Fred,
OK . . . do you know these dealers and reps, Doug, Steve and Yair? I do and I can promise you, in fact I'll bet you almost anything that few if anyone would ever say they are demeaning.
I don't agree with everything they say, (who agrees 100% with anyone) and they want to sell equipment, but hey man, who doesn't want to sell their products and services?
The last two weeks for our studio was the perfect example of what Doug was talking about. We shot a large lifestyle project with many multiples of talent, all ethnic origins, many multiple locations under an incredibly compressed schedule.
I could have shot 90% with my medium format cameras and yes I honestly believe it would have produced a better overall project, but the client and their respect agency wants a lot of volume and medium format is a little slower so we shot 75% 35mm 25% medium format.
Use to 15% slower on anything didn't matter in 2007, but in today's marketplace 15% of time is about 4 sessions.
Anyway, I won't sell my mfd cameras because I don't need to, I still use them and I have a rule that I rarely sell anything if I can't buy it again for the same or less price and I doubt if I could sell my large Contax kit with two of everything, including backs and lenses and buy them again for the same price.
Maybe next year I'll even buy another mfd camera, I haven't had time to decide yet, but after processing 25 trillion images the last few days from Nikons and Canons I know I'd rather have shot it all with my Contax and Phase backs.
The skin tones are better, the file is just different (I believe because it's a ccd sensor) and I loathe Nikon skin tones and double loathe 35mm viewfinders and we shoot about a gazillion images of all stripes every year.
This is 8 months worth of projects, all full 1 terabyte drives (originals, not backups which are in another location on Raid 5's).
Also like it or not, when I look at our dit station we use (excuse the mess, but this is end of day as we're tearing down), the one thing that would be difficult to replaces for in all of our still cameras is C-1 for tethering and client review. That's the gold standar especially if your shooting Nikons and Canons.
In fact since this year we bought REDs, we're pretty much up to speed on all motion cameras, so next year I'll probably buy some new still cameras. A H5d, or Leaf/Mamiya/Phase for faster flash sync with leaf shutter lenses.
If I had time I'd do it this year, but I'm on the road right up to the start of the Holidays.
________________________________________________________________________
But Fred, let me pose a hypothetical question for you.
You get a call to shoot Charlize Theron for a high 6 figure Dior project. Are you going to show up with just your Nikons or will you also rent a medium format camera?
I'll bet, whether you use it or not, they're will be two medium format cameras on set.
Maybe not, but I know I'd have enough cameras there to fill up the room.
But then again, we're all different.
IMO
BC
P.S. In regards to digital cameras, or any cameras, people use what they like and feel comfortable with. In the motion imagery biz, there are DP's that won't touch anything but an Arri, even if you can prove a RED does it better, or vice versa. People use what they trust and like.
P.S.2 I apologize for adding fuel to the fire on this thread as IMO I think it's just a way to googleize a negative towards certain brands.
Which is a real shame because I'd rather see all of this effort in showing images like Simon does with his D800 or any camera system.
That's a lot more instructive and positive than showing a bunch of web images trying to prove a point.