Hi Fred,
It seems that things work well for Andy, that is what he says. Nothing wrong with that. Reliability is pretty much about statistics, if you happen the be the outlier you are in desparate need of good service. On the other with some luck things just work.
What I really don't like is arguing about peoples credibility. You seem to have the opinion that everyone who uses Phase one and works with Phase on PODAS is partial to Phase and therefore lacks credibility. That approach essentially says that the more experience you have the less credible you are, because of involvement. It is quite probable that all of us are partial to:
- The things of choice
- Stuff that works
- Stuff that failed
Things that fail may give stuff bad reputation, but a good vendor can help that to some extent by providing god service/assistance.
You perhaps recall Michael Reichmann's latest expedition to the Antartica where 6 weather sealed Canond 5DII-s failed, also failed have a few Leicas and a Nikon did not survive confrontation with a rock. Sonys and Phase One's worked just fine. At least I person (my best friend) did not buy the Canon 5DII because of the badwill those failures caused. Canon could say, "Hi awfully sorry, we send you a new camera!", but they did not.
Similarly, Michael Reichmann was a bit p_____d of when his Hasselblad H zoom fell apart in Namibia. It was found that many owners of the same lens fared similar. Hasselblad choose to put the blame on the owners. They could just say "Hi awfully sorry, we send you a new lens!", but they did not.
By the way, I have seen a lot of your postings on different threads, they are most helpful.
Best regards
Erik
Yup lets get back on topic and your post pretty much endorsing the DF and IQ160 for shooting in the Heat, Dust and Humidity in situations where your gear gets banged around a bunch. I have shot in dusty deserts, windy beaches and sand pits. I have also lived in Africa where I was born. A non weather sealed camera like the DF, it's lenses and removable backs are not designed for these environments.
You say it all works for you, but as of the end of October you had only used this rig for one trip to Africa.
While this experience has it's validity for how the camera preformed IQ wise, but hardly long enough to see how these environmental conditions would effect the camera over time and when used in these conditions for more than a few days. Fine dust works it's way into everything that is not specifically designed with weather seals.
I think you are a bit over enthusiastic about the DF as far as weather and environmental hardiness goes.
Pentax on the other hand has far more advanced weather sealing as do the lenses for it.
http://youtu.be/7wPD1wRpels
http://youtu.be/Eo61t5fH6Qw