Like you, I normally buy already-shipping products. Only when I feel there's something truly special, or I just know that what's coming up is going to fulfill a need and I want it as soon as possible, do I place an order before an item is actually released. (Actually, I'd do that for a set of AirPods, but Apple won't allow me to place an order for them until they ship...)
I'm involved in a Kickstarter camera project at present, the Light 16. For participating with my hundred dollar downpayment, I get an approximately
quarterly update on their current status and consequent notices of their slip dates. It looks like the camera they've promised will ship a full two years plus past the original estimated release date. The multi-camera computational photography notion is very interesting to me, however, and I think might have some legs for acquiring very high resolution, very high quality images in a small form factor camera. Eh? We'll see where it goes.
I somehow suspect a quarterly update wouldn't satisfy the anxiety of the pre-order-placers on this thread. We're only just about one quarter past the first estimated release date... :toocool: It's an impatient lot around here.
I have to say: I was very taken with the X1D the moment I handled it back in June at a demo day. If I juggle things around sufficiently, I could well just drop other plans and buy one as soon as they become available. I must not be as demanding as others; I found the controls very nicely done, the viewfinder quite satisfactory, and the ergonomics excellent. Center focus point only? well, I only rarely move the focus point off-center anyway. Stratospheric ISO? Much as I like the ability to shoot black cows on a dark night in the barn, I can't say that I do it all that often and I can reach for another camera to do that. Only a couple of lenses available? Yeah, sure, but they happen to be the two focal lengths I use most anyway. I am certain that Hasselblad's treatment of the 50Mpixel sensor will be excellent, that their lenses will be excellent, etc. The only niggle is whether a wired remote will become available, but honestly the WiFi remote release is what I use most of the time anyway now with other WiFi equipped cameras.
But such it is. My needs are modest, my desires constrained. I will live and continue my photography whether I have one or not. I have a 6x6 pinhole camera and some special Washi orthochromatic film that I've got to get out and do some shooting with... When the X1D arrives, it arrives.
G