| stewart, good to know you're a pro with medium format equipment... well I too ran a studio but that was a long time ago, so thanks for stating your credentials.
I have no objections at all with a digital 645 at all. I owned two 645s in the past so I have an affinity to it. Thanks for pointing out that my observations are irrelevant but that's just your opinion.
The key to cost for digital cameras lie with sensor availability. The sweet spot in sensor development lies in the current crop of DSLRs. Remember when the first DSLRs came out, their cost was very exorbitant with a low megapixel count by today's standards. Like memory chips or computer processors, with progressively higher volume, unit cost have progressively come down. This is no different where sensors are concerned. When there is a high and sustained volume, it will result in a far lower unit cost. Like computer processors, it has translated to cheaper and more feature laden cameras with each generation of sensors where the megapixel count has progressively increased.
Your earlier suggestion, "The obvious answer is to lower the price." is so too simplistic.
Digital medium format is expensive because like the scenario of the early DSLRs, it is limited to sensor availability and low volume. Unless there is a sustainable volume for larger sensors no company can bring to it market at a low price. So how in the world can they lower the price when there is insufficient volume to cover their production costs plus other ancilliary costs (R&D, marketing, etc.)?
The early digital 645 concept camera was supposed to be 18 megapixel if I remember correctly. At today's rate of sensor technology, it is a non-starter commercially. Sensor technology has increased that perhaps 32 megapixel or the current 39 megapixel like that of the Hasselblad would make it commercially viable. But it does not and won't come cheap.
Three of my friends bought the Hasselblad H3DII range. They paid A LOT of money. But then again they get to earn A LOT of money for their assignments. They are in a niche all to themselves. I'm a realist and I'm sure the smart people at Pentax, Canon or Nikon know they make more money from their consumer grade 400D/D80/K10D than from their top level cameras. People buying these cameras are underwriting the cost of development of the higher end cameras.
So, have you bought your digital medium format camera or back yet? |