Hello
Well my take on this new development is.
I have a Leaf Aptus 75 which is now close to been 5 years old. I has made me 100’s of thousand of dollars and it is still going strong. So what the point of spending my hard earned money on another back. Its is not going to increases my income by one cent.
Simon,
I don't think they're selling to you.
Sure they'll take the order, but if you glance (glance not read) over all the e-mails and web links Phase has sent out on this camera they mention image quality about 4,000 times.
Heck they even named it I(mage) Q(qualtiy).
I'm surprised they didn't name it SIQ.
It's kind of like going to a Southern Baptist Church and hearing the phrase "Hell and Damnation". They say it so much it becomes kind of funny and they sell it so hard it makes you wanna take the preacher's daughter out to really go sin.
No I think this is all for the semi wealthy guy or the semi professional that thinks a camera will make them a better photographer.
This is for the guy who really doesn't know that most of all good commercial work is shot with a Canon or Nikon dslr and 75% of all medium format for professionals is shot with some kind of Hasselblad camera with some kind of 1 generation old digital back.
For the last few years Phase' market has been pushing that way, think PODAS, so they use phrases like "the most advancement in mfd cameras ever" because the people that don't know any better believe it.
Well . . . no this is not the most advancement.
The Leaf AFI with a flip up LCD and internal rotating sensor was way more advanced, because those things were useful for a professional and Leaf had a touch screen LCD a billion years ago.
All this is is just another digital back with more megapixels and a better lcd, but heck at this point everything on the planet has a good LCD.
If it was the most advanced it wouldn't be aimed at the third time warmed over Mamiya camera.
But, once again they're not selling to you, because if they were it would have a base iso of 800, in internal nd filter, real useable live view, an hdmi port for an optional high def lcd, a removable prism or no prism at all and it wouldn't have that tacky $4,000 warranty hooked to it.
It would be truly modular and the phrase "open system" would mean it has a back mount that would be user interchangeable and would shoot at least at the same speed as a film medium format camera.
Contrast this Phase announcement to RED.
If Phase was selling to you they would have a direct line and manufacturer representation on the forums.
The information you would receive would be first hand from the maker, not second hand from the dealer.
Not that RED is the pinnacle of medium format because RED is not medium format for stills and RED is not the pinnacle of meeting deadlines because they have missed a bunch of them, but RED has the owners participation on their forum and everything RED makes or sells is aimed directly at professionals.
Everything.
But then again, I don't think RED is pressuring anybody to buy anything (in fact go try and buy a new EPIC), though if you run the numbers for the last few years RED has conservatively sold half a billion dollars in product. Probably a lot more than that.
But then again, the RED is truly innovative for the professional.
IMO
BC