As Sinar is involved?, the new Rollei 645 will and should have a removable back.that can be used on the 6008 and on the X-Act II.
Like Paul said,that would be a great integrated system!
4 weeks to go!
[{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
It's funny a year ago everyone complained that the db's were not up to the level of medium format cameras.
A friend of mine said he sold his H-1 because to him it was like towing a u-haul trailer with a Ferrari.
Now I'm not a real fan of the H-1/2, but it is interesting that since this time, Leaf, Imacon, Sinar and Phase have raised their game with higher iso, faster compressed shooting rates and except for Phase much improved lcd's.
As far as Rollei and Sinar they in the U.S. they have no real professional presence. I know some people are going to respond that they saw 3 6008's at B+H or Samy's cameras, but I've gone to the Rollei introductions where they promise new product, increased rental presence and better support only to see them go back into invisible mode.
I've walked into Adorama and asked to see a 6008 and got the response "well I think we have one upstairs, but I'd have to find and and we'll I don't know where the lenses are.".
To me, Rollei and Sinar getting together to introduce new product is like Mel Gibson and Michael Jackson meeting to solve their public relations issues.
Maybe I'm wrong and they will introduce killer product, at an affordable price point that is available everywhere, with a large presence of rental items and country based service and training.
The service/training is very important with these backs as they do take a while to learn properly and is one of Leaf's strong points as you can always call and usually in minutes speak to Rick Ashead in person, or Yair by e-mail and get a usable response and solution to an issue. Mamiya America which handles Leaf in the U.S. does all repairs in the U.S.
Yair is the only manufacturer's rep that comes on any of these forums AND takes and answers the hard questions, rather than just introduce new product and go back into hiding.
We see that a lot in digital capture where there is this flurry of press releases, a few reps post road maps to the future, then we are left on our own to find the solutions or answer our own questions.
The Mamiya ZD is the latest example of this and even though there is now another review of the ZD on this website, other than show a few images it really tells us nothing about frame rates, buffer, speed to process jpeg and tiffs, lcd use, white balance from daylight, tungsten, mixed light, strobe and service, tech support, user installed firmware updates, etc. etc.
For any of these products to be successful for the professional there has to be the whole package of what I've just mentioned.
I think a lot of people are looking at the Zd and the Canon solely as a lower cost alternative to the digital backs which is fine if it works for you, but I have heard few people tell me they like a dslr file or image proportion better than a medium format back.
In fact everyone I know that useds the Canons, or Nikons always mention price in relationship to the camera/file/look.
Today, I feel most of these digital backs can be viewed as a 5 year purchase which unlike the dslrs means worrying about camera upgrades, lens options almost a mute point.
Actually the lack of upgrades is the reason I went with the Contax, (that and I like the camera), because their are no new firmware updates I will need if I buy a lens and obviously Contax has no agenda to move me to another camera, lens or back.
As we know, today Contax has no agenda at all.
JR
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