These upgrades are not magical or giveaways. The final product, the IQ series, is an expensive and very valuable piece of gear which is best in class. Phase is offering phase owners who want to upgrade significantly more for their gear than they could receive on the open market for their backs and offering competitive owners (e.g. Hassy) an easy (or at least easier) way to switch over. In addition people who bought new in the last four months get 90% of their value towards an upgrade. That's about as good as it gets in the camera/back world.
The problem is, because the market is relatively small (a few hundred backs per year?) and a whole company with employees as well as a global dealer network needs to be financed, Phase One NEEDS to constantly create new products with a sufficient margin. This leads to the situation that one can buy a piece of equipment such as a Phase One Back for 45 000 USD in one year and two years down the road the system is worth half that price or even less. So even with upgrades (you'll always be in the ballpark of 10-20k as a "loyal" customer when you want to get the newest back) the depreciation of MFDBs is enormous.
Basically, buying a digital back is a huge financial investment with little value protection. The actual value protection plan initiated after Photokina was a necessary measure to keep sales going since everybody was waiting for Phase One's next move, so this is a special bridge scenario.
From a standpoint of innovation, one might say that the IQ series is a new "era of medium format digital" or on the other hand just some basic, long-awaited little updates around an already existing sensor technology. After all, Phase One differentiates itself from say Hasselblad primarily by the features around the existing image quality possibilites made accessible through Dalsa's actual offerings; in comparison Phase One may be more convenient, but I fail to see the revolutionary aspect of the IQ series, it is more so that all those new features are things that should have been there long ago in all manufacturer's backs (hey, they cost more than a nice car) and that the technologies involved are readily availbale in other products (iphone 4, modern nikon/canon).
What now angers me a bit is, that for those updates "around the sensor", such as a better display or a usb3 port, one has to dish out that much money. Regardless how you spin it, the IQ series uses the same sensors as other brands and you pay a hefty premium for thing that don't enhance image quality in the core. If the iq160 had a dynamic range of 15 stops, or a three times higher frame rate etc. or lower noise/higher sensitivity, then I would see the "new era" but this isn't the case ...
To make another point: why is it for example, that one cannot only send in his back to the factory and get a new housing for it, or an updated display, all this say for 5k? Red has this approach with their new Epic cameras. You won't have to pay for a new remote or viewfinder if you just want a new sensor and vice-versa. Customers who bough a Red One camera could for example send their cameras in and get a new MX sensor replaced for a fair price.
The reason why we never will see this in MFDB in my view is simple: because of the market size and profitability requirements, there will never be a modular back upgrading possibility. You will always have a huge depreciation with your systems and will need to pay a lot for small updates.
I already see it coming, crossgrading a new aptus 12 to an iq180 will cost somewhere between 10-20k ... and this is pobably just for getting a nicer screen and the other little improvements.
Sigh, it indeed is a hopeless journey.
Regards Paul
PS: Doug, as soon as you know more about that crossgrading policy I'd be glad to hear from you!
