"The passing of the V" sounds premature. Hasselblad still lists the 503CW in their line up and it is available from the Hasselblad store.
I don't think the need for AF is as big a factor as the suitability of the square format V to use 3:4 ratio digital backs with a crop factor coupled with a 40mm being the widest angle lens ... and the fact that you can't rotate the camera for portrait oriented shots when using a rectangle DB.
For film work, it is hard to beat, and remained my favorite film camera well into the MF digital era until it became to expensive to maintain so may different systems ... film being a luxury not a necessity to do the work at hand.
-Marc
I don't think the need for AF is as big a factor as the suitability of the square format V to use 3:4 ratio digital backs with a crop factor coupled with a 40mm being the widest angle lens ... and the fact that you can't rotate the camera for portrait oriented shots when using a rectangle DB.
For film work, it is hard to beat, and remained my favorite film camera well into the MF digital era until it became to expensive to maintain so may different systems ... film being a luxury not a necessity to do the work at hand.
-Marc