Hi Jim,
I here ya man.
Medium format for me and my business is now only about 15% of what I shoot with.
For me and this is just my opinion these MF backs company are flogging a dead horse and this is just my opinion.
The next generation of Canons and Nikons I think will be the death of medium format.
If and when my Leaf Aptus 75 breaks down that will be the end of a loving relationship I have had with my Mamiya RZ system going back to 1987.
CB nice shot like the dof and tone.
Cheers
Simon
From what I see it seems to be the case. But really it should not. Nothing blocks the medium format systems from going CMOS and transform the market to a situation similar to the one we have with film, but of course with a higher price differential.
Something similar happened with Unix boxes and mainstream PC processors. From Power5 IBM started to catch out. But they shoot themselves by charging crazy prices on standard memory sticks etc. They also loose apple, not to performance but to lack of investment on a lower power implementation. They did not believe Apple could switch, even with freaking Steve Jobs "the bold" on board. Taken by surprise they went from number 3 to 4, after ARM and Intel and AMD.
In that sense the H5D appears to be a bad step. Some of us knew they did not have the time to create a CMOS base system or any other revolutionary machine. What we did not expected was:
1. Luna: no synergy with the H5D, not a cash flow engine since it is a boutique product.
2. No H5D-80, that will be important to send a message of progress as they prepare the CMOS base machine.
3. Price even less competitive as if the Pentax and the D800E never happened. Together with 2 this send the message that they know Medium format is death and they are just trying to cash in. I am not saying that's what they believe, I am saying that how it looks from the outside. The star of Photokina was not the H5D.
We could go on, but that will derail the discussion. Lovely work as always.
Best regards,
James