Hi
I have spent the last 5 days going into Sydney shooting APEC as a photo journalist would with the ZD. It is a brilliant camera & this one is 16 months old ( no upgrade). My Canon 5D sits idle at the moment. It is light weight & easy to use......... BUT for some reason I feel & maybe there are pixel peepers out there or Mamiya haters.........SORRY.............BUT this is becoming stupid!!!!!!!!!I am getting great results & if we loose Mamiya that is it for AFFORDABLE MFD PERIOD. If you don't like the ZD format buy something else! Yes Leaf is better but that ZD camera is brilliant!!!! It truly is a MFD SLR camera. I have been using RD on a MAC..........I don't know what else to say!!!!!!
Denis
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Denis,
I agree with you.
The ZD camera is amazing to me in that in its shape of a DSLR being medium format! In fact its weight with lenses weighs no more than top of line Nikon or Canon (although focal lengths and widest aperatures are tradeoffs, but if I would go back Nikon I would have same weight, only more variety of focals..., do I need them?). The comparative low weight of Mamiya medium format is amazing in itself.
With the ZD we are at lower $$ than any medium format digital (same cost as top of line Nikon or Canon, which is still alot of $$$) and have attributes of the larger medium format: 3D, greater DOF control, pop, truly great DR & truly amazing exposure latitude (coming from D200), improved color over DSLRs and ease of working with files. Thus the ZD impress me. I like Mamiya. I love my 7II too which I got my first Velvia 50 from the other day. Dang. It is good. Velvia magic! Before I only shot it in 135. I wish Mamiya to excel and improve on what they have with the ZD. Yes, it is lots less $$$ than other medium format digital offerings, but like you I am also much impressed by the ZD camera body. Ok, reviews wrote of the flimsy CF door. Personally I do not see problem. The one thing on body is the shaping of holding it in one hand when walking around. So what? Image quality is what counts.
Apart from all of above, I very much hope that Mamiya indeed fully support us with any deficiencies there may be, and in taking swift actions to correct them. I even wish that there will be a ZD II with a higher MP Dalsa sensor. And... that Mamiya will offer the incentive of an affordable rebuild of our already ZD camera bodies with a higher pixel sensor and improved performance. As of course also to improve on noise or any other issue that may be current.
Ken Rockwell wrote of the Mamiya 7 that he thought the build was not very good, but it would still capture amazing captures. I'd say the build of both 7 and ZD are good. Ok, not the gold that Nikon has on lenses... but so what? Photography is what matters. Not the aesthetics or gimmicks. One thing I do like on the ZD camera compared to D200, is that the controls are much more simple and what I need for photography, not the complex computer that the D200 seemed to me.
These are indeed what I value in the ZD camera.
Regards
Anders