Hi,
I am asking myself about the position of MFD. Photographic technology is a fluid field. The poll is single choice but you can give five votes per user.
Personally, I started out with MFD using a Hasselblad V and a P45+ back and one of the reasons I went into MFD was to find out more about the technology. My plan was to start with a Hasselblad camera (555/ELD) and than upgrade to a technical camera this year.
But, I feel the landscape has shifted a bit. To be truly useful, I would say that technical cameras need live view, with magnified LV for accurate focusing and peaking to find optimal tilt. So, I went with the Sony A7rII and a Canon 24/3.5 combined with HCam.de's HC Master TSII instead. That camera offers +/- 15 mm movement and 10 degrees of tilt with the A7rII.
I am extremely happy with this combination, although it has some down sides. The HCam Master TS can use all my Hasselblad lenses and gives like up to +/- 12 mm of shift with the V-series lenses. It also works with Canon and Nikon lenses. I use it with my Canon 16-35/4 LII and it gives a decent amount of shift at 20mm and up. Some shift is available at 16 mm, too. Buying into the 11-24/4 would have been smarter, I guess.
In the 2.5 years I had the Hasselblad ELD/555 it was my most used camera, due to the latest plaything syndrome. I really liked to shoot with that gear. The main motivation may be that I really enjoy the slower workflow. What I have seen is that I have done a lot more stitching with the Hassy/P45+ than ever before. I also got more careful with processing.
The downside was that my images lost a bit of spontaneity. I mostly shoot with a tripod, but with the Sonys I can always release the camera from the tripod and shoot some action.
Now, the A7rII does all thing I wanted, with tilt and shift and image quality matching the P45+ (*), so I think the P45+ will see little use, but I will still take it on one or another walk.
Best regards
Erik
(*) On the image quality thing: I have just a few comparisons between the A7rII and the P45+. I would say that sharpness is in the same ballpark, with the Sony having a "pixel peeping" advantage with the best lenses I have on both systems. The Sony A7rII probably wins in DR, but that has seldom been an issue for me.