a few examples being ... ?
The sales section... both here and in the local market in Sweden which I also monitor. Sales of sub 50MP backs are a bit slower now than they used to be. Could be some other reason, maybe simply that more people are selling. I'm selling a back at a good price, been out for a few months without finding a buyer yet. It's a small market so it's usually slow and I'm in no real hurry, but a year ago I'm quite sure it was not this slow. In the local Swedish market it's most Hasselblads that's selling, very good prices still out for a long time. I got my own Hassy on such a deal, so I enjoyed being in a buyers market. Now I'm experiencing from the other side when selling my other back.
To be really sure you need to file statistics and watch trends etc, which I really haven't done, so it could be my imagination I guess. I do think though that those that don't think there has been any change to the market during the last 12 months have greater imagination than mine.
However, I'm open for the suggestion that the Sony MF CMOS is the real culprit here rather than competition from the smaller formats (although I think it's a combination). I've seen many upgrade within Hassy to H5D-50c for example. The CMOS feature set is hard to resist. Few seem to talk about the "CCD look" any longer.
For this new digital back company these type of trends is something he need to be aware of and come to their own conclusions what the state is. Wishful thinking won't help.
Although I think a 6x6 CCD 40MP back withour rear display would be sellable, you couldn't sell in any large numbers, maybe 10 - 20 worldwide. To sell in large numbers and that way come down in price you need a fairly broad product. I think not using the Sony CMOS would be a great risk... but on the other hand it's difficult with the tech lenses which otherwise would be a key market... unfortunately I think there's currently technical borders in the way to make the optimal back. To me the old CCD CFV-50 with a focus checkable screen would be the current best, and I got a H4D-50 as an alternative (a little bit better screen). In all my discussions about this I've realized that I'm one of very few that appreciate this feature set. People think the CCD is too noisy, no live view and they make great sacrifices on movement flexibility to get that CMOS feature set.
So if I would have a digital back company I would want to make a back much like the CCD CFV-50 as that is what I would buy myself, but realize to sell it would have to look like the CMOS CFV-50c.
I think that Brian may be too early with his company, waiting a few years for the next CMOS generation may be better timing. If the next will work well with tech wide angles it's a no-brainer. For an economical back with no integration with modern MFD bodies (Hassy H and Phamiya) tech cameras must be a key market, and I think it's a good market because it has great enthusiast potential which I think is held back today with the unproportionally expensive digital backs.
