You beat me to it, Doug. I am about to say that it is one thing to read and then get excited about Leaf's press releases, and another thing to expect Leaf to deliver on its promises contained therein.
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I think defective is somewhat harsh.
Yes, Leaf does open the door for critique as they have a history of making promises on features and software then missing their self imposed (advertised) deadlines, sometimes missing them by miles instead of inches.
If you step back and look at any camera system, film or digital they have all only offered the 80% solution and if you read product introduction PDF'S they are all very optimistic.
In the days of film, an RZ would shoot thoughtfull, but not fast, a Hasselblad had great detail but was diffuclt to focus, the a Nikon F5 was probably the most versitile film camera ever made, but it still was limited by the film size and proportion . . . later limited by Nikon's lens lineup.
None of these sytems are perfect and yes the centerfold issue for view camera users seems to be a problem for anyone using wide view camera lenses, just like Phase's lcd can be an issue when shooting portable, Imacon's slowness in shipping new product and reaching higher iso also has caused concern.
Nobody really has yet devised the perfect digital solution for everything and as we did for film we found workarounds.
Actually as professionals that is one of the things we are paid for.
Leaf's annoucement for faster capture may be a plus for some, but for me, even shooting people and shooting a lot of setups a day, the A-22 even shooting uncompressed has been as fast as I've needed.
Rather than just a capture speed increase I would like to see higher iso, without going to large file sizes, along with more stable and intuitive software.
Knowing all of this I shoot 90% of everything with the Leaf and hae few issues.
In a way I find Leaf confusing. Their tech service and attention to customers is outstanding, their file is beautiful and their backs probably are the most versitile.
They have a software in V-8 that is rock stable, works as well on G4 powerbooks as it does a Quad 5, the ability to fine tune a file in the software (v-8) and put these settings into the back can save hours of post production time. They have the most versitile open source file in the industry and I'll say this again, the Leaf file is the most film like look I have seen in any digital capture.
Those are the positives, but then Leaf turns around and annouces new and improved product before addressing the issues their current cusomters have with their still almost new product.
JR