Very underwhelming.
Same LCD? I'm sure some people will stop to read the spec sheet after that line.
Absolutely no incentive to spend money upgrading an old back and even less to get into the MFDB game.
What did PhaseOne do? They beat the individual specs from different offerings with the P40+:
******************************************************************************P65+, P45+,P30+, Hassy, Leaf, etc are slower
Canon/Nikon, P45+,P30+, Hassy H3D2-31/39, Leaf, have less resolution
P65+, P45+ are more expensive
But the other side of the medal:
*****************************P65+ has more resolution
P65+, P45+, Hassy H3D2-39, Leaf Aptus 75s, Leaf Afi 10, etc have bigger sensors
Canon / Nikon, P65+, P45+, Hassy H3D2-39, Leaf Aptus 75s, Leaf Afi 10 shoot wider lenses
P45+ has way longer exposure times available
The old backs and most DSLR's have bigger pixels
Canon / Nikon / every damn Point & Shoot, iPod, iTouch, etc have better LCD's
Canon / Nikon have faster capture rates
Canon / Nikon have better battery life
Canon / Nikon have better/faster workflow
Canon / Nikon/ P30+ have better pricing
Canon / Nikon have better usability / user interfaces
Canon / Nikon have more (custom) functions that allow adopting to ones shooting style
Canon / Nikon have better weather sealing
Canon / Nikon have wireless image transmitters (WIFI)
etc
So the unique selling proposition is "THE UNIQUE COMBINATION" of features (and shortcommings).
Doesn't that mean that there's better suited offerings out there depending on the core requirement?
The P40+ is certainly the wrong offering for the current economic environment. No sane photographer will buy a P30+/P45+ now as everyone knows that you'll loose at least 50% of the resale value as soon as you take the back out of the shop. Steve Sherman is trying to sell his Aptus 75s for 12k$. Great deal. No takers. H3D2's show up all over the place for sale. And all that second hand equipment seems to sit there or go at insanely reduced prices. The P40+ will help to kill the second hand prices even more. But is that good for a niche that is based on overcharging, minor updates, lack of long-requested features and a extremely tiny user base?
Probably very few will upgrade from P30+ or P45+ to a P40+. Going from 31/39 MP to 40 is barely noticable when printed. On screen even less. But then the smaller sensor of the P40+ compared to the P45+ will hurt many shooters (landscape, architecture, still-life, product, etc).
I'm not a marketing expert but shouldn't a new product actually LOOK NEW? It's not like anyone would trade in their car to get a car that looks exactly the same with just a different sticker on the back and 20% better performance.
Let's talk about performance. I wouldn't get a new computer that didn't at least offer 100% better performance and offer features that my old computer didn't. But quite honestly shooting a P45+/P30+ still feels like shooting a P25 five years ago.
There's groundbreaking new technology out there. Development was never as fast in the high tech business as now (check out
www.engadget.com and look at Plasma, LCD, LED, OLED TV sets, miniaturization of storage and MP3 players, SSD hard drives, etc).
There are new bayer pattern designs,
black silicon,
back-illuminated sensors with better sensivity (
http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/News/Press/20...069E/index.html )
the Fujifilm sensors with two different sizes of pixels (that could perform great if enough sensor area was available to get it up to a useful resolution level),
Foveon,
faster wifi chips,
CMOS sensors that use less energy and stay cool,
The R, B, 2xG pattern was modified by Sony once and the second green pixel was replaced with emerald.
Why are we never seeing anything like that announced for MFDB's? It seems like MFDB companies are led by old conservative farts instead of young, eager, hungry and risk-taking individuals. MFDB cutting edge? That's probably what will slowly kill the MFDB industry.
NO REAL PROGRESS. I have absolutely no clue about business numbers and all this is wild ass guessing but my ignorant market perception is that F&H will go completely belly up, Leaf will not have their shared Rollei/Sinar/Leaf Hy6/AFI platform any longer. Instead of crawling to Mamiya they'll just go belly up because Leaf AFI photographers will be pissed and invested. Kodak will stop throwing money at Leaf. Steve Hendrix changed to the PhaseOne camp. Calumet stopped selling Leaf. First signs?
Sinar is small enough to get out of the MFDB business altogether as indicated by the colaboration with Leaf producing some of their backs. Also Thierry that helped many people here at LL was laid off by Sinar. And PhaseOne suddenly switching to Dalsa sensors would indicate that Kodak could stop producing MFDB sensors or at least further development.
So now it's PhaseMiya and Hasselblad remaining. Slowly Canon, Nikon and Leica S2 type cameras will become better in many areas where MFDB's had their biggest strengths and they will cost 10 times less with all the added convinience, working workflows, great multipoint AF, improved colors/whitebalance, etc.
Now who's going to bother keeping MFDB companies alive? Even Annie Leibovitz shoots Nikons D3X and Canons 1Ds line whenever you see a behind the scenes vid. Sure she'll shoot occasionally a RZ or an AFI or whatever. But not exclusively. So clearly even highest caliber pro's where money doesn't matter the least bit and assistants (would) work for free MFDB doesn't seem to be the ideal solution.
Most work shot on a MFDB can be emulated with a DSLR and enough Photoshop skills. And some of the work where absolutely highest quality is required MFDB's alone are insufficient so it's done IN or with the help of CGI.
Just some random thoughts.