Since I had a comparable sensor camera to the Pentax 645Z, I'll disagree with you that they did a better job. While it was a terrific kit for some folks, and certainly broke the price grip of the major MFD players (thank you Pentax!), the 645Z was a non-modular system at a time when modularity was a real advantage. Both Hasselblad and Phase One were more fleshed out systems cameras.It may well turn out to be true. If the sensor is not proprietary, then nothing stops Pentax from putting it in their own FF body. Seeing as they did a much better job with the 645z than contemporary offerings of the time, it would not be surprising at all if they could do it again.
The question then is will the new body be smaller/mirrorless or not. If they can pull that off (mirrorless FF) that would be a real coup.
It is inevitable, IMHO, that somebody besides Phase will come up with a FF MF sensor with 80/100MP on it. That would be way more exciting than the X1D although it is in itself quite a leap forward. But some of us who have a 42MP A7RII with the new lenses find it is not enough to make the switch in a hurry.
MF, to me, means either a significantly larger sensor than 35mm and/or significantly higher resolution.
Regarding your comparison to an A7R-II (which I own and shoot with excellent Zeiss lenses), I say again that such a comparison to the Hasselblad XD1 misses the point. It isn't just one component, the sensor, that weighs in the balance here. This is a specific type of camera that uses Leaf-Shutter lenses including a vast array of existing LS optics, has a UI miles ahead of the Sony (IMHO), and is a known entity to many long-time H and CFV users in terms of their True Color and tonal rendering.
Even taking the sensor alone: the XD1's more practical aspect ratio and additional volume is quite an advantage. The additional usable area is more than 50% larger than the A7R-II … so, in effect, resolution then becomes a function of what portion of the frame actually gets used in the end … not just spec's on paper. That becomes even more pointed if one is a Square Format lover (like myself):thumbup:.
Personally, I'm not terribly interested in 100 meg anything, so such news would be far from "way more exciting". It is getting harder and harder to realize all this resolution in everyday shooting. Again, not tech talk and spec's on paper, but real world use.
I see what Hasselblad has done here as a "real world" camera that significantly delivers new user experiences without walking away from their heritage as a leaf-shutter solution for those that prefer that.
- Marc