Hola guys. Did you missed me, at least a little bit?
Had several difficulties login after the software change.
I've seen with dismay the advent of the CFV2. Still 16mp and 1.5x crop factor. Still no digital medium format for me.
We know there is no 48X48 sensor. Too expensive for legacy systems anyway.
I've proposed many times a 42mm square sensor with a 1.25x crop factor for the CFV to fit thousands of V cameras on the hold around the world.
I think Hasselblad is neglecting a lot of brand users that eventually would stay with them after the digital market matures.
A 42mm square is possible, I think. It would be not too expensive, decent pixels count, 1.25X crop factor or so, would keep wide angles wide and not turning them into normals as in a 1.5x factor. Big enough to justify the jump from digital 35mm, especially after croping to rectangular.
But no, Hasselblad still seems it is not commercially viable. They know better than me, that's for sure. Too bad for them. In the meantime digital 35 has increased substantially in IQ, in features and on its own maturity. And more importantly, in number of users for professional tasks of all kinds.
Maturity is a key word here. Maybe digital 35 "maturity" is what medium format makers are eagerly expecting to happen. We'll see.
Just sharing... again. Thanks
Eduardo
Jurgen, I don't recall saying "soon", but I do think it is a real possibility because of the advent of the Hy6 6X6 system. However, the sales projections of the Hy6 world-wide is really small and very specialized comparitively speaking. $50K for a basic 3 lens Hy6 kit tends to filter out the rif-raf : -). So, it would seem that the cost of a large square sensor would be pretty high per unit.
As camera/back/AF lens/software integration accelerates, legacy systems fall further behind. If 48X48 or 54X54 backs become available they're sure to be $36K or more. Why would someone spend that kind of cash to put the back on a "dumb" camera when you could add a bit more cash and have an integrated camera made to maximize the full use of the backs capabilities?
Many of the professional photographers I know seem less interested in a bigger square sensor where one crops a good portion of the capture to meet commercial format use, and the incremental costs that would involve. As many have pointed out to me, if they want even more detailed files at an incremental cost, they'll opt for a Hasselblad or Sinar Multi-Shot which can be shot single or multi-shot at will. They seem more interested in developing the system to meet their needs. I think the HD camera was the first of that kind of development and now Mamiya and Phase have taken the next step. There is also a lot of activity concerning the optics. The new trend is "D" type lenses like the Schneider AFD offerings and Mamiya's push into AF "digital" lenses. As we know, that path was paved by the view camera lenses that had to be stepped up for increasingly more capable digital capture.
