My thinking exactly.The only statement I am willing to share in public at this point is that in my biased (but educated) opinion, the system is not ready yet to compete with most high end MF and 35mm systems, on many levels.
Hence why it will be wise (at least on my part) to wait and see how it develops, not forgetting that the competition, on both ends, is also likely to move forward in the months to come.
Yair
I am strongly leaning toward my final upgrade with Hasselblad to the H4D/60 which distances itself from the pack of 35mm dogs nipping at the heals of the lower end MFD backs ... at a trade up price + the Hassey extended service contract that totals less than just the S2 body. Plus, I am very interested in the new focusing system in the H4D which has real world value to me and the way I shoot.
I took the time to carefully process the shots I had done with the S2 rather than the laptop ones I did in a rush while on vacation ... but also did a search of my archives for some shots I had done in identical beach conditions with a H3D/31 and 100/2.2 lens. That was a revelation itself in that we forget how good all these existing MFD systems already are.
Also, I do not feel the same way about the form factor differences as others may, but fully appreciate their point of view. I have shot with 645 for so long it is second nature to me ... and the H system is very user friendly in areas that are important to me, like being able to compensate the camera or flash without removing my eye from the viewfinder. With a hand strap in place I feel as much or more stability for hand held work as I do the S2. I won't even reiterate all the "studio" reasons which has been covered to death already.
While my decision is not totally complete, and I do greatly appreciate the opportunity to have used the S2, I doubt it is ready for my prime time use. Once the H4D/60 is in hand, and the next rumored step by Sony is here, it may never be my cup of tea.
If I had been starting from scratch, and the MFD competition had not progressed past a 39 meg sensor and not progressed with their integrated systems and related software, it may well have been a different story.
I actually dearly hope I'm in the minority, and the S2 is a raging success ... I want Leica to stay fat and healthy and bring me a M10 some day ... prefferably a real chrome version