2. Just what options do the other platforms available today offer that Hasselblad does not? What am I missing? Let's see, there is Contax and Mamiya. One has already been discontinued. Their roadmap looks quite cloudy. As between Hasselblad and Mamiya, who do you trust more to have a fulsome offering of new lenses and other capabilities in the future? Mamiya has had the ZD out for how long now and they are petrified to release it in the US. You want to place your faith in them?
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Yep, I agree that Hassy has a better chance to still be alive in a few years than Mamiya has.
3. Before you left the Hassy world, did you test the Hasselblad offerings to provide an objective basis for the decision? I can relate to someone testing the equipment and doing an informed assessment that concludes that the Hasselblad path---camera, lenses, back, and software--- does not meet their needs, but how does one reach that conclusion without any testing and in anticipation of a camera, the Hy6, that does not even exist yet?
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As far as I am concerned, I didn't do these tests, but have never really questionned the quality of the results delivered by the H3D, except perhaps at higher ISO where I suspect that Leaf has a significant lead.
One thing though is that I never really liked the H1 system. It was very buggy, was basically unusable handheld in portrait mode. The lenses are very expensive and way too heavy compared to the competition. I now find the Mamiya 35 mm to be basically as good as the Hassy, at about 1/2 the weight and 1/2 the price.
My decision to go the Mamiya route was financial first, but the idea of being able to keep using my set of Mamiya lenses in the future if I end up being in a position to upgrade later to a Leaf or Phase back on a 645 AF was also part of the equation.
If I had decided to invest in Hassy, and to buy one of their 3000+ US$ 28 mm for a H3D (price is unconfirmed as far as I know) only to find out 6 months later that the next generation Leaf trumps the H3D/H4D, that money would have been simply wasted.
This is purely theoretical as far as I am concerned since I didn't have the funds to buy into high end anyway.
If I were to start from scratch today and looking into a high end system, I would wait until at least PMA and/or the release of the first reviews of the new Rollei system before taking a decision. The situation is very confused today, and the positionning of Phase relative to the Rollei system is still unclear.
Regards,
Bernard