People who might have bought your product, but didn't, express their feelings both in non purchasing and in opinions voiced.
The fur always flies when something new comes out and there is no way to please everybody.
The deal is finally Phase took their backs one semi-large step forward and I think it's great.
That LCD and the extra ports is enough to semi future proof the investment and if this was 2007 I'd be first in line.
The thing is between now and 2007, Canon came out with the 5d2 and threw a stink bomb in the room.
The 5d2 is like that Rodney Dangerfield guy that shows up at the benefit ball dressed in a Hawaiian shirt with a stripper on each arm. It may not be a pretty sight, but you just gotta look.
Except this 5d2 party crasher is athletic, smart, incredibly competent and by the end of the night, everyone is standing around asking for an autograph.
I have no idea about the economics of camera making and camera sales, but I am completely blown away by that 5d2.
I really don't want to like it, I really don't even think it's good for our industry, but you see them everywhere. On TV sets, movie lots, studios, with led, tungsten, hmi, flash and practical lighting.
Real live money making professionals use them for movie b roll, TV production, ads, web, posters for TV, posters for movies, high end editorial and the list goes on.
They have real up to the second live view, real 22mpx high iso and they costs less than the warranty of a digital back.
I purposely tried never to use the 5d2 for stills, but the last few weeks gave in and there is nothing I shot that is really lacking, nothing that any client will object to and the camera is so low priced you never worry about it.
I can't think of a single genre of professional photography that the 5d2 doesn't compete in. From tilt shift still life, to fast moving fashion and lifestyle.
Actually the 5d2 isn't bad for our industry if the high end cameras were 7 times better, heck make that 3 times better.
I love photography, love fine instruments to apply my art, but it's 2011 not 2007 and as much as I respect the small camera companies like Phase I guess I'm a little disappointed that after all that work and effort, they just got their premier product almost to the usability of that low priced Canon and even with that their camera of choice isn't even 2007, it's 2004.
At least the chrome Hasselblad is pretty and looks the part of an expensive camera and is the standard of the medium format world. Can anyone say that about the 645 Mamiya?
Anyway, I guess we're all conditioned. From the start of digital I paid 10 grand for the first camera, 16 for two 1ds', 22 for a valeo, 7 to upgrade to an aptus, 20 something for the p30+ and then the Leica, a p21+, Nikons, and three more flavors of the 1ds (in duplicate) so if this was 2007, dropping 20 to 40k on a camera back wouldn't be a shock, except for that $2,500 5d2 that's everybody is watching in the center of the dance floor.
Consequently I wrote a Phase One type of check to RED because they had something that no one else offered in the price range.
IMO
BC