or usb 3 because my capture computers will run for 4 years (at least) and I can promise you I can buy refurbished ones for another 4 years. I can't blame the mfd makers for those issues because Apple constantly tosses stuff out faster than Gov. Christie can eat a Big Mac.
But even though this response has gone all around the houses, I'm serious in asking what issues you had, because I am looking at new mfd cameras.
IMO
BC